Gladiators in the Steel Palace

Friday night was probably my best chance to win a feature this season and I blew even a top three. After last weekend’s melee at Evans Mills, I got the car back together and the new cooling setup is working VERY well. Considering how mangled the nose was it even looks pretty good. practice was a little hairy but I messed with the air pressures and the car came in pretty nicely for the heat. I started outside pole and expected an easy win against Brandon. Imagine my surprise when he buried it into 1 and raced me hard down the back stretch. He says Blue helped him out with setup and he bought a tires last week and I guess it helped. Anyway, I went in way too deep on both ends and never got back to him until he pushed up and we freight trained him. He ran a great race up until then and almost got his first trip to victory lane.

We lined up the same way for the feature and I was determined not to let him get the better of me again. I got an early start and ran him close through one and two and stayed outside him down the back. he rubbed me going into three and we both collected it up and kept going, unfortunately letting Wright get by underneath. I went around the outside of Brandon down the front and set off in pursuit of Mitchell. After catching him I ran him close for a few laps and got impatient and let him know I was there a few times. He started using the mirror and I decided to work on using timing and another line to try to get by. With 3 to go I got a great run out of two and caught him before he entered three. He started to come down, and rather than staying in it and rubbing him, I backed out, caught his left rear quarter, and spun out. So if I’d stayed in it could I have won it? Maybe? I guess we’ll never know.

Fortunately I came out of the night with no damage and only had to do some tweaks to have the car ready for Friday. I hope we get it in. The weather is looking ominous.

So here’s some news. Kelly may be in a car for a week or so at Spencer and at RoC. RJ Wyman asked him to drive his car and Kelly wants to shake it down first. Hopefully we’ll see him there. Also, Jason is working on not one, but two cars for Spencer. He’s resurrecting Brianna’s car with the help of a donor car. He’s also picked up the old Dave Bock Gran Prix (now a Monte) from Oswego’s inaugural SS race. I drove that car to several top 3 finishes at AIS before it went to the VanTassel family. Hopefully we’ll see either or both in the coming weeks.

So Spencer rained out again. I was really looking forward to racing but I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with the swamp so it was a decent call.

Since they cancelled and Jason has been bugging me to go up, I swapped gears and tires and went to Evans Mills for the Doxtater memorial race. They had a great turnout and it was great to see some of the people I haven’t seen in a while. Dave Fetterly was there but fought handling issues all night. It’s always good to see Dave. He says he may come down to Spencer on the 28th. Jimmy Steffenhagen and Willie Strusz made the trip and said they had a great time and would be back. Steve Denner, Bobby Newman, and Matt Larivee made their return to The Mills from various directions. All tolled, there were 24 cars there. Not a bad turnout.

My night was up and down. I was wicked loose in hot laps and the car felt slow but everyone else seemed just as slow. It turned out I had flat left rear tire. I guess that’s what I get for dragging something out of the barn and not checking it. With a new tire on it the car was much more comfortable and I felt pretty good about the heat. I drew 5 on the way in so I was supposed to start on the front row outside of Dave. But, since he wasn’t happy with the car he decided to start scratch moving Steffenhagen and Newman up to 1st and 3rd. I tried to hold onto the outside on the start but just wasn’t comfortable enough and ended up pulling down into 3rd. After I over drove it into 3 Dave Arbes nudged me a little and took that spot but Newman blew a tire so I ended up 3rd.

I started the first feature 8th and despite getting a good start ended up finally getting to the bottom somewhere in the mid-teens. I settled in to let the field even out but a couple of laps in Doxtater decided he needed the spot in front of me and drove across my nose turning me around. Fortunately, only one car hit me and it was not a bad hit so I got going again. I ran down and passed a few cars and then got helped around again. This time the hit was worse and the whole nose got trashed. I pulled off but Jason’s guys said it looked OK so I went back out. I passed a few cars and another caution came out and I looked at the gauges and saw the temp getting close to 250 so I pulled it in. In the pits I found out the ducting was mangled and the fan was missing some blades. And the bumper mounts were torn off. So I straightened what I could and left the bumper off and went back out. I restarted 22nd or something and was having a great time going through the field when I checked up to miss the 11th place car and got turned. The temp gauge was at 250 again so I pulled off again with 3 to go and got credited with 19th.

