Category: Update
Update
The 2012 NASCAR Super Late Model Whelen All-American Series got off to a great start at Evergreen Speedway as 22 cars showed up to race the two 50-lap main events. Our weekend started Friday night as the track had an open practice on the 3/8’s mile track. We switched to a bump-stop set-up in the off season and this would be the first time I had ever driven a car with this shock package. We were happy with the results as we made some minor adjustment Friday night as we prepped for Saturday’s races.
We qualified at a 16.673 seconds which was good enough for 7th quick. With an 8 car invert to start the first main event, we would start 2nd…outside of the front row. We led the first 24 laps and ran in the top 3 for the rest of the race finishing 2nd to Naima Lang.
For the 2nd main event, the line-up was determined by the finish of the first race. All of the cars finishing the first race on the lead lap would be inverted and start in front of all the other cars. With 13 cars finishing on the lead lap, we would start 12th…outside row 6. We had a tough time moving forward at the start of the race and were involved in a spin on lap 8. That would drop us back to 19th. We battled our way back to a 5th place finish. We couldn’t be more excited for two top 5 finishes to start the season, especially with the strong field of cars. Here are a couple videos from in-car cameras. The first is from Dan Moore’s car and is from the first race. The second is from my car and is from the second race.
Here is a look at our scheduled races at Evergreen Speedway in 2012.
Here are a couple pictures of the car for 2012. The first race of the season is April 28th. Not much is new on the car this year as we had a very clean season in 2011. We replaced the damaged body panels with new ones and had them painted by Fred Hall at Streamline Automotive. Weather permitting, we hope to practice on Friday, April 13th. Then Tracy DeYoung can install the rest of the decals.
This year’s racing season has started in an unlikely place: Pacific Raceways in Kent, Wa. On March 10th and 11th, I was asked by Clint Lang, Mike Fritz and Rod Helmuth to join them in racing in the 16 hour Roll-X enduro race driving the #95 Lightning McQueen. 
The race was run in 2 hour shifts between the 4 drivers, 8 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday. The 8 hours of racing on Saturday was accompanied by 8 hours of rain. Wet, wet, wet. Sunday also started out wet but the track began to dry midday just before a large storm rolled in bringing rain, snow and hail. I drove the first stint on Saturday and the 2nd on Sunday. I had never raced a car on a road course and it took me awhile to get used turning right and left while braking and shifting gears. Below is a video showing me racing a lap around the track in the rain ending with a spin into the gravel trap. It was my only trip off the track all weekend. Every lap I learned something new and had a blast driving with a great group of guys. Pacific Raceways did a great job putting on this inaugural endurance race in very poor weather conditions. 22 cars started the race and we finished 5th with only a few minor glitches during the race.
On January 21st, Evergreen Speedway held their awards banquet for the 2011 season. Our team attended to accept our awards for finishing third in points in the Super Late Model division. When you’re in the top three, you’re expected to say a couple words while on stage. I tried to keep it short because, let’s face it; people aren’t there to listen to the 3rd place person give a long speech. That’s for the champions. So I’ll take this opportunity to expand.
If you were to tell me a year ago that we would finish the 2011 season 3rd in points with 2 win, I would have been ecstatic. And we are. But more that ecstatic is a huge feeling of pride. By the end of the season, we felt that we could have done better. We raced against some of the best, well funded, teams in the Northwest and showed we could race with the best of them. The pride comes from the fact that we did it ourselves while spending so much less than most of the other guys. We built a new car for the 2011 season and did most of the work ourselves. As the season started, we were very low on money and it became apparent that we didn’t have the money for an engine rebuild or for some high-dollar shocks. And we would have to run well to earn enough money to continue throughout the season.
Just to get to the first race took a lot of effort from many people. Mike, Ronnie and I spent a very cold winter building the car. Jessie Jensen and Big Al built the interior of the car. Sandblasters, Inc. took care of getting the car ready for powder coating. Superior Powdercoating took it from there. Streamline Automotive painted the body while Deyoung, Inc. finished the car off with the decals. Our friends at Mobil 1 Lube Express in Everett helped us out with our lubricant needs. And Central Welding Supply gives us free nitrogen for our race tires. And while at the track, Naima Lang’s crew treated us like family helping out with whatever we needed.
Next season will have a new feel to it. Evergreen Speedway will only run 8 Super Late Model races. But they have cooperated with South Sound Speedway to create the I-5 Challenge Series that includes 7 races at South Sound and 7 races at Evergreen. So there will be plenty of opportunity to race in 2012. Right now, we can only afford to race the 8 races at Evergreen. Although, we are always looking for marketing partners to bring exposure to a business while expanding our opportunities to get our car in front of more fans.
