Race day had Drew starting in a very good position, fourth row inside.  Drew wasted no time driving up to the 4^th position.  Lap 5 would bring out the first caution with some of the up front runners behind Drew stopping for fuel including Bobby Gerhart who had been relegated to starting last because of his tech problems.  The caution would again fly on lap 7 with more people coming in for fuel.  Drew would move up to third and by lap 10 another caution with more stopping for fuel.  On lap 15 the caution flew once again and that was the first lap of our conservative fuel stop window as it was also going to be a stop for the two cars ahead of Drew.  We called Drew in to stuff the fuel cell and were back out on the track in and unenviable 33^rd position.  The race would now become a huge fuel strategy race.  With a few cautions Drew would be good to go, if not, it would be very close! 

            Around lap 20 there was one more caution then about 50 green flag laps.  What a nail biter having Drew back there in the second pack with a bunch of cars that were slower.  The good news is he had fallen in line behind the previous leaders of the race once again and they were a fast drafting group.  In this group Drew would move up as high as 17^th before the pole setter and leader of the group started having motor problems spewing water and oil.  Drew’s spotter moved him out from behind the troubled car and in a few laps that car blew up.  Drew now had to regroup with another pack, and at times ran by himself falling back in position to the lower twenties.  He found help to draft with and at times even passed cars on his own again steadily moving to a position in the mid teens and by now he had caught the lead pack.  Drew was very fast putting down the fastest laps of the race. 

            A yellow would again come out around lap 70 after this long green flag run and with several cars pitting moving Drew up to 10^th.   After restarting and running a couple laps the caution again came out and by attrition Drew would move up to 8^th.  A couple more green flag laps were run when a car two positions ahead of Drew spun.  The line-up would now show Drew in 6^th right behind 7 time Daytona winner Bobby Gerhart.  By now our spotter Kyle Harvey and Bobby Gerharts spotter would get their heads together and create a tandem that would change the outcome of the race very favorably for them.  The yellow flag would stay out till lap 81 which now had the race in overtime with a green/white/checker required to finish the race.  Fuel mileage would definitely come into play now, who would have enough to make it to the end?  The restart saw the pack single file on lap 82 with Drew still in 6^th as the white flag flew.  Down the back stretch the spotters and Bobby Gerhart signaled for Drew to give Bobby a shove at 190 mph.  Coming into turn three the duo took to the high side of the track and Drew gave Bobby the final push launching him 5 car lengths ahead of Drew.  Drew followed Bobby on the high side in his tire tracks as they made a daring final pass of the entire pack ahead of them.  Coming off turn four the leaders started slowing, running out of fuel as Bobby and Drew rocketed by to cross the finish line with Bobby taking his 8^th win and Drew in the runner up position!   What an amazing finish!!  Drew drove a perfect race, our strategy worked out perfect!  To come to Daytona with our Dodge Ram 2500 hauler pulling our 28’ Aluma Trailer, it was a victory for us, David had slain the Goliaths of ARCA!! 

            Drew would be the highest finishing Rookie of the Race and dad Andy would end up with the prestigious Crew Chief of the Race Award.  

            One last obstacle to clear to get home:  On a four lane segment of I95 in South Eastern Georgia we had a flat tire on the trailer.  The Andy Belmont team’s duelly and small trailer stopped to help and parked a few hundred feet in front of us.  Their crew van went to pull into the space between our rig and theirs and WHAM!!!!  Right beside our trailer a pickup truck rammed right into the back of the Andy Belmont crew van spinning it coming to rest just in front of our truck.  The pickup would flip and come to rest on it’s wheels about 75 feet in front of our truck across two lanes of the interstate highway.  Luckily everyone escaped with only cuts and bruises in a very violent crash.  As the injured driver of the truck was waiting for the medical team to arrive he declared that he took his eyes off of the road ahead because he saw a race car in the trailer.  Drew had just opened the back door of the trailer to get tools. 

