LES 7/29 and LRP 7/30 Results

LES Results:
On Friday we had another Dodge Weekly Racing 40 Lap Late Model Event. After two straight weeks of caution free racing before the 100-lapper we had another crashfest this week. Dave was able to avoid the majority of the carnage and come out with another 5th place finish. Although we hoped to run better, another 5th place finish isn't bad considering we dropped back to 11th or 12th when the 33b drove into the side of us. Once again the action was up front, for the second week in a row the 33 has spun the leader coming out of 4 on the last lap. This week he would cross the finish line first but get penalized for his actions and the win would go to the 19.

LRP Results:
One big mistake took a night of highs and lows to the ultimate low this Saturday at Lancaster. The day started out on a high as we had our new steel headed Tarnowski motor in this week after borrowing an aluminum head motor the past several weeks. When you run an aluminum head motor the car has to be heavier so we had to take weight out of the car for our new motor this week. We scaled and setup the car Saturday morning oblivious to the error we had made in that process. Dave started his heat on the outside of the front row and beat the #1 in a drag race down the front stretch to take the lead, he then put it in cruise control and drove away from the field taking home the heat win. Dave then started the feature in third. Dave was looking under Tim Mangus early in the race when the 93 either didn't realize Dave was low, or was trying to pinch him off, but either way they made contact while going for the same piece of the racetrack and the 93 spun. Dave was sent to the tail of the field for the contact with the 93. Not long after the restart another caution came out for a wreck in turn 2. Dave made it through with minor bumper damage, and would be put up to second place for the next restart. We were not completely sure why he was put up to second, I thought he should have been 3d or fourth, unless the 77 car was penalized for some part of the wreck. On the next restart Dave began working on Tom McGrath for the lead, Dave took the lead with about 5 laps left and drove away for the apparent victory. In post race tech we found out we were over the limit for left side weight and disqualified. This was the result of an oversight on my part when scaling the car that morning. I'm not sure if it was because the Late Model is 56% left side or just simply the result of the routine of checking the Modified and having 54.8% (rule is 55%) but we accidentally setup the car to the wrong spec and it took away a great win. Having more left side weight is obviously an advantage but we still feel confident we can get that same handling back for the next Mod race. We had a win given to us 2 years ago for another driver being heavy on left side weight and I guess we now know how that can happen and how it feels to have a win taken away. I apologize to all the fans and sponsors for our mistake, we will be back after them in 2 weeks. (Mods are off next week)

LES 7/23 TQ Results

Dave started the TQ feature in 12th position with the #1 Englewood Collision TQ midget. Dave knew he had to get to the front fast to prevent the guys up front from running away with it. Dave took it into turn one wide open on the outside and exited turn two in fourth place. The Red flag came out on lap 2 when Erick Rudolph was turned and then flipped on his lid. Erick was fine and the race resumed after a short break. Dave had maneuvered his way to second place by the time the red flag came out on lap 2. On the next restart Dave lost some ground on the leader as he powered away, but as soon as Dave could get the #1 back up to speed he made the pass and held off a hard charging James Michael Friesen who was fighting a loose race car. This is Dave's first trip to victory lane at LES and hopefully we will be there again in the #51 Visteon Late Model.

LES Results 7/22

A full field of Late Models made their way to Lake Erie Speedway last night for the 100 lap feature. For the big event the Late Models time trialed with the top-10 being locked into the top 10 positions for the feature and the remaining cars having to race their way in through the heats and consi. We actually pulled a low number, which turned out the be the opposite of what we wanted. The numbers decided the qualifying order and we rolled off second behind Mark Bliss. Dave turned a pretty quick lap but as the sun went down and the track cooled the lap times improved through the end of qualifying. We were not one of the top-10 time trialers so we had to race our way in through the heat, Dave finished 3d in his heat which gave up a starting spot of 18th for the feature. After some significant changes before the feature Dave appeared to have a good car right from the start of the 100 lap main event. Dave started patiently picking off cars and worked his way up to the top 10 when our luck apparently ran out. Some tight racing caused #1 car spun in turn 1, Dave went high but the #1 backed up the track into our left front, breaking the tie rod. It was disappointing ending for the #51 as we appeared to be on our way to a solid finish.

The real excitement happened up front as Jay Sommers took the challenge to start last and go for an extra $5,000 if he won from the last starting position. He made his way all the way to second and coming out of 4 on the last lap he dumped Mark Bliss in the #0 and ended up spinning out himself as well. Bliss had led 84 laps and ran a great race, this handed the lead to Vern Bliss who takes home the win.

Tonight TQ Midget at LES along with the ROC mods and SST mods.

LRP 7/21 Results and weekend preview

A full stock car program this Thursday at Lancaster due to the car show taking place at the track this weekend. Dave started 3d in our heat race and had a solid run taking home a second place finish. After LRP changed the modified feature line-up 4 times we started 5th in the feature......I think. The problem with the line-up was due to Dave and McGrath being tied for "money won" over the last 3 races. For anyone who is wondering what that means, they set the line-up by taking all the qualified cars and putting the driver with the least money won over the past 3 weeks on the pole and the most money won last of the qualified cars. Since Dave and McGrath were tied, they usually then go back to points and whoever has the least points starts in front of the driver with more points...hence the handicapping system. Well apparently someone at the track overruled the official and changed their procedure for last night. This proved to hurt us on the start as the Inside row did not go and the outside 3 cars took the top 3 spots. This moved us back 7th at the beginning of the race, after a number of attempts to get the race going the Mods finally completed 30 laps with Hehr taking home his third win of the season. Dave struggled with an ill handling car and finished 5th. After having a tight but good car in the heat our adjustments seemed to create a very unstable car for the feature. Chuck Hossfeld finished second, Bobby Holmes had an impressive run finishing 3d.

