#73 Larry Barnett: Lee USA Speedway Recap 6/29/12

LB had his best showing in the 73 modified this season at Lee USA Speedway. In his first visit to the 3/8th mile oval located in Lee, New Hampshire, he made significant progress in the car. The most exciting part of the evening came on lap 98 when LB was making an attempt to overtake the race leader. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Highlights of the day:

LB had two excellent practices where he learned the track, posted his fastest time of 15.092 (6th fastest car in both practice sessions), and had no mechanical issues.
Started 4th in his heat and finished 3rd.
Started the feature in 7th position of 24 cars.

On to the feature. LB started out well and quickly realized his car was too loose. He was experiencing left wheel hop, had to fight to keep it going straight, and went from 7th to a lap down over the course of the first 45 laps. It's pretty discouraging when your car is not handling well enough, and you're going backwards way too fast.

Thankfully, a caution came out and LB pulled into the pits where the crew made the necessary adjustments to get the car pointing forward. Once he went back out and established that the modifications were working, he began moving forward. We were given the "lucky dog" for being the first car a lap down during a caution.

Near lap 85 another caution flew, and we pitted again. Car was now a rocket ship compared to most everyone else. We were now able to pass any car that gave us some room.

Fast forward to lap 90. A major wreck involving several of the front runners red-flagged the race for several minutes. Unfortunately, cousin Mike Holdridge (0) was unable to avoid being collected up in the incident and was unable to finish the race.

Once the action continued, and dust from the wreck settled, not only was he on the lead lap, but he was in sixth position.

The race restarted on Lap 90 and over the course of the next 8 laps, LB passed the 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place drivers, all without incident.

On Lap 98, LB was heading for race leader Jeff Malave (3). The car was awesome and while he was excited to have gotten up to where he was, he was never going to settle for just riding around to collect 2nd place when he knew his car was at that moment better than Malave's. Heading down the front stretch he nosed up under Malave coming out of turn 4, and was up to his door by the start/ finish line. By multiple accounts, Malave turned left and chopped down on LB, which caused contact and both cars spun.

Minor damage was done when LB hit the turn one wall, but to make matters worse, when LB restarted the car to take off, he came down the track too far and the 47 of Tim Jordan could not avoid him, causing damage to his car. LB finished the race in 16th position - his highest of the season yet.

The day ended on a bit of a sour note as Jordan was so mad at LB that there was a verbal sparring match in the pits. LB was about to apologize for crossing in front of Jordan, but apparently he and his team didn't want to hear it. Instead, they proceeded to let LB and his team know they were pretty much "Thompson Trash" (BIFF!!) (and demonstrated so by dumping their trash directly behind our trailer) (POW!) and in so many words, let LB know that he was over his head in the "big leagues" (KAPOW!!!).

To each his own, I guess, but we were all pretty surprised that one of our competitors was so NOT classy. For the record, it was an accident LB takes full responsibility for. LB suspects that he will cause fewer accidents this year than Jordon did last year. LB stated that with his RF tire against the wall, he just gunned it too hard with the wheel cut too much trying to get going. The 47 ran into us after the caution was out.