Edition 14, Oct 9th- 2007

Hot LaCrosse Nights

I re-checked all my gear that I packed to go to the Mid Am season final race at LaCrosse Wisconsin. This was our chance for a season championship, so I did not want to forget anything. Let’s see, we have two mini race hoods for autographs, an extra shirt, jacket for evening, camera, hero cards for James to sign, race cap from our co-sponsors, magnetic can coolie for gift to team, goofy hat for me to put on to break the tension if necessary, autograph pens, and paper to record my observations. Maybe I brought too much stuff I thought as I dragged my baggage the mile or so from my van to the infield in 85 degree heat. Bobby G, pointed me toward our hauler, and I met our driver James, looking somewhat nervous. “We only qualified 10th, and I only took one lap because I almost lost it on the second lap so I shut it down.” That’s okay, maybe we will start closer to the front, I stated, but I knew he did not like a loose car with the championship on the line. Even Prietzel told Mark and me, just tell him to drive the car; as that is how he got to where he is in the standings, he will be okay.

I had checked the pre-registered field but when we walked around the other team haulers, I did not recognize some of the teams as several had registered in the last week. I had expected 26 regular racers and I was now somewhat taken back with the 35 cars that were there, many from Minnesota. Heat races started off on the wrong foot with cars bouncing off each other and the cement barriers. The wreckers were busy dragging in damaged cars as we waited for our car to race in the third heat. We wanted to take a conservative approach in our heat race, but almost bought the big one as cars spun in front of us, and we just missed wrecking the car. James brought the car in and continued to look nervous. Last chance cars racing into the feature were the #99, #40, #34 and #55 in that order. We now were going to wait several hours until after the ASA races were complete. Mark and I decided to go into the stands and let the team adjust as necessary and not have us in the way. Ryan, Lenny, Don, Adam and James went to work.

Our car was going to start in the third position inside of the 27 cars lined up for the feature race. We now knew we would start with friend Dave in front of us and Jeremy behind us. Things looked good, as we only needed to place 17th in this race to capture our second consecutive championship. The race only got to lap four when the #77, #34, and #12 cars spun out together. We were in 4 th with Ryan Roe leading. Lap five we were back fighting for 3rd, and lap 5 we took that position. Lap seven saw a collection of cars spinning in turn three and before another lap could be posted, four cars collected in turn one. We would start 3rd again by Obermeyer. Things looked better.

Then the proverbial wheels came off the train, as Obermeyer did not come up to speed, we virtually got run over on the restart, and buckled the hood. The car dropped back to eighth but seemed to come back up to speed keeping up with the front group as Roe ran away from the field. We continued to hold on to the 8th or 9th position as we raced hard against the Brewe entry lap after lap. We now knew the win probably would not come to us but we had to stay out of the next accident. James does not know quit so he continued to race with the cars in front as he also protected his flank. With seven laps to go the final caution flew, and we continued to be scored in 8th. The checker flew with the #97 scored in 8th. We later were moved up to 7th officially. James was disappointed in his finish, but had to smile about the championship.

Thanks to a lot of people have been expressed, but I would personally like to thank the ladies in our lives, our Moms, wives, and significant others for allowing us to go and chase our racing dreams. I do know that as snow is around the corner, I will be thinking about all the great times we had traveling to all the race tracks on summer days. Watch for some changes as we already prepare for next year, but hopefully many things that made this group good will remain the same. We will return!

Continue to watch this site as we will continue to provide more updates on the racing scene.

Racing to the Checkers

Jim