Tonight (7/22): 100 lap Late Model race at Lake Erie Speedway
Tomorrow (7/23): TQ Midget race at Lake Erie Speedway

LES Results 7/15

Another weekly late model race at Lake Erie Speedway, another full night of racing despite threatening skies, another caution free late model feature, another top-5 for the #51 Late Model team. LES packed the house tonight as it appeared to be the biggest crowd yet at the 3/8mi oval. Dave, Vern Bliss and Todd Hoddick put on a show in the second heat of the night. Dave and Vern battled side by side for 10 laps as Bliss took the heat win by a matter of inches. The #51 Visteon late model continued to improve as Dave took home another 5th place finish. Dave got hung outside at the start of the race and dropped back a few spots but as soon as he got some racing room he started working his way back to the front. Dave appeared to have the faster car but had to settle for 5th as Bliss and Gault battled side by side and gave no room for Dave get by. Tonight was another positive night as we work our way to putting the #51 in Victory Lane.

Next week at LES 100-lap late model race on Friday and 25-lap TQ race on Saturday.

LRP Results 7/9

Another busy night at LRP for Dave and crew as the TQ midgets were on board for their fourth race of the year. Dave started 10th among the field of 15 TQ's. The #1 Englewood Collision TQ was hooked up again last night, Dave quickly made his way to the front and drove away from the field for the win.

The modifieds rounded out the night with 16 cars in the field. The Mods ran clean and completed all 30 laps without a caution. The #5 was struggling early in the race with a tight racecar, but as Dave got more laps on the tires the car really started to come in. Over the last 10 laps Dave closed a full straightaway gap but ran out of laps to make a move on McGrath for third. Looks like we found out 50-75 lap setup. Dave wound up 4th with Sege taking the win, Mangus, McGrath, Dave and Hehr rounding out the top 5.

LES Results 7/8

A full house of fans were treated to clear skies and 40 laps of green flag racing from the Late Models last night. The #51 Visteon Late Model team brought a completely new setup for this week to try to eliminate our handling foes. The new setup was a little off right out of the box but the crew continued to make changes and got the car pretty close by the end of the night. Dave had a solid run in the feature finishing 5th. It took a few laps for handling on the #51 to come in, so Dave dropped back a few spots at the start but once the handling came back we were starting to run the leaders down. Had there been a caution with a few laps to go we may have had something for them. All in all it was a good night for the #51 we now have a solid setup to build off of for next week. Vern Bliss took home the win after leading most of the race and holding off Glen Gault. Todd Hoddick, Jay Sommers, and Dave rounded out the top 5.

Modified and TQ midget tonight at Lancaster Raceway Park!!

Preview of this weekend

Lake Erie Speedway (7/8): Update...As of 3:15 we are still dry and racing tonight....
Another 40 lap Late Model weekly show tonight at Lake Erie. The #51 team went back to the drawing board and are bringing the Visteon Late Model to the track with a fresh set-up. There is rain in the forecast again for tonight but hopefully Lake Erie will fight off the weather like they have done all season.

Lancaster Raceway Park (7/9):
This Saturday at LRP we have another weekly modified show with the Super Stock mid season championship and the TQ Midgets on hand for another race in their series. Dave currently sits in 5th place for the Modified points, in a tight battle between McGrath, Mangus, Sege, and Hehr. We look to improve on last weeks 2nd place run and get back some of the points lost when we broke the engine a few weeks back. Dave is currently leading the points in the TQ Midget division and hopes to extend his lead on Saturday, Dave will starting from the back so make sure you tune in for some exciting action as Dave works his way to the front.

LES and LRP results

LES: 9th place in the Late Model
LRP: 2nd place in the Modified


Sorry for no detail on the races, I was a slacker and went out of town this weekend.

ROC Firecracker 75 Results

Another disappointing night of racing for the #5 Modified race team. We were all looking forward to our first ROC race of 2005, but it proved to be short lived. About 30 modifieds made an appearance at LRP for the 75 lap event. The bad luck started early as Dave had to start dead last (9th) in our heat because the #5 drew 99 out of 100 for starting positions. Dave began making his way up the redraw position but some rough driving between the 70 and 81 right in front of Dave caused him to back off and loose a position, he wound up finishing 5th in his heat. For the feature we would start 17th and right from the drop of the green Dave began picking off cars making his way to the front, until around lap 8 when Dave had to get on the breaks hard to avoid a spinning Karl Hehr in front. Dave swiftly avoided the wreck but in the process of getting the car slowed down the left front spindle broke at the tie rod end, RIGHT THROUGH THE WELD. Since the spindle broke simply due to the torque from getting on the breaks it makes you question the quality of the spindle. Since there was NO welder at the track yesterday (THANKS LRP) our day was done.

On a side note, I will be out of town until Monday so the results from LES tonight and LRP tomorrow will not be updated until then. Sorry.