What a busy last 2 weeks it's been for the team. Between racing two different tracks and one back to back days, we've had our hands full to say the least.
Two weekends ago we had the great opportunity to try out a late model for the first time, and it did not disappoint. We showed up not knowing entirely what to expect with a different car, but luckily had a good amount of seat time to not be completely lost on the track. All the learning that had to be done was just adjusting to the style of driving that had to be used for a late model. In total 17 cars showed up, and the last 2 practices saw us 9th and 7th quickest. The car was stout and we were much less nervous after practice was all over. We started 9th in the heat race, and held back at the start, but the longer we went the more comfortable we were with the handling, and we put the car on the high side and started passing cars. By the time the heat was over we had made our way up to 6th!
Come feature time we were starting 12th, and on the very first lap of the race, a car broke loose and shot up the track like a rocket and collided with the front end of the car, breaking all the front suspension and ending the night for us in turn 2. Though it was heartbreaking, it was nice to get seat time in a new car, and further desire to keep racing one.
The following day was the regular cars time to shine at the home track Thunder Road. We had one of the fastest cars all practice, and were ready to take that speed into the heat race, but an incredibly unfortunate and freak accident occurred in one of the heat races before ours with a car going off-track and colliding with two race officials, which effectively ended the day of racing. Thankfully both are expected to make a full recovery.
This past weekend, we brought the Tiger over to WMMP again to finish off the Triple Crown series at that track. We stayed top 3 in speed in all practices, and definitely carried that over into the heat race. We started 6th in the heat, and drove the car up to 4th for a +2 in the feature. That +2 had us starting 4th out of 17 cars.
We had a strong car the first third of the race, and while attempting to make a pass on two cars on the backstretch, the furthest car outside spun which had us sent to the rear for creating that. We dropped back to the end of the field and through an array of cautions saw ourselves sitting 4th with 8 laps to go. By lap 71 we had made it up to the rear bumper of the 3rd place car, but just couldn't quite figure out how to get around them to seal the deal for a podium. A 4th place finish left us with a 3rd place overall in the Series, which is more than we imagined getting considering our first laps there happened at the beginning of the season.
There are a few races left on the year, including this weekend make-up for the Labor day Classic, the following weekend being Championship Night, then there's the Milk Bowl and Oxford special for the Tigers in mid/late October. Gates open for racing tomorrow at 12pm.
We hope to see you all there for some great action packed racing!
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