Edition 48, September 23rd - 2009

Jefferson Weekend

Finally back to a points race weekend with beautiful chamber of commerce weather in Jefferson Wisconsin, not too far from Matt Kenseth’s home town. This was a two-day race event, so we had to hurry to get tasks done and head to Jefferson for the Friday night early qualifying. I finally located our #97 team tucked deep in the pits literally among a hundred other cars from various divisions. “The car is pretty good,” said Swan when quizzed. Wait a minute he said the car is good after practice? This is something we did not hear much from James during this season.

I found a spot to record the qualifying of the 48 late model entries that showed up for the Jefferson twin 50’s. First cars out were running in the mid to high 14’s, until the #94 posted a second lap of 14.283 which was fastest of the first 14 cars in line. We followed and laid down a respectable 14.344 to post second fastest until the #5 Miller entry ran three fast laps including a 14.290. A few cars later, a 14.279 was posted on the scoreboard. And then if as scripted, the Farm and Fleet #25 ran a 14.237 on his second lap for fast time of the night. We were posted as 7 th fastest of the fleet and would not have to race in last chance to be in the dual feature field. Yeah!!!

Our 8-lap fastest qualifiers race was as expected, fairly uneventful. We started 4 th and finished fourth, behind the #52 who took the checkers, and our car escaped any damage. The first of the 25 lap races posted #5 Casey Johnson as the winner and #31 Jankowski ride in second. Friend Kyle Shear was posted in 4 th. The second 25 lap race had more action with cars trading paint and racing space with the #78 winning and one of the many #5 entries in the wall with the right front wheel torn off. Fast timer Kenseth rolled the dice for the inversion for the 35-lap feature and a nine meant we would start 7 th in this 17-car field and Kenseth would start 6 th.

And this folks led to one of the most boring races I have ever witnessed in the preview feature. As the #94 and #99 raced side by side for what seemed like 20 laps, the Jason Shuler entry ran away and for the most part most cars ended close to their starting position with the exception of Miller who dropped off the pace with mechanical problems. We started 7 th and finished 9 th in a race that did not mean anything other than entertain the fans. We would return the next day for the twins.

Fast forward to Saturday. Two preliminary races transferred two cars each into the feature races and with two more entries pulled from the points leaders not yet in the feature; the 24-car field was set. We would start on the second row inside but the car was different this night and was tight on the corners. Swan attempted to pick a line to follow and ended up on the wrong end of a couple trading paint scenarios and finished 7 th.

The second feature had an invert of 11 so we started on the third row inside with Bobby Wilburg on the pole, but from the onset his car would not handle properly and he eventually ended up 11 th. We raced hard side by side with the #99 entry and were happy that he raced us clean, which is more than can be said for others that did not want to be overtaken. More donuts on the #97 Swan piloted car and we were posted in 9 th at the conclusion.

So all in all we went to race, we were posted in 10 overall position of 24 cars in the features, we gained three positions up to 8 th overall in the Big 9 series, and we feel good about going into Rockford and La Crosse. This has been a huge learning experience for us this year, and we feel that we still can show more progress in the next three weeks.

RACING TO THE CHECKERS

Jim