Thompson Speedway "World Series" Report

The Valenti Modified Series was a late-season addition to the World Series line up. We decided to give it a shot with the modified, and for a while, I considered trying to get the sportsman car there also.  Eventually, common sense changed my mind on the sportsman car.

 

Preps for this event were a challenge (big surprise) as we had some damage to repair from the Seekonk race the week before. Meanwhile I was in week two of my outage night shift assignment. Hours were ramped up this week too…SO I leave home at 5pm and do not get home until 7:30 am. I tried to allow for two hours on the car each day, it wasn’t easy. The crew all pitched in, and then Rob C. and Jonny took on the big challenges. Jonny even prepped our (new-to-us) pit bull, finding a way to mount our normal tool box inside it (Rob and I had failed).

 

Race day: (Saturday the 13^th)

I managed to leave work early, allowing me the chance to get home, pack my stuff for the camper etc., load up the coolers, and arrive at the track near 6am. I turned over the keys to Rob C. And climbed into the camper. I managed to get about 2 hours worth of a nap in while the crew prepped the car for practice.

 

Next up: practice

Climbing into a mod on a cold morning, after logging 72 hours at work that week is tougher than you think. Another thing….Thompson is my home track, but just because I have 53 wins there in a sportsman car, it really means squat when it comes to driving a mod. It may even be a disadvantage! I know how everything should feel in a sportsman car, and it may just make it harder to crank up the speeds in a mod.

 

I hit the track, handling isn’t bad (a bit tight), but something under the hood (ok just above the hood actually) is really messed up. Our Proform carburetor is causing a major stumble. I was a bit sleepy, so we headed back out for one more round of practice. Yup, carb was the issue. We quickly (as in Jonny did it) bolted up our carburetor we originally used on our sportsman crate engine. Meanwhile Rob made a chassis adjustment, and we also figured we better scuff our new set of tires. Stumble off the corner solved, push went to a tad loose, but power on the straights was killed with the small carb.

 

The heat race:

Of all times….We had drawn the pole for our heat race. I think the 5 fastest cars were in our heat to boot. Jonny found a blown out power valve in our carburetor, so we bolted it back on thinking it would run much better. Meanwhile, I had run off to spot for Bobby Santos during his Whelen mod practice. We finally got back out on the track for our heat race. I decide to keep my pole start position knowing I had to finish 9^th or better and that 6 cars would not make the race. I nailed the throttle taking the green, even shifted very quickly, but the carburetor stumble was back in full glorious force. I was 4^th across the line, and 8^th by the end of lap one. I did manage to get the speed up enough to finish 9^th and make the race. Everyone on my crew told me that the talent behind me would be more than capable of finding a way around me if they needed to (and boy, did they need to!) and they were right. 

 

The feature:

Boy, was it cold! We were nearly frozen by the time our race was ready to start. It also turned out that the Sportsman division ran their race directly before the vMRS series, so I was really glad I left the sportsman car home (it was supposed to follow with two divisions in between). The race: I was holding my own, mostly due to borrowing a carburetor from my Uncle Dale Holdridge. Several times I lifted to avoid getting pinched into the wall coming off turn 4. We pitted for adjustments around lap 40.

 

At lap 50 we were up to 11 place, as a few cars fell out of the race, and several cars pitted. Around lap 50 the 53 car must have thought he cleared me off of turn two, he drifted into my left front wheel, and caused me to go careening off the back straight wall. Luckily, all the other cars avoided ramming into me as I landed and slid sideways down the back straight. (youtube vidios of the highlights coming soon) Our race day was done. Lots of broken parts.

 

We had already decided to skip the race at Lee before the Thompson race had even started. The accident ensured we did not change our mind. The Lee event can get a bit silly anyways. They try to fit a bit too much racing into a short window of track time. And my night shift assignment runs for another few weeks.

 

Future?????

