Weekly Update 9/10/11 Motor Mile Speedway

Motor Mile Speedway

We headed into the weekend with lots of anticipation and
hope for David’s debut at Motormile Speedway. It became apparent in practice on
Friday that we had our work cut out for us.

This was the first time David hit the track in the FDJ
Motorsports car and it didn’t take long to figure out that this was a
completely different feel then his Old Dominion car. David hit the track
several times and was able to make it into the top ten quickest out of the 20
cars that were there. But David never really got comfortable in the car and at
days end  David and the crew chief new they had plenty of things to work on to improve the car for Saturday night’s race.

Saturday’s Practice

Saturday morning we all headed to the track early to be
prepared to work on improving David’s lap times and handling. David and his
crew chief came up with a plan for some changes, the crew went to work and were
ready for hitting the track for the first practice. David thought the car felt
better but still wanted it to turn better. The crew chief and crew went back to
work and made some more changes. David hit the track once more and was much
happier with the car, but still felt it was to tight, at this point with 34 cars
on hand David was struggling to make the top 20 on the speed chart. For the
last practice they do what is called a scuff in session which is to get your
race tires ready for qualifying and racing. The Guys made a few more changes
and David headed out for the scuff session, he said the car felt better but he
was just struggling to get the feel for the new car and new track.

Qualifying

By the time qualifying came it was later in the day and the
track had cooled off some, David was going out 25th and all of the cars in
front of him were putting down laps way faster then he was all day, we all were
nervous and the anticipation was driving us crazy. When David finally went out,
he hit the track hard and fast and ran the car for all he could and even though
he was quite a bit quicker then he practiced, he was still a couple tenths off
the pole speed and he ended up 22nd out the 34 car field.Not as good as we had hoped, but with the best of the best
in NASCAR Late Model racing on hand, we were glad to make the race.

Motormile Speedway 150 Lap Race

With David starting 22nd we all new he had a tough night
ahead of him. On the initial start of the race things went smooth however David
got hung up on the outside and lost several spots. By the time he got down to
the inside he was back to 28th. As David does every week he patiently started
working his way forward. the race had several cautions and on lap 53 he was one
of them when he got tagged from behind while running 18th and spun around;
luckily there was no damage to the car. On the next restart he was in 23rd and
started working forward again, by lap 100 he was up to 17th. He was still not
comfortable in the car and was having a hard time getting it to turn through
the corners. The plan at this point was to stay out of trouble and try to make
it to the end and see what kind of finish he could salvage. On lap 144 the
caution came out  and we were still
sitting 17th, so this close to the end we just wanted to make it to the finish.
Unfortunately the guys up front thought it would be a good time to mess around
on the start, they sped up down the back stretch and then slowed a little which
caused everyone to jam up and the wreck was on. From about 13th place back
everyone was involved in the wreck; we thought David had it missed but he ended
up getting nailed from the back and pushed him into the car in front of him.
The Impact caved the nose in and knocked off the radiator cap ending his night;
four other cars were knocked out of the race too.

Obviously finishing 23rd made for a very disappointing night
for David, FDJ Motorsports and the rest of us on the team. This was one of the
races we wanted to have a good showing at but the whole weekend was a bit of a
struggle. But as they say that’s racing, we’ll take it as a lesson learned and
try to improve on it for next time.

On The Run, GazZu Energy, Sun Drop, Redline Power Shots,Modjo For Life, Hunt Brothers Pizza, Sheehy Auto Stores,Everitt Equipment, Xtreme Graphics, Carvers NAPA, Dave’s, Real Country, County Line Fuel, Mt Salem Electric, Lawrence Family, FDj Motorsports #33 Toyota NASCAR Late Model