Midvale Speedway – 7/3/09

Back to Midvale Speedway for the second time this year. The first time we broke the rear end bad the night before in practice and just made it in time to get two quick hot laps in, did not qualify well, were fast in the feature but overheated about lap 30 and had to drop out. This time it took some time to get dialed in and we were fast running 14.1 sec in the final hot laps on old tires (the pole today would be 13.8 sec). We put on the new tires, taped off, and qualified at 14.4 sec. very very loose and 18th out of 26 cars. Where did it go? We are now figuring the taping off is just getting us too loose and will just have to quit doing that. The new tires alone should have got us easily in the top 10.

The tape came off and that change brought back the car we needed. Drew moved up to 14th in about 20 laps and was making a pass for 13th , the car he was passing couldn’t handle it on the high side and spun out. Rules are that if two cars are involved in an altercation causing a yellow and no one accepts blame they both have to go to the tail. The guy wasn’t even close to Drew but that is the way it is. At the restart Drew was behind this loose guy and now two others, all four running nose to tail. A few laps into the restart and the two cars in front of this foursome spun together and there was no where to go but into them for the guy ahead of Drew and we crashed into the rear of that car taking out the nose and radiator. A 19th place finish was not what we were looking for today. On to Sandusky Speedway next week.

Sandusky Speedway – 7/11/09

A torrential rain came down this morning backing up loading the race car till it stopped which caused us to get to the race track later than we wanted. We just got the car out of the trailer, everything ready, and fired it up to make it for the first hot laps in time. This put a squeeze on time as we usually have our new tires picked out and mounted by now. Drew no more than got on the accelerator in the first hot lap session and he spun between turn one and two. “The power steering quit” came over the radio. The car was leaking fluid so it was pushed in. We found a power steering hose had blown out of it’s fitting due to improper installation somewhere previous to our ownership of this car. The underside of the car was coated with oil which got on the rear tires causing the spin. Thank heavens this was in an open space in hot laps and no damage was done. We had just put a new radiator in the car this past week and it seems like the air was not bled out of the system and we also noticed a crack in the seam of the cooling system overflow tank that was shooting out a fine stream of water. What else could happen?

We now had our work cut out for us as qualifying was in about an hour. The power steering hose was shortened and put back together and filled with fluid but we had a tough time getting it bled. The car was cleaned of oil underneath as best we could. We filled the radiator with water but the split overflow tank had yet to be repaired and it was now time to qualify. The officials let Drew go out on the track for two hot laps to test the car and get a feel of the track as he had not been up to speed yet. The power steering was not yet bled enough and was making the steering wheel pulsate back and forth when the car was on the track. We had this problem earlier in the year and it actually took a few laps to get the air bled out. Now it was time to qualify, the steering was not bled, the steering wheel was pulsing back and forth and we had no new tires mounted. We just had our 100 lap practice tires on the car. Drew went out and gave it a cautious two laps and qualified 16th out of 24 cars. He came in and said “Dad, I was only giving it 70%”! The car felt real good but still a little pulsing of the steering wheel, we had this overflow tank leak to contend with and the air not completely bled out of the cooling system. Now the question is “should we buy a set of tires of just start at the back and pull in after a few laps”?

We went to work on the over flow tank and bleeding the cooling system, found a welder that fixed the tank, needed a gear change as we were running 8700 rpm and were not at all up to speed in our two hot laps and qualifying, and added more power steering fluid and worked on bleeding that. No time for tires but we got all the rest done and ready for the feature, but still on our 100 lap practice tires. We had not touched the chassis at this point and would not. Drew says “lets start in our original 16th position and see what happens, the car is good”! So we did just that, started a 100 lap feature on 100 lap tires!

Drew fell in line and started passing cars almost immediately and over the radio came “everything is good”! Drew continued passing cars and was up to 8th place on the lead lap when a caution came out. He asked how many laps left, I said “35 to go” and he said “tires are gone”. Drew was actually still faster than the cars ahead of him and passed two more when another yellow came out. There was two laps to go, he was holding off 4 time champion and two time winner this year Gary Whipkey and behind him the Barberton winner Don Harvey Jr., and ahead of Drew was Harold Fair. Drew has been holding off the two behind him for 20 some laps and had caught Harold Fair’s from a ways behind him. With one lap to go Drew pulled it down under Fair’s race car and into turn one. Harold Fair came down on Drew, the pass did not work, and that is where we had to finish. By this time 200 race laps on his tires, one of 8 cars on the lead lap, and only running .1 to .2 sec. slower than the leaders. This tied our best finish of the year and given the hectic time we had to get there we were very pleased with the results, a win for us without winning the race. This same night we would hear Joey Lagano win his Nationwide race on old tires. Drew would comment “now I know what it is like to stay out on old tires”.

A special thanks to: Aluma Trailers for the awesome aluminum trailer, Elmer Schaeffer for the awesome Amsoil lubricants, Impact Safety Equipment for their super driver gear, and Scott Baker for helping us with parts and a setup for Sandusky that was right on.

For more information contact Andy Charlson
cell phone 419-305-3772
toll free 877-272-8179