After a week of overcoming a variety of problems (oil leaks, lack of funds, time constraints due to effort to improve that financial situation, little interest from any “crew”, anal preparation methods on my own, etc.), we ended up having a decent run.  Actually, it was our first “legitimate” top ten “national” midget finish (besides my IRS runs, did run 10^th in the two BMARA indoor shows last spring…but that was all the cars that finished).  After a front row start (! - If not for a couple good laps in the B, I would have felt completely out of my element), I should have ran at least sixth or seventh, but in the end we at least got 9^th.l

Found out right away that, at least in my opinion, one would not be able to just bomb the car in through the top, as in addition to my own kind of “wash out” experience in the second session; Australian Matt Smith had attempted to “live the high life” in the first group, but he ended up pushing into the turn three wall.  I battled with occasional racer Paul Perkins (driving the car Aaron “smackboy” Fiscus won a feature at Sun Prairie in about six years ago) and another driver or two through-out the session, but it seemed to me like there was no grip in the center of the corners.

Qualifying:  I also felt that the car was not turning to well, so I did not want to do anything to tighten it up.  Without Dwight “tireman” Steffan there to offer his advice, I figured that I would not want to do anything to keep the car from turning, but wanted to soften the RR for grip.  Felisha changed the RR shock to about the only softer one I have (I am hoping to have money to rebuild my cockpit adjustable ones soon…top ten pay tonight might help!), and Tom tightened the rear tires after I moved the RR in almost two inches.  We went out mid-session and the car felt pretty good.  Ended up at a 15.4 (over a second better than previous experiences there with the Chevy II).  Confirming my latter thoughts that the track actually got better as the night went on (first time ever at Wilmot!  The track is under new management now…John Callahan’s brother-in-law/push truck driver, told me they put down a lot of water over what Mother Nature added this week) and BMARA’s top dogs Scott Hatton and Brad Loyet broke the track record with runs of 15.0 and 14.7 (!) respectively, after we had gone out.

Heat:  Continuing the direction of the softer RR, “Mr. Dull” took a turn and half out of the RR torsion bar and raised the front end to accommodate for what had become fairly dry track conditions.  He and I had also collaborated on another old harder RR tire (apparently I did not learn my lesson the week before) that he grooved up and we figured would be good for conditions.  I started outside row two, behind rookie Courtney Erfurth and the 1992 top newcomer Dick Kaiser (who apparently re-sparked a racing interest after IRS runs last year).  The way I read the line-up, less experienced Courtney was to start on the inside, but there was not anything I could do before the green.  She did have issues on the first start, but ended up running a pretty good race.  I got out of shape on at least the second/official start (imagine that) and fell the back.  Then I, ended up spending the last part of the race trying to get around the 25 car AGAIN, after letting Bob Schreffler and others past.  There was a mid-race caution and other attrition that created the opportunity for me to get around the above mentioned two, which would have secured a direct feature start, but I was unable to get anything done and had to run the B-main to “get my time back” (qualifying rank…which un-be-known to me, actually meant something to our team tonight!).

B-main:  Although at first figuring it was my driving again (which cost us the heat transfer), I eventually stepped back (plenty of time with multiple divisions at Wilmot) and looked into the chassis and fuel system.  Looking at my options of items that could have been a problem: we ended up putting on a like new RR, softer RR torsion bar, raised the front a little more, and Mr. Dull and Tom worked on adjusting the fuel system (in addition to our notorious take of issue, the motor seems to lug some when I get out of the gas – I know, I know, I shouldn’t back off anyway…it is kind of like the Gaerte usually feels when it is ready for attention!).  Attempting to be somewhat aggressive on the start, with fellow IRS grad David Budress on the inside of the front row, I ran out of talent going into one.  The car got out of shape and rookie Erik Johnson ran up and over the left side.  His contact straightened the car out and we continued without a yellow.  Once I felt out that the car was ok, I ran some of my best laps ever.  It took me too long to get around Jason Thorklson, but I then felt we were fast enough to win!  We actually ran throught three and four (at least once) on the cushion where the car should be.  Courtney had problems coming out of two that brought out a caution.  With just Johnson and Budress in front, I thought I had a good chance to get to Victory Lane.  Unfortunately, under the yellow, I started to feel the car bottoming out.  Not trying to think it was anything wrong with my car (convincing myself it was just because of the rougher-but “gripy”-track conditions), I was disappointed to see the corner workers signaling I had a flat!  With enough time to make a decision, and since they were not waving me in, I drove more than the last half of the race (shortened to 8 laps) with the flat LR.  I never would have guessed that my coast to a 4^th place result would have given me the outside pole for the feature!