Date: 05-17-08
Track: Slinger Super Speedway
Division: IRS
Car: 2003 Stealth Chevy II
Hot laps: Even though we were about the last car to show up Dwight Steffan, Joe LaMarca, and I had time to go over the chassis. The USAC “national” cars practiced multiple times and it rained on and off some. Dwight and I moved some of the rear spacing around and re-scaled the car. Meanwhile, my dad got into the car next to us owned by Dan George (who I had raced real hard with last fall at Grundy). Dan had put together a new car over the winter and had the second one available. I ran around behind Dan most of the first part of the session. The car felt like it handled fine, other than a vibration down the straight. I will mention that mid-session we did get around my dad in the back-up car (I have to also mention that I did not get any satisfaction at all out of that pass). Anyways, I closed up on Dan towards the end of the practice, but never dived bombed under him to make the pass. I think this all kind of screwed me up, as I got in the bad habit of running that groove lower then him and less concerned about running a fast line. Turned 13.6s. (Another side note, longtime IRS member Doug Orsenske wrecked his #0 in the hot laps and, after some conversation, took over the #82 from my dad.)
Heat: We changed the front tires and wheels around some. Also added a little air to the LR tire. Started on the pole of the “slow” heat (it was lined up inverted points from last year and we only ran a couple of IRS races in 2007). I got kind of screwed up on the two start attempts. Beloit’s David Budress was on the outside and it seemed to me like he was trying to wind the car up down the backstretch. I tried to slow it some but I got taped from behind. The car pushed real bad after I drove it into the corner wrong and I let David get the jump on me both attempts. Once we finally got going I settled in behind Budress. Ran a 12.9 or so, lap. I did notice that his line was much different then mine, but I saw a lot of tire smoke from him and it seemed like I would gain on him at some points. The car was kind of pushing because the way I was driving it and I could never get up right behind him. On the last lap I threw it into turn three harder, but too low, and the thing slid up the track crazy bad. I had to lock the wheels all the way to the left and lost a bunch of ground. That opened the door for Loren Crichet to sneak underneath and take second place from me. Fortunately the track is so wide and banked I was able to drive away from my bonsai move and finished third.
Feature: I was again slated to start on the pole! Due to the way that I was driving the car and that it felt tight, we made an air pressure and coil spring adjustment to the RF & LR corners. I again got off to a poor start and let Joe Knippel (who runs part of the club) and veteran driver Freddie Teer by. The two experienced IRS/pavement drivers battled hard in front of me while I attempted to figure out how to get around the track. Joe and Dwight had pointed out some marks for me to watch for. I worked on my line and got a whole different feeling on the car. It was a pretty awesome experience to run around the “World’s Fastest Quarter Mile”. When the two leaders starting lapping cars and battling amoungst eachother, I did close in some a couple of times. I really had nothing for them though, but do think that I figured out how to get around the track. The car still had a little vibration and then the notorious “missing” condition picked up. We believe this is a fuel related issue. The car just cannot run right all night. So even though I believe my line was improving, the car was stumbling and I gave up some at the end. 2007 IRS champion Lamont Crichett made a run around me after ˝ way. I gave it all that I really had and hung close at first. He maintained the “show” position and I settled for a comfortable 4th.
My goal was to get through the night and be ready for Rockford Sunday Sunday. I was hoping for a “podium” finish though, but can not be to upset with a top five finish. We will go over the car, make some more fuel system and chassis changes. Hopefully we can do better tomarrow.