            What an amazing week, a week full of miracles (believe! miracles do happen), plans that were executed, a driver that drove a perfect race, a race one would swear was being driven by a veteran rather than an ARCA Rookie in only his second start and his first time racing at Daytona.  The names that have finished this race in the top two positions reads like a who’s who of NASCAR drivers.  We need to put out a very special thanks to our marketing partners, Mike Lloyd & all at Aluma Trailers, Ben Bowsher & AgraGold Seeds, John Heitkamp & Heitkamp Crop Insurance, Elmer Schaeffer Amsoil Dealer, and Mid America Properties.  Without their support we would never have made it.  A special thanks also to the team: mom Cindy for all her support; Drew for his hard work, he is not only the driver but a major mechanic and the car owner; to Elmer for all his help; to Blake Shupe for all his hard work in the garage and on pit road (Blake was Andy’s right hand man all the time); to Troy Prentice, our rookie helper and catch can man from UNOH; to Bart Suchland for his great press releases; to Lanny Barnes and all the team at ECR Engines, what power!!; to Mike Dillon, Scott Naset, Stephen Keller, and all the people at RCR for a great car and their support; and to the PIT over the wall team.  Great pit stop guys!!!  AND THANKS TO ALL THE FANS, WITHOUT YOU, RACING WOULD BE NOTHING!!  THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!! 

The #21 and #28 D C Race Team

Contact:  Andy Charlson

Cell phone 419-305-3772

Updated Future Plans
We have purchased an FLF Outlaw Late Model race car to compete in the Main Event Series races. This race car won 5 out of six races in 2010 with Mike Stacy driving. This will give us the opportunity to have a “big” motor (close to 800 horse power) car for the tracks that require lots of horsepower and a “little” motor (close to 600 horse power) car for the short tracks that don’t take so much power. We hope to be championship contenders again. We are also currently in negotiations with Richard Childress Racing to purchase one Daytona/Talladega car and one down force short/intermediate track car. These Chevy Impala race cars are the ones that brought Ty Dillon to the ARCA Championship last year. The super speedway car sat on the pole last year at Daytona and Talladega and won the Talladega race. The down force car sat on the pole at Iowa Speedway and won the race this year. We have our Super Speedway Chevy Monte Carlo and our two Dodge Chargers up for sale. Our plans at this time are to run 10 to 12 Outlaw Late Model Races next year and 5 televised ARCA races including Daytona, Talladega, Iowa, Chicago, and Kansas. The schedule is open to change and all depends on sponsorship. More races are possible if sponsorship allows.

Thanks to Aluma for their help providing us with this awesome trailer, thanks to Elmer Schaeffer Amsoil Dealer and Amsoil for their terrific lubricants, and thanks to all of the fans that come out to see and support Drew!

For more information contact
Andrew Charlson
cell phone 419-305-3772
acharlson2@yahoo.com
or www.drewcharlson.com

Shady Bow Speedway, Degraff, OH
8/21/11
Today we come to Shady Bowl to finish out the race we started when Drew set Fast Time on August 7, but for some reason those that make the decisions chose to re-qualify the field. Shady Bowl is the worst wreck fest track we go to, but Drew is always fast there. Many drivers just can’t get it right there! I (Crew chief Andy) opted to save some money and only buy one (RR) tire to qualify on, the other three were tires we set fast time on two weeks ago, and still showed the nub and after cleaning I thought saving $420 was the better thing to do. I thought after setting fast time the last time we were there we would be good for a top 6 or 8 qualifying time! Not to be!! Well, it worked out it was the right call and the wrong call. We ran 12.9s on our old practice tires and with these tires I thought we would gain .2 to .4 sec and be able to be in the top 6 or 8 invert at least, which ever happened. Well, everyone was gunning for our fast time of two weeks ago and it was beat by a few, and WE qualified at a very loose 13.02, 12th!!! What a disappointment!!
Lots of beating, banging, crashing in two restarts, Drew avoided them all, and the third time we started single file. Drew patiently and methodically worked his way up to 4th, running the car at 60 to 70% in a lead pack that you could throw a blanket over. There came a restart, one of the non-regular series drivers, one that always comes in and thinks he is playing bumper cars, hit Drew from behind at the restart and the call was made to send Drew and the bad news driver to the tail. At this point Drew was back in 12th (again), with the bad news driver right behind him. After running several laps and Drew moving up to 6th place, the same guy rams Drew in the left rear quarter panel again and spins him out, both going to the tail again after Drew had started moving forward again and brought him along!
Then came the big event, the Owner and Director of the Main Event Racing Series walked onto the track during a yellow flag to talk with a driver and the car he was wanting to talk to ran over him!! He flew up in the air over the hood of the car, landed on his head, shoulder and arm, the ambulance was called in and the race red flagged forever it seemed. He was taken to Bellefontaine Hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion, broken wrists, and other injuries. A new ambulance came to pick him up, the ambulance that was at the track was again available so the race was resumed with 9 laps to go.
At this point Drew was again on the move and up to 6th place, with the leader again in sight!. The bad news driver was right behind him, had followed him up threw the pack and was again pounding on Drew’s back bumper, in a pack of 8 cars, does this make sense, running over a guy to pass him when there was no place for Drew to go but pick the other cars off one at a time, and there was opportunity if the guy had just been patient! This guy is the worst driver we see in the Main Event Series, every time wreaking havok and wrecking numerous cars each race!! I saw all this coming to a head and when he rammed Drew for a third time I just told Drew to pull over and let him buy, actually letting two cars by and relegating Drew to an 8th place finish. The car had been going away the last twenty laps and when he pulled the car in, the left rear wheel lug nuts had all come loose, one stud was broke off, the others were about to pull through the wheel, out about an inch with the wheel wobbling, and at 120 mph at the end of the straight aways!! That wheel would not have gone another couple laps, maybe not another lap!! No matter where we had qualified, this wheel most likely would have still been loose! Our impact wrench must be loosing it’s power, the last thing I (Andy) did was hit all lug nuts with the impact wrench before Drew went out!! Thank God!! No wonder things were not going right with the car, no wonder the car had got extremely loose.
Drew was awarded the Hard Charger of the Race and given a $100 certificate from All Star Race Parts for his efforts.

