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 4th. 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 8th. 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 2nd. 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 17th."
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment