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.

Front bumper unscathed

The only damage from the Malave contact - tire on tire rubbing

Right side Nerf bar damage from contact with the 47.

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.