Midvale Speedway, Midvale, OH
9/3/11
The last race we ran here we finished 2nd and we thought we were well prepared for this one and hoped we could be running for the win! This is a heavy braking track, so we put new brake pads on the front and transferred the front ones to the back as they were not wore out and we wanted to use them up more. Wrong thing to do! Another lesson learned! Those used front brake pads had much more braking power than the new ones and we had too much rear brake and could not get it dialed out of the car during hot laps! When the rear wheels hopped coming into the corner it screws up the whole corner. After trying everything, I thought what the heck, let’s change back the brake pads to where they were, and it worked. The hot laps had passed us by, so we guessed at what it would take to make the car work, scuffed tires, made a minor adjustment and Drew did a conservative qualifying effort at 10th. He had more in it but didn’t push it hard since he didn’t want to do worse as he had only been 14th best all practice out of 22 cars.
At the start of the feature he dropped back to 13th being on the outside, some crashing on restarts, and was single file after a one lap caution. Drew started passing, first the 212 car, then Johnnie Jenkins, and a few others. Scot Baker was on the pole but broke something. Jimmy Carter broke early on too. Drew kept moving forward, had a good car, but peaked out right behind the series points leader Bud Perry. Drew was faster than Perry, but those old brake pads started to fade, and he ended up 6th. We worked our butts off, never have been that HOT, oh my gosh!! With a 2nd and a 6th place finish at Midvale we were the top average finisher among all Main Event Series cars here this year, and this had previously been our worst track!

The Main Event Race #24, Columbus, OH
September 23 & 24
Rain got us again! We were scheduled for a test session Friday night, September 22, for this big finale that pays $6000 to win and $1000 to start. Not to be again, we drove there only to wait hours for the drizzle to let up, but it never did. So, it was back the next morning to get two hours of hot laps, then qualifying, and finally heats. The feature would be run the next day. We had set the car up to test some new setup things so this will now get pushed off to a much shorter test session.
Saturday we tested three times with the new setup but the car just was not right although we were .1 sec faster than we had been last year in hot laps. We then changed back to what we had been running for a setup and gained another tenth with the car very good. We bolted on a set of sticker tires, did one scuff lap, made a few adjustments, and went out to qualify. DARN, the crew chief (Andy) made a wrong adjustment, the car hit the nose entering the corner and caused a push ruining our qualifying laps, putting us at 15th. The first 8 qualify in the feature, the rest come from heats, provisionals, or a last chance race. Drew started outside front row of his heat and finished 2nd, which would give him a 12th place starting position in the feature.
Starting on the 6th row outside is very challenging on a flat track like this as it is very difficult to get in line. Drew got passed by a couple cars before he fell in line and the field completed one lap before there was a spin out at the rear. There would be a restart with Drew in the 14th position. He worked his way up to tenth, the car was very good, he was keeping up well with the top guys and ran there for about 50 laps. The front guys were duking it out, so he just road there, with a lot more potential in the car. About lap 70 the car started to miss, the caution flag flew a few laps later and the car was just sputtering around. Drew thought at first the motor had blown up. I told him on the radio to keep it running some how, the race restarted, it got a little better but about lap 85 the miss got really bad, and he slowed a bunch. Drew got lapped a couple times by the leaders and lost two places on the track. He would finished 12th.
The car died as he pulled it off the track, the battery was completely dead.
I had picked up a brand new Optima battery just two days before and fully charged it. The last one went to crap also, actually the last three have went to crap. We had a new alternator, we should have been no problem, but, there was, and there is! We had a much better car, what a shame. Earlier in the day two cars that were ahead of us in points had trouble and would drop out of the feature in the last two positions. We had an opportunity to move up to third in points, but not to be. Drew would end up 6th in the final points standing.

