So some things went on over that last few weeks. And some things didn’t. The Super Stock show for 7/5 got dropped due to low car counts. Mother nature made her opinion known by raining out the rest of the classes. The up side is that the message was received by the drivers and Bobby Lippa rallied support and talked to the track and got us back on the schedule for the 13th as a NYSS show. With some cheerleading and cajoling by some of us, we pulled 14 cars even with a couple of no-shows. I was in a pretty good mood and looking forward to a great night of racing until I made the mistake of going low on the the 11 of John Avery in hot laps and ended up backed into the wall and knocked further down it by Billy Gleason who couldn’t avoid me. So it was a short and expensive night. Three wheels and tires, the rear end housing, a trailing arm, a rotor, one axle, a radiator hose, both ends of the frame, and a lot of body parts were casualties of the crash. I got out of the car thinking I was done for the season. Once we got to the pits, Jason’s guys and my brother helped me get it on stands and looked it over. While it looked pretty bad and the above list of parts were junk, it looked like we might be able to at least take the green and get paid. After working on it for a while an official came down and told us that rather than take any chances with issues on the track, they’d just pay us for last. So we worked on getting it on the trailer, I went over to the stands and watched a pretty decent night of racing (other then Kelly not being able to start due to carburetor issues). As the night went on and I spoke to different people, the possibility of having the car fixed for the next show looked more promising. Jason offered a rear and Kelly offered his help and there didn’t seem to be many more things wrong with the car. I figured I’d think about it for a bit and see how things went.
Saturday night we went to Oswego to see Dad’s car run. After a mediocre time trial and a passable heat run, Dave was coming up through the field from 10th and was running down third when the car shut off. So the racing gods were not smiling on the Millers this weekend.
Sunday morning I dragged the car over to Dad’s shop and met Kelly there. We had it unloaded by 10, hooked up the frame machine, and were bolting the front end back together by noon. I’m amazed at how well the frame pulled out. We loaded the car back up at 5 with both ends straight and most of the body work done. We took it to my shop and had it ready for the new rear to go back in by 7. It is amazing what you can accomplish with competent help and the right tools. I can’t thank Kelly, Dad, or Jason enough for their help. If things continue to move along, I should be ready for Thursday practice for RoC. Since I’m already registered and should get a free pass for Friday, I’ll probably use the short practice and heats for another shakedown. I’ll decide then if I’m ready to run Saturday. If so, I just need about $300 to get there…