The fall, winter and spring months have been filled with several swap meets and trade shows where we represented our sponsors and sold much of our inventory of used race car parts.  This is the time of year where we move out the old unused parts and make room (and get some cash also) for the new.  We had a very good swap meet in Canton, Ohio last fall, then it was on to Indianapolis, Indiana early February, back to Canton for the big spring meet, and finally the last one in Lima, Ohio in late spring.  We had our eye on a new race car but we still had the Kenyon midget for sale as well as last years Outlaw Late Model, three engines, our out grown tool box, and several other major misc. used parts.  Over the winter the swaps meets were very slow, an obvious sign of the economic times.  I told Drew that we could buy the new chassis only if we sold our old one first and it came down to that final swap meet in Lima where we got an interested buyer and a down payment.  A week later the cash was in hand but it is now late spring and only a few weeks till our first race.  We made a down payment on a new chassis and the next few weeks would see us working every available hour to get it put together.  At about the same time we sold one of our cycled out ARCA motors and made a purchase of what we thought would be a nice small block Chevy engine allowing us a much better balance of weight in the race car as the ex-Cup Dodge engines are about 90 pounds heavier than the small block Chevy.  The next few weeks would see us sell our old tool box, another cycled out ARCA motor, swap our midget for a complete sprint car operation, and finally sell all of that sprint car stuff in one fell swoop.  We now had the cash to put together a complete new race car except for the used motor.

Our first test at KilKare Speedway saw the new car take off very well, it showed signs of speed and Drew felt the handling was much more solid than last years car.  BUT, on lap 17 the bolts pulled out of the panhard bracket on the rear end causing about $800 in damaged parts and the end of our practice.  The following week we got it back together and tested again at KilKare Speedway very successfully, making small adjustments and getting some very good times, putting in around 45 laps and feeling real good about our first race at Angola the following week.

We tested again the night before our first race May 8^th at Angola, got 3 laps in and the oil pump on the motor froze up, ending our practice session and our hopes at making the first race and the chance to run for the Main Event Series Championship!  Bummer!  The motor was dead, a broken timing gear put us out, the motor was taken out and brought to Rhyne Competition Engines to be rebuilt in only 10 days!  We had no time to test any more, barely got the motor in the car in time to make the next race at Midvale on May29th.  With the late start getting the new car going and all the trouble we had with it and lack of sponsorship we had to cancel the Toledo ARCA race we had on our schedule for May 23.  We have also taken the ARCA race off the schedule at Iowa Speedway July 10 for the same reasons as well as no time to get a good shakedown of the ARCA car at Toledo before hitting 160 mph at Iowa.  We still are planning on racing the ARCA races at Mansfield and Toledo later in the year but Rockingham is most likely now off the schedule too.  The Main Event Series had had to cancel races at Mansfield and added one at Sandusky.

Midvale Race May 29

The weather was great, a bit hot at 85 degrees as we pulled in to the Midvale Speedway May 28^th at 5 pm to practice for the 75 lap Main Event Race number 2 the next day. We hit the track three times with the car running very good and times to reflect that with best laps in the 14.0 range.  Before we would hit the track one last time with a full fuel load dark clouds came up, we loaded the car, and a down pour got us a little wet.

Race day saw a “green” track and some tweaking of the setup as we were only 23^rd fastest out of 26 cars that first hot lap session.  Next time out we improved to 15^th fastest and the final test session scuffing in out new tires we were 7^th quick and back to our 14.0 speeds of the day before with some to go in the car as it was very loose now with a little more stagger in the new tires than we really wanted.  The pole last year was a 13.8 and we were confident we could have a shot at a front 6 or 8 start if we get the loose fixed.  Our first qualifying lap was a 14.1, the second lap saw Drew wiggle considerably off turn two with the same result!  We didn’t get the loose out of the car with the adjustment we made and ended up 15^th fast where we would start.

We made a right rear spring change and sent Drew out for the feature.  At the drop of the green flag Drew took it easy, there were a couple cautions before we finally got started single file.  Drew came over the radio “the car is perfect”!  He bided his time through several cautions moving up to around 10^th when the longer runs started.  This is a very heavy braking track and from the spotters stand I could see that the front brakes were cherry red and the rears were not!  A bad sign!  He also came across the radio saying the car was missing, which turned out to be a plug wire but kept Drew from driving as hard as he wanted.  Drew went high to make a pass as he thought it would stick, but found that by now with the brake situation he had more rear brake than he wanted and almost spun loosing about 4 positions on the track.  He adjusted his brakes to give more front and continued to survive and move up through the field to finish a very respectable 7^th behind Gary Whipkey, Don Harvey, Jr., Mike Miller, Jimmy Carter, Donnie Hill and Charlie Schultz, all very respectable and good drivers.  The really good news is Drew brought the new car home with just a very minor dent in the right rear quarter panel.  A good shakedown outing for the new car and a driver still a bit rusty in his first race of the season.  With a little improvement to the car we will be faster!

Now it is on to the third race of the season June 4^th at KilKare Speedway.

Thanks a bunch to our sponsors Aluma Aluminum Trailers, Amsoil and Dealer Elmer Schaeffer, Impact Racing Products, and Mid America Properties.  Without their support we could not be here!