Year End Wrap Up
For the year in the Outlaw Late Model, Drew ended up gaining two spots in the points standings of last year where he finished 8th. He was 10th the year before. He set fast time once, and had a career high 2nd place finish at the tough Midvale Speedway which had been one of our worst tracks. Things looked real promising early in the year, even though he got wrecked at Sandusky hard, Drew was tied for the points lead after the Midvale 2nd place finish. A eighth and a couple of 12th place finishes were the ones that really cost us, although 12th was Drew’s worst finish. Previous years our worst have been much lower. This year our qualifying was also much improved. At the final race of the season we were still within mathematical reach of the championship if all things went our way.
On the ARCA side of Drew’s racing, we got the awesome experience to test at Daytona and actually qualified 39th for the race. Unfortunately there were a lot of cars there and they take 11 provisionals for those that do not qualify on time and he got bumped out of the race by one position. Drew also tested the same car for the Talladega race but we did not go there to race as we figured we were not fast enough, however, Frank Kimmel was about the same speed as we were in the test and he finished the race in 2nd so that tells us how important the draft there is. Drew is entered in the final ARCA race of the year at Toledo Speedway October 15 & 16. Sponsorships are still available for this race. Anyone interested can contact us at the number or this e-mail address.

Our Plans Moving Forward
For next year we need to work the hardest on our sponsorship search. Securing more sponsorship will allow us to be even more effective on the race track, and will result in better exposure for all of our sponsor partners. Our plan for next year at this point is to expand the Outlaw Late Model racing to include some ARCA Late Model races. If funds allow we may purchase another Outlaw Late Model so we can have one “big track/big motor” race car, and one “small track/small motor” race car. We also have three ARCA cars ready to go, a short track car, and intermediate track car, and a Daytona/Talladega car.
Our short term plans are to run the short track car at the ARCA finale on Oct. 15 & 16 this year, test the Daytona car at Daytona December 16 – 18, race at Daytona mid February 2012, and test and race at Talladega in early 2012. We have firmed up plans for more races, but want to do at least three more ARCA races next year, Iowa, Chicago, and perhaps Kansas. Our plan to pick up our speed with the Daytona car is to take it to the Gerharts in PA, go through it, and upgrade it as needed. Bobby Gerhart has won Daytona 7 times and Talladega once, they know what it takes to win there. These ARCA races are all televised on Speed Channel and get very good coverage and viewership. Sponsors will definitely get their money’s worth!

Thanks a whole bunch to our loyal sponsors Aluma Aluminum Trailers, Amsoil and Elmer Schaeffer dealer, and All Star Race Parts for their Hard Charger Award.

Andy, Cindy and Drew Charlson
The #21 Outlaw Late Model and ARCA Team
Cell phones 419-305-3772 (Andy) & 419-305-5369 (Drew)
www.drewcharlson.com
acharlson2@yahoo.com

Shady Bowl Speedway, Degraff, Ohio August 7, 2011
We had not run that many races this year and Shady Bowl had an open practice set up for Saturday August 6 from noon till 5 pm, so we decided we would take it in and get some seat time for Drew and dial the car in for Sunday’s race. It was a nice partly cloudy day in the high 80s, about the same as it was forecast to be on race day. We hit the track about 1:30 pm, the same time that the cars would qualify on Sunday and started doing 3 to 5 lap qualifying type runs. Immediately Drew would hit stride with 13.2, 13.1, and 13.0 sec. laps. Last year we qualified for this same race with new tires at a 12.96 so we were immediately in the ballpark speed wise and the car was pretty good, but needed some minor adjustments. We went out two more times running 4 or 5 laps each, with a best time of 12.93 and 12.92 each time respectively. Some cars had put on new tires and bested our times slightly, but we were the fasted car on old tires. We quit practicing as the 200 lap tires we were on were shot in the heat of the day on the slick track. We loaded up, took notes, parked the trailer there for the night and went home to get some rest.

