News Archive July 2002

July 4th, 2002

It was a damn hot night, & mother nature was about 1/2 hour from saving us from trouble. We didn't have qualifying heats due to time constraints so we went out in the feature & started 9th, while riding around on the pace lap awaiting the start of the race a problem with our clutch arose & John was unable to shift the car with any ease. After some chatter back & forth on the radio he decided he'd stick with it & shift the best he could on the start & restarts. He survived the initial start & a couple restarts before the clutch finally gave way and would not let the engine transfer power to the wheels. Another disappointing night for the Bad Luck King. Just after we dropped out of the race the skies opened up with rain & the finish of the race was delayed. Had it rained 1/2 hour sooner we could have stood a chance of replacing the clutch before the race even started. Oh well that's racing...

Click here to see photos from July 4th, 2002       

July 13th, 2002

Long day.... Started practice at 9am & did not race until 6PM. We chased the car all day in practice making various changes here & there to compensate for track conditions and weather. We got the car pretty good for qualifying. We started 5th in qualifying and finished 4th. This gave us the 9th starting spot in the feature. We passed early and often & wound up in the second spot for the last 10 or so laps of the race. The leader was having trouble getting into the turns and he would push up the race track allowing us to close in on his bumper. But his car was good out of the turns and that is where we were off a bit & would lose any ground that we gained going in. We wound up holding on for a 2nd place finish. All & all it was a clean race and we finished without a scratch on the car. The next race is rthis coming Wednesday where the featured attraction will be Winston Cup star Tony Stewart taking on Ted Christopher in a Modified match race.
 

Sorry No Pictures This Week.

July 17th, 2002

    Although not a stellar finish this week, we did manage to finish the race and ended up inside the top 10. Winston Cup star Tony Stewart was at the track for a celebrity match race and autograph session which packed the house with perhaps was the largest crowd on hand at Thompson this season. Qualifying heats were not run in an effort to speed up the race program so we started 10th in the feature as a result of the handicapping system. The feature started off well and we were on the move until we came into some 2 and 3 wide racing ahead of us which made us hold back and wait for traffic to settle before charging on. On the 3rd restart of the race the car #12 in front of us broke or missed a shift and we piled into the rear of him unfortunately he was unable to get going again and we were stuck behind pushing him down the frontstrech losing spots to the inside and outside. We finally cleared him entering turn 1 and the caution flew for a wreck. Because a full lap had not been completed we were told by the officials to return to our spot prior to this caution. While trying to get back into this spot the 81 car was obviously not monitoring the officials and felt we were stealing his spot and started ramming us in the right side which seriously knocked the front end out of line and in turn turned the cars handling to junk. We trekked on but we were then run up into the backstretch wall by the 81 who still was being an idiot as always! We still continued but the car was now very ill handling we were pretty much unable to gain any ground and had to settle for the 8th finishing spot. Following the race in a crowd pleasing manner John drove up on the 81 car and gave him a healthy shot in the rear bumper to show his disgust with this kids actions, little did John know that 3 other guys were lined up behind him to do the same thing as this 81 had really rubbed these guys the wrong way. So we will now square the car away for next Thursdays race and again seek out victory that has been eluding us all season.

Click here to see photos from July 17th, 2002

July 25th, 2002

Perfect weather! Ran the first practice session and we were not happy at all with the car so a decision was made to make a large change. The change worked and our lap times picked up for the second & third practice. There were no qualifying heat races in an effort to speed up the show so we started 11th in the feature by way of the handicap system. There was trouble right off the bat on the first lap which forced a restart. Again after the restart we saw the caution again. One more restart and here we go... We ran a couple laps and there was a tangle in front of us that started a wreck, John had it missed to the inside when he was drilled from behind and spun into the wreck. John re-fired the car and brought it down pit road for inspection and repairs. The whole right side body was torn off & dragging. The crew quickly went to work and removed the nerf bars, door panel, and other damage. They then put on plenty of duct tape to hold the rest on. John got back out without losing a lap and restarted the race. The crew planned to have him come back in for a Right Front tire change but the handling of the car wasn't too bad & John stuck it out. He charged from the rear and made it up to the 8th spot before the checker flew.Had the race been 4 or 5 laps longer John definitely stood a shot at a top 3 finish. Repairs will be made and we'll go do it again on August 1st.

Click here to see photos from July 25th, 2002

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