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.