vMRS @ Seekonk June 9th



LB in the heat race where he placed 5th.  Photo courtesy of Charlie White. 

My apologies for the lack of timely information - June has been a crazy, busy month. 

Saturday, June 9th marked the first time that Larry visited the Cement Palace to drive.  He has told me countless times over the years how cool it would be to drive his Sportsman at Seekonk.  He got to take his new modified out on the track instead, and he had a blast driving there. 

In Practice session 1 - LB decided to take the advice of one of his racing mentors Mr Dale Quarterley, and push the car to the limit.....or beyond.  LB even warned us all before going out on the track that he would probably spin out.  This took approximately 1.73 laps, when he spun it out on the front stretch.  Whatever this little spin involved, it certainly blew out the cobwebs & whatever else was swirling up there in the grey matter. LB stated "Goal #1 achieved".  He posted 14th fastest time out of 29 cars. 

When he came back out in Practice Session 2 - he had the good fortune to be behind two of the best in the division - Dwight Jarvis and Les Hinckley.  He decided to try to keep up with these two.  This was some of the most fun I've had to date watching LB in the modified.  He kept up with Dwight and I think observed one of the best do what he does at Seekonk and probably knocked several practice sessions off the learning curve.  He ended up passing Hinckley on the back stretch, and posted fourth fastest times in practice 2 out of 28 cars.   

Photo courtesy of Charlie White

On to the heat race.  LB started eighth out of ten cars with top six to qualify.  He ended up in fifth spot with a first ever automatic transfer to the feature.  To say the whole team was excited was an understatement.  People were stopping me left and right, congratulating the team on this first ever achievement. 

Tyrone Hughes (LB's co-workers' son) wanted to take the 73 modified out on the racetrack, but settled for some performance driving at the Seekonk Grand Prix go cart track on Saturday.

If that wasn't exciting enough, LB transfered to the feature and started the race in SIXTH place.  That's when everything temporarily turned to crap.  In LB's words:

"One screw up cost us. It appears we pushed some water from the radiator into the overflow bottle when we were tuning the carburetor. We did that after the heat race. It only took 8 laps in the feature to get black flagged for leaking water from the overflow container.

We pulled off the track, let it cool down. We then were able to refill the radiator. Lost 29 laps, but then ran another 20 laps or so with no problems, and were easily able to catch up to guys at the back of the field after each restart. Our fastest lap was quicker than the fastest lap of the guy that finished 5^th in the 100 lap event."

Once LB knew the car was okay, he pulled off the track with about 25 laps to go to save the equipment (and not be in the way of those racing on the lead lap).  Seekonk was an overall success, despite the cooling system mistake that possibly cost him a decent run. 

Cousin Mike Holdridge, in the meantime, had a solid run, finishing 8th. 

It looks like the team will skip the Stafford Speedway race. Several crew members cannot attend, and with a tight budget, we cannot spread ourselves too thin. He is setting his sights on the Lee USA Speedway race on Friday, June 29th as his next event.  LB has stated that he really looks forward to the challenge of Lee Speedway, a place where smooth driving can be key to a good run.  LB will be trying to do as many races as possible on the VMRS tour, but keep up with our plans here, as we may need to skip an occasional race.

Leadfoot at his first modified signing session.  Photo courtesy of Denise Bass.