Race day Sunday August 7 saw more practice times like on Saturday. We did a shake down run resulting in another best time of 12.92, went in and bolted on our new tires, and hit the track with a 12.66 time! WOW! And the car had a push. With a couple slight adjustments we were expecting a 12.4 to a 12.5 sec. qualifying lap. The track record for these cars on this track is mid 12.5s. The sun was hot, in the low 90s with no clouds in sight. Drew was 5th out to qualify and put down a lap of 12.79 seconds, the best of the bunch so far. He announced over the radio that the car had turned to “junk”, it was “loose as crap” in his words! Low and behold the track had changed that much under the hot sun and his time would hold to be the top qualifier for the day! Drew pulled an invert pill of 8, which would put him on the outside fourth row to start the feature. We made some adjustments on the car to prepare it for the race. An hour before feature time the skies opened up in a down pour that lasted off and on for over an hour. We were rained out again!!!! The race has been rescheduled for Sunday August 21, gates open at 10:30 am, qualifying at 1:30 pm, racing at 3:00 pm.

So, here is the schedule score sheet to date: Angola Rained out, rescheduled for August 13
Barberton Cancelled, track owner died
Sandusky #1 Wrecked but finished 6th
Columbus Rained out, cancelled
Kil-Kare Cancelled due to lack of race sponsorship
Midvale Finished 2nd
Sandusky #2 Rained out
Shady Bowl Qualified 1st, Feature rained out, rescheduled for 8/21/11

Our next race is this weekend at Angola Speedway.
Practice Friday night, August 12 from 5 to 8 pm
Racing Saturday with gates opening at 1 pm, hot laps 3 to 5 pm, qualifying at 5
pm, racing at 7 pm.

Thanks everyone for your support! Special thanks go out to Aluma Trailers for the awesome trailer that gets us to Daytona, Talladega, Charlotte, and all the Main Event Series Races and to Elmer Schaeffer Amsoil Dealer, for all the super Amsoil products.

Andy, Drew & Cindy Charlson
The Aluma Trailers, Amsoil, Mid America Properties Outlaw Race Team
For Sponsorship Information call 419-305-3772
3 Webster Place
New Bremen, OH 45869

We Make Improvements
As of today’s date we have made improvements to the body, exhaust, engine oiling system, and the setup. We should have the speed to make the show and if not, because of rain or something unforeseen, we now have the points to get a provisional. Now the biggest challenge of all is closing the budget gap of around $10,000 so we can make the trip to race at Talladega. We are scrambling to connect with marketing partners that wish to have a package to showcase them on this Speed Channel televised race.

A special thanks to our current marketing partners Aluma Aluminum Trailers and Amsoil Lubricants, Elmer Schaeffer dealer.

For more information and our complete 2011 schedule, go to www.drewcharlson.com and for sponsor information call Andy Charlson at 419-305-3772 or e-mail acharlson2@yahoo.com.

Sandusky Main Event Race 5/21/11
Before last Friday night, one race out of the five we originally had on the Outlaw schedule has been run. The good news is we were fast at Sandusky , we picked up ½ second qualifying over last year. The changes we made to the car over the winter had paid dividends. Drew Qualified in the sixth position and with an invert of 8 he would start in the 3rd position. There was some rough driving at the start and the result was Drew got shoved back to the 6th position. By lap 36 of the scheduled 75 lap race the threatening rain started to fall. Officials kept it green with the racers slip sliding around through lap 38 which got the race over ½ way, then they red flagged it as it started to pour. There was an hour delay to dry the track and the race would then restart. The outside groove was not completely dry and there was no passing, Drew would hold on to the 6th place through all of this, then about lap 55 the 4th and 5th place cars would start to heat up the battle. They both went high where the track was still wet, Drew ducked under them, the #7 of Rich Roher would loose it, spun, and hit Drew in the right side sending Drew into a spin and backing him into the wall destroying the body on the car. The race would be red flagged and not restarted reverting the finish back to the previous lap where Drew was scored 6th. That left us leaving the track 6th in points, a far cry from where we were in previous years after race #1.

