Edition 19, April 15th- 2008

We'll Take Third and Leave Town

Cold and windy was the weather call for the season opener on April 13 th at Rockford Speedway. We bundled up and took extra clothes as we headed for Madison, when we call a call from the Berge Team saying they were at the track and the race was cancelled as 2” of snow was on the race surface. Of course this was Adam’s way of poking fun at his sponsor. We arrived and carried in our belongings and immediately went in the hauler to keep out of the wind and snow showers.

Many of the teams including ours carried new colors and it was interesting to see the freshly painted cars and new sponsors. It was also good to see our racing friends again as we let the car idle to get some heat in the engine. The first practice session told us that our car was fast, but it was tight, tight, and tight!! Adjustments were made, grill got some tape, and session two indicated we had not made much progress. More adjustments were made, but testing was over before we could tell if the work helped. We would be the 16th of 32 cars to attempt qualifying this day.

The first cars out seemed to have the same tight issue as we did with sliding in the corners, and lap times were in the mid to high 14’s. The 13 th entry out, Dave Obermeyer hit the wall hard in between 3 and 4 and sustained huge front end damage to his Monte Carlo and it had to be towed to the pits. Two cars later, the #84 of Brett Piontek hit the wall in the same place as Dave and needed help to the pits. We would qualify next, and the Hankscraft sponsors were a little tense after watching good cars slam the wall during qualifying , but we held on to a good second lap at 14.189 which would stand as second fastest behind Prietzel’s 14.174 which stood as fast time.

We would be placed in the third heat race with the cars that had faster times. The first heat race saw more action than normal when the #36, #20, and 69 cars tangled. More damage and fiberglass body panels were laying on the track. The #54 Pluer entry took the checkers. Then heat two race saw more cautions when Nowak #32 had contact with Thorson entry on lap 3 and spun again on lap 6. Lyle probably thought this would be a long day. The #45 entry won the second heat. Our third heat saw more spins and trading paint and we finished 7 th out of 9 starters with #64 entry winning. The last chance race was relatively uneventful with the #45 and 64 cars starting and finishing in 1 st and 2 nd.

The 50 lap feature race started mid afternoon, and by now we were froze sitting on the aluminum bleachers. The #97 entry would be positioned in the 13 th position inside, which would make passing hard, as witnessed in the heat races. With the green flag displayed all 20 entries jockeying for position and on the 9 th lap, our entry and #5 Prietzel got together with both cars spinning to the inside. We restarted in the 16 th position. Lap 24, and the #7 and #5 entry tangled with more body damage to both cars and we had moved up to 9 th. By lap 33 we had positioned ourselves in 4 th due to the carnage and our hard racing on the track. Two laps later another caution with cars 67,7, and 5 involved.

Lap 38 had the Don Wood entry leading with #32 and our #97 following, when turn one turned into a parking lot as Wood’s car lost it’s brakes and tried to tear down the wall and did manage to remove a large section of billboard. The wreck was so violent, that both the front and rear of the #11 car were lost. Restart with twelve to go found the Berge entry in 2 nd, but with six to go under caution, we were placed on the inside, and finished in third position as we could not advance our line. Our friend Lyle Nowak parked in victory lane this eventful day; congratulations Lyle.

So now we have two weeks to fix the loose body panels, touch up the paint, and thank God we did not experience more damage. After all that happened this day; We’ll take the third and leave town.

See you all in Plover.

Racing to the Checkers,
Jim