Thank you Tracy DeYoung for the new Autograph Card design.
So that’s it. The season is over. Time flies when you’re having fun. And fun was had in 2011 by the #48 team. We started to tear the car apart in preparation for the 2012 season, and as we are doing so, Mike, Ronnie and I can’t believe the 2011 season is over. It seemed like it was just getting started when all of a sudden it was done. And that happens when you’re having the time of your life. 2011 brought with it a new car for our team, 2 wins and the best points finish (3rd) that we’ve ever had. We raced some of the best teams in the Northwest this summer and we ran up front with them…week in, week out. I’m so proud of the effort that me, Mike and Ronnie have put in to get us to this point…not just this year, but for the past 5 years that we have been doing this. You don’t run up front on accident. It takes a ton of effort and it takes a ton of help. And we’re not proud, we’ll take help from anyone who offers. Our biggest supporters this year have been Mobil 1 Lube Express on Broadway in Everett, Andy Sole at Superior Powder Coating in Arlington, Joe’s Racing, Fred Hall at Streamline Automotive in Monroe, Jessie Jensen at Jensen Race Cars, and Sandblaster’s Inc. in Marysville. We received all kinds of support from our fellow racers at the track including all of Naima Lang’s crew and family. Thank you.
Our plans for next year? We’ll be back at Evergreen to do it again. We are looking forward to the 2012 rules package and 2012 schedule. In the meantime, we are taking a couple months off. This is the first time we have ever done this since I got involved with late-models back in 2003. We always have something to work on in the off season. But this year we decided that we are only going to work on things that will make the car better. And in order to do that, we will need some additional resources, i.e. money. So I’m taking on some additional overtime at work and we’ll get back to it soon and see you all in 2012.
We picked up our second win of the year on the 3/8’s track last Saturday night in the first of two 50 lap races. Our week started early last Sunday as we took the broken rear-end out of the car. We disassembled it hoping to find the one part that may have broken, but what we found was a mess of broken parts. Everything was broken. We would only be able to salvage the axle tubes and one axle.
On Monday morning I jumped on the phone trying to find a new center section, first on the West coast, working my way East. We found one already assembled, ready to ship in Michigan. It would be at the shop Thursday afternoon. Monday night, Mike and Ronnie removed the axle tubes from the old rear end and cleaned the hub assemblies, brakes, bearing, etc. so they would be ready to reassemble later in the week.
On Tuesday night, I continued with my normal chores of cleaning the chassis. I usually spend a couple hours on Tuesday nights after a race wiping down the underside of the car. On Wednesday, I did a run for a few odd-and-end parts we were going to need to put the rear end back together. I also stopped by the track and got our race tires.
The new center section arrived about 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon. While unpacking the boxes of parts, we noticed an adjustment assembly was missing. It’s just a threaded rod with a jam nut and a bushing on the end that screws into the side and rides just off the ring gear to reduce vibration. But it’s something we needed…now. I got on the phone to Dan at Northwest Differential in Kirkland and he had one in stock. I left work early on Friday, swung by Dan’s for the missing part, and went to the shop where we went to work assembling and installing the new rear-end.
Practice – Moving back to the 3/8’s track, we made some spring changes up front. I went out and the car felt great. We made no additional changes and skipped the second practice.
Qualifying – We bolted on a fresh set of Goodyear Eagle racing tires and qualified in 3rd spot.
Race #1 – At the drop of the green flag, we scrambled to get to the front and made it there after a few laps. Jeff Knight got by me coming out of turn 4 a few laps later as he was looking good in his new car. We ran second to Jeff for a bunch of laps with Naima hot on my tail until I slipped in turn 1 allowing Naima to get by me. The 3 of us ran together caution-free until we were coming to the white flag when Naima got under Jeff coming off turn 4 causing Jeff to spin to the inside. Naima checked up allowing me to squirt around the outside as the caution flew. That set up a green-white-checkered finish with Jeff on the outside of me as we took the green. We ran side-by-side for the first lap and bumped doors coming off turn 4 to the white flag. That allowed me to take the lead on the last lap and finish the race #1.
Race #2 – With the win in the first race, we had to start in the back of the second race. This race went the first 40 laps caution-free. At that point we had worked our way to 4th and it looked like that was the best we were going to get as the leaders were too far out front and I wasn’t catching them. But a spin with 9 to go bunched up the field. On the restart I tucked in behind Jeff for 4th spot, but it was obvious there was something wrong with the handling with his car. I was able to get by him and finished this race in 3rd.