What We Have Been Working On
We got busy putting a new body on the Outlaw car, it is now green and black, and we are preparing an ARCA car for the Iowa race on July 16th. We put one of those nice big Aluma stickers across the hood of the Outlaw car as well as smaller ones on the quarter panels. Amsoil stickers adorn the nose and quarter panels. We are still short around $18,000 in sponsorship to make that Iowa race so it is still up in the air, but time is very quickly running out. We are getting down to the wire to get the car done and tested in 10 days. With the partial sponsorship we currently have, it brings the cost down for a sponsor to get on board for a nationally televised race on Speed Chanel. If anyone is interested please give Andy a call.

Drew Makes New Bremen School Appearance
Drew was invited to the elementary school before school was out to a career day where many people from the community came in to show the kids what they did for jobs. There was a ton of interest in the race car and Drew as racing is a hot sport in this area. I have enclosed a picture of the Outlaw car after the crash, and that is the good side! I also included a few pictures of that elementary school career day with Drew and the kids and a picture of the Outlaw car with the new body. See the Photo Gallery on the Website.

Midvale Main Event Race 7/1/11
It was a hot muggy day today for our second Main Event Series Race at Midvale Speedway. The new owner has done a massive amount of improvements to the facility, paving all of the pits, new concrete pit pads, new grand stands, & sidewalks. WOW!! What a beautiful facility!

In the first hot lap session we were not fast as this was basically a shake down for the car with the new body, new “small” 600 hp motor, and some changes we made to gain speed. Between the first and second times out we thrashed some quick changes and Drew got the car down a couple of tenths of a second but not near enough. We were 17th quick out of 31 cars. Between sessions we changed out the carb, and thrashed on the chassis more, gaining a couple more tenths, now on old tires we were close to where we needed to be, but were now 20th fast. We needed to qualify in the top 14 to make the feature without running the consolation race. We bolted on a set of new tires and scuffed them two laps, changed the carb back, getting us into the 13.9 second area, still a couple tenths off from where we figured the pole might be. We made more adjustments, added a little tape to the grill and went out to qualify. WOW!! Third place at a 13.81 with about 8 cars left to go out!! That would get us in the show for sure without having to get in through the consolation race and use up our stuff. There were a few fast cars among that last 8 which moved us back to 7th fast qualifying. A ten invert was pulled that resulted in a 4th place starting position for Drew.

The race saw a couple side-by-side restarts, with Drew having to race Tim “the Iceman” Ice on the outside several laps to allow him to drop into the third position. Midvale weekly regular Late Model racer Rick Sibila would be Drew’s next target as he pulled the #21 Aluma Trailers, Amsoil, Mid America Properties Chevrolet under the #63 car and would race him for several laps coming out on top and in second place. By this time race leader Jimmy Carter had pulled out a lead but a yellow would bunch up the field. Another problem arose as the very fast pole setter Rich Roher would now be on Drew’s tail. An anxious Rich wasted no time giving Drew a bump and with his .2 faster times, was able to get by Drew in a few laps and drop Drew to third. On lap 38 of 100 Rich’s car over heated and he dropped out moving Drew up to the second spot once again where after many yellows and restarts he would finish. We simply didn’t have enough for the quick Jimmy Carter who has won 4 out of 4 template car races this year and is one out of two in the Outlaw Main Event Series. Our “little” motor was bogging considerably off the corners keeping Drew about .1 of a sec off of Jimmy’s fast pace. This was a record high finish for Drew in the Main Event Series and moved him into a share of the Main Event Series points lead with Scott Baker.

What’s Next
Our next race for the Main Event Series is July 23rd at Sandusky Speedway where Drew has finished top 6 all of the races we have run there. The Iowa ARCA race is July 16th if we should run it, keep watching www.drewcharlson.com for details. If we don’t run that one we plan to run the Lucas Oil Raceway 200 Lap ARCA Race in Indianapolis on July 28 and the Toledo ARCA race October 16th, all contingent on sponsorship. We will be running all of the Main Event Racing Series Races that are on the schedule as we are now a contender for that championship. See www.maineventracingseries.com for more info.