I was feeling a little dejected when I got out of the car but the more I calmed down, the more I realized how much fun I’d been having. I was passing cars on the inside and outside and was as quick as some of the top 10 with a bent car. And then I noticed that Jason had won the race. And then someone handed me two $50 bills for the random draws. So I wandered around waiting for the payout and had a nice time talking to everyone. All in all not a bad night.

I wish I could have seen the race. Jason started in the back of the first feature and worked his way up to second. I guess Chris Typhair was doing a great job until he got taken out by a lap car. I’m pretty sure I saw Steffenhagen leading at some point but obviously Jason got by and held off all challengers. I’m pretty excited for him. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. He texted me yesterday to say he still couldn’t believe he won a big race. I feel pretty good about the fact that it was in my old car too. I’m hoping for a repeat performance at Spencer on the 28th.

Meanwhile back in my shop… The carnage isn’t pretty. I’m not sure I’ll get everything fixed but it should be OK to race. The power steering is leaking like crazy and the nose is ugly but I’m not going to have time or the money to make it shiny. I’m going to leave the chassis pretty much like it was Saturday night and see how Spencer likes it. If it feels anything like it did I’m going to be pretty happy.

I have to be in Binghamton Saturday night so I’m thinking about taking the car down to Shangri-La 2. We’ll see how Friday goes first though.

So I made a bunch of changes to the site. It seems no one could register, and there was no way to email me to complain about it. I’ve fixed both. And I think I’ve taken care of the broken links, formatting issues, and missing pictures. And I added the forums back. Now that there’s a way to tell me about it, please let me know if there’s something else broken.

Well, I did everything I could to get the car cool and what finally did it was…a fan. I think the other stuff I did helped a lot and probably would have kept it under 200 if I didn’t do any idling. But after the first hot lap session, it came in and blew water out. So I pulled out the fan and shroud I set up during the off week. And the car barely saw 200 for the rest of the night. Time to go find a decent electric fan so I can get the 5 HP back.

The low car count combined with the handicap from my atrocious finishes pretty much handed me the heat and should have done so in the feature. If my calculations are correct, I should have a chance to try it again next week. The turnout was disappointing. I was sorry to see so few cars after the great field for the Big 10 show. Jason had non-racing mechanical woes that kept him home (though he assures me that he and ‘The Girl’ will be there this Friday). I guess Jon Avery was sick. Hopefully he’ll back this weekend. And rumor has it that Billy Gleason has decided to just run Big 10, a decision that disappoints and saddens me. I like Billy and his family and will miss seeing them every week. I talked with Brian Gordon and he’ll be back in Virginia next week and for most of the season (though an angry and seemingly inebriated man on his crew assured me that his car would win the NYSS race on the 14th). I’m told Steve Malin will be there once in a while so that will be nice. I’m also told Chris Vogler will be back in Bobby Lippa’s 15 this week. Hopefully we’ll see some people getting ready for the 6/14 NYSS race too.

I did some looking around and it seems that the nearest track that also runs Street Stocks is Perry. Also on Friday nights… Still, that leaves an awful lot of real estate to pull from for a weekly class. So what’s the problem? I think it’s time to get the word out that you can race at Spencer again without selling your kids into slavery. It’s a nice track with nice people that want us there. Their rules are a little wacky but they’re willing to stretch them to a point to get some cars and that’s something that should get some old cars out of the weeds and back on the track. And I’m sure that if we can find some interest, they may see their way clear to rewriting them for next season. For my part, I’m going to start working on the old 10 and see if I can get it on the track later this season for a few shows. I have a chassis and a motor. All I need is everything else…