Practice – We made some changes back at the shop to help the car turn better. Have you heard that before? From the best Cup teams to the low budget guy running Saturday night, everyone is working to get their car to turn better. The problem is, how do you fix the part of the turn that is broken without hurting the part that’s good? That’s were the word balance comes in. The first practice session was good, but the car didn’t feel very stable. Before the second practice, we made a small adjustment and it felt better.
Qualifying – We bolted on 4 new Goodyear Eagle racing tires and put down a good lap. At 23.0, it wasn’t our fastest lap, but on this day, it was good enough for second fastest of the 12 cars that were there.
Race – We started 8th, outside of the 4th row. And finally, for the first time this year, we got a great start and jumped into 3rd place after just a few laps. This was a 125 lap race on the big track and we wanted to settle into a nice, smooth pace for the first half of the race. I tucked in behind the 20 car. I was a little faster than him, but didn’t want to use up the car too early racing with him. That allowed a couple of cars to pass and I followed them around the 20 car. We made it to the 60 lap break in 5th. About 15 laps before the break, I could feel something “funny” in the rear-end while also smelling rear-end grease. The guys checked it out during the break but couldn’t find anything obvious. After the restart, Jeff Knight in the 70 car tried to knock down the outside wall coming out of turn 4 and again when he got to turn 1 without any steering or brakes. That moved us to 4th place. After another restart, I races behind Lewis in the 73 car and finally moved around him with about 30 laps to go. I set my sights on the 16 car of Moore when the rear-end blew apart. We coasted into the pits to end our night as Lang in the 00 car drove to the winner’s circle
We’ll get a new rear-end in the car this week and be back this Saturday for twin races on the small track.
Yes, we got our first win on Saturday night. The amount of support I have received from my wife and son, and the support from my crew, Mike and Ronnie Walker (and their families), has all paid off. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This week was our first time back to the 3/8’s track since April 30th and the first time on the track since they resurfaced the 3/8’s track. When I tell people they resurfaced the track, they ask, “They repaved it?” No, they hired a company to diamond grind the roughest areas of the track. They took about a 1/10 of an inch off the pavement starting in the middle of turn one and continuing down the backstretch into the middle of turn 4. Although the small bumps and dips are still in the track, more of the car’s tires now touch the track, making for more grip.
Practice – Our lap times we about a second faster than our times in the past. It became apparent that the exit off turn 4 and the entrance into turn 1 would be tricky as the car lost grip on the “old” pavement.
Qualifying – To the chagrin of the late-model teams, the track continued with the European style qualifying where they let multiple cars on the track at the same time for 8 laps, recording your fastest lap. We qualified 3rd out of the 7 cars there. The old track record fell as Naima Lang recorded a lap in the 16.3 second range.
Trophy Dash – We ran a rare trophy dash. We bolted on the practice tires for this short race as we didn’t want to put any more laps on our race tires. We finished third.
First Main – A good qualifying effort comes with a starting position near the rear. We were trying to take it easy at the start of this race as the field worked through the slower cars that started up front. As we got sorted out and got down to some racing, the 5 car and I made contact. He end up in the pits and I continued, but with brake problems. Turns out the left-rear brake line got torn away from the brake caliper. We finished the race in 4th.
Second Main – Mike and Ronnie went to work fixing the car. We installed a new brake line and repaired some of the damage we discovered to the left rear quarter panel. We bolted the wheels back on the car, checked to make sure the front wheels were pointed in the right direction, and got lined up for the second race. We started on the pole and took the lead at the start of the race. There was a caution about 5 laps into the race. On the restart we took the lead again. Another caution just a couple laps later. This time the 16 car got me on the outside and we tucked in behind him as the front 4 ran nose-to-tail. After about 20 laps, we were able to move to the inside of the leader coming off turn 4, ran side-by-side for a lap or two, and the finally took the lead. We ran the last 15 laps caution-free and ended up in victory lane.
In my highly biased opinion, I thought this was some of the best racing in the late-model class we have had all year. The new surface races great. The low line is the fastest, but passing is difficult, and it takes a few laps to complete the pass, making for some exciting racing. It looks like the rest of our race my be on the bigger 5/8’s track as the track is adjusting the schedule to try and get more cars to the track. But I think the racing on the smaller track in now much better.
Next up for the Late Models is a 125 lap race on the big track August 27th during the Evergreen State Fair.