After the dust settles from our challenging 2012 season, we will assess how much racing we can afford to do in 2013. 2012 did a serious bit of damage to the racing budget. We attempted to make 11 races in 2012. We may choose to do a limited schedule in 2013 also. We certainly have learned a lot this year, have started to aquire the needed tools and equipment. The results are sure to improve next season. My crew did a great job this year trying to make a rookie competitive with a limited budget.

 

Cheers,

Larry

Seekonk Speedway October 6, 2012

The vMRS series season is winding down.  Two races remain - next weekend at Thompson Speedway, and the following weekend at Lee USA Speedway.  LB plans to drive in both events, despite his work schedule, which has him working 12 1/2 hour days for the next month - with only Saturday nights off.

Several key crew members were unable to make the Seekonk race (Jonny, Amy, Alan & Marty) so LB was a little nervous how Bob would handle all the duties completely by himself.  Bob quickly recruited Ron, who has helped out in the shop and at the races when his busy firefighting and quarter-midget racing schedule allows.  Rob and Laurie Clorite came out of the woodwork (whoo hoo!!!!), thanks to LB's pleading.  Also, two Tinio crewmembers answered LB's call; Danny Gamache & Ron Hequist.  The Seekonk crew ended up larger than usual, as a result.  Bob Smith, Ron Smith, Rob Clorite, Danny Gamache, Ron Hequist, Linda Lianos Smith, Laurie Clorite and myself  (Kim) were in attendance on Saturday morning.

The duty board

Bob torquing the tires

LB hadn't raced the modified since Monadnock, which was about a month-and-a-half ago.  The car went out in practice session 1 and LB complained it was tight in the center.  A few minor adjustments and he went back out and the car had improved.  He logged 7th fastest time in practice out of 33 cars.

In heat race 1, LB started in fourth.  As LB describes it, "Our heat race start position was 4^th. Not terrible, but we started behind the 76 car on the outside row, something was wrong with the 76 car, and we were freight trained all the way to last place, was then able to make our way back to 8^th. To the consi we went, along with 14 other cars."  It was pretty painful watching LB out there on outside.  To coin a phrase, he was basically hung out to dry as there was no room on the inside to fall into line and he couldn't get the momentum going to pass anyone on the outside as he was right behind the 76.

LB in Heat Race 1.  Photo courtesy of Charlie White.  

Everyone was nervous for the consi.  Fifteen cars started and only four would make the transfer to the feature.  There were a lot of good cars in the consi.  Once again, LB started in fourth position, outside.  LB says, "I had to get the job done. The crew had worked too hard to not make the race. I ran hard and made the pass for third the hard way, on the outside! Next up I ran down the 79, and made the pass for 2^nd. With no pressure from behind, I went into tire saving mode. Kept close enough to Dave B. in the 82 car to ensure we made the race."  To say the crew and driver were ecstatic would be an understatement.

On to the feature.  Everyone had to painfully sit through a very long 100 lap Pro Stock race that went on and on and on and on.  Cautions came out every 3 to 5 laps.  The dark clouds started to roll in and everyone knew the Modified feature might not make it the full 100 laps.

I know you've been working 12 hour days but this is not the ideal time to take a nap.  Photo courtesy of Charlie White.  

LB says, "We knew that having to run the consi, and the tire sizes we had, were going to be tough on getting a good feature finish. We planned on riding for the first half of the race, pitting to swap tires (position on car), then trying to work our way forward from there. Around lap 40 we pitted. This is where our tire sizes that we had ended up with challenged us, our RS tires were not even close to the same size. After pitting, we also got collected up in an accident ahead of us, and banged the RF wheel pretty hard. We pitted again at lap 48 to inspect for damage and make adjustments. Soon after the restart the rains came. The race was called complete at Lap 53 of the planned 100 lap race. We got credit with finishing 17^th."

Despite the early rains which prevented LB from finding out whether the adjustments made would have allowed him to move forward, everyone was happy.  The car was in one piece, and LB got to log more seat time.  The crew really meshed & did an awesome job.  LB was really happy with the results & was very impressed with everyone's performance.  If he didn't say it enough at the race, THANK YOU to everyone who helped out.  You guys rock!