We hope to talk to you or see you somewhere at a race track soon. On July 17 we are having a graduation party for anyone that wants to come in Swea City , Iowa at the Immanuel Lutheran Church for Drew and his Cousin Molly who graduated from College.

A special thanks to Aluma for their support and the SUPER aluminum trailer!! It pulls so nice and easy I forget it is behind us when towing and the bigger size fits our needs perfect! And a special thanks to Elmer Schaeffer for the great Amsoil products that help us make it through these tough hot races with no problems.

Andy, Cindy and Drew Charlson
The #21 Aluma Trailers, Amzoil, Impact Racing Products, Mid America Properteis Outlaw Late Model Team
cell ph 419-305-3772
3 Webster Place
New Bremen , OH 45869

Five team members, Drew, dad, Larry Hollenbeck, Dennis Fiebel, and Matt Looft along with sponsor Amsoil dealer Elmer Schaeffer, headed for Daytona early Sunday morning January 9^th.  We arrived at the speedway, got signed in and parked Monday January 10^th, and unloaded the Aluma Aluminum Trailers, Amzoil, Impact Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo race car and equipment at 7 am Tuesday.  There was a considerable amount of setup work to do on the car and we didn’t hit the track for a shake down run till mid afternoon.  Drew took a conservative few laps at 164 mph, found a few bugs, the car had a considerable push, and we had a vibration causing the car to jump out of gear, so he pulled the car back in to the garage for improvements.  Time ran out and this would be the only test session to be run today.

Wednesday we were prepared to hit the track again and found a sputter in the motor and a considerable push and still a speed of 164 mph our first time out.  Two more times out would result in the same sputter and speed.  We did however find we had a bad drive shaft, replaced it, and solved the vibration and jumping out of gear problem.  At this point the Penske Development Team, Hixson Race Team, and the Roush Team all offered a helping hand to solve our problems.  We found that we had a rev limiter in the ignition box that we had not used before that was set at 6500 rpm.  After resetting this, Drew went out and set a speed of 181.316 mph at 49.637 seconds which at the time would put him in 19^th place on the speed charts.  He got a bit of drafting in later in the day and would finish the day at 26^th on the speed charts, only two places back from 5 time race winner Bobby Garhart!  

Thursday, our final day of practice we will change the gear and free up the car more as Drew said he still has a push that is an 8 on a scale of one to ten.  We feel that with this gear change we could see another improvement of 4 or 5 mph.  Look to www.arcarracing.com for live streaming and results of Thursdays test session and go to www.drewcharlson.com for more information and future updates.

A special thanks to our fine marketing partners, Aluma Aluminum Trailers, Amsoil dealer Elmer Schaeffer, and Impact Racing Products.  We also want to thank Matt Looft for taking a ton of time off to be an awesome crew member. 

For more information or to become a marketing partner for the upcoming Daytona Race contact Andy Charlson, cell ph 419-305-3772 or acharlson2@yahoo.com.

There was a practice Friday afternoon before the race and we wanted to try some things so we took that in.  We made some nice improvements and ended the practice session a couple hundredths of a second better than we qualified at the Main Event points race mid summer.

Saturday morning the pace picked up with only three practice times on the track so we put two new tires on the right side to fine tuned things a bit the first time out as the weather was much cooler and partly cloudy vs sunny Friday.  The car got considerably tight.  We made an adjustment and went out again and were now .15 seconds faster than we had qualified last year, but not fast enough to be in the show where we wanted.  With the help of former Main Event Series Champion and Main Event Race Winner Rich Rohr, we made another adjustment, put on our new set of tires, and went out for a scuff lap.  Drew said the car was good, the time was not where we wanted to be as he got in traffic while doing his scuff lap so we could not be sure what we might qualify at but he thought he had a few tenths left in it.

Drew went out to qualify and he put down a 13.13, which is way better than last year, BUT the clutch went out during that run, rpm went up 700 more than normal, and Drew said we must have left .2 or .3 on the table.  There were about 10 cars in the 13.0 to 13.1 range, the pole was a 12.9.  Soooo we ended up 12^th and had to get into the feature by way of the heat.  Drew would start outside front row of the first heat.  We put in a new clutch in less than ½ hour, put on the outside tires we used in hot laps, and away we went in the heat race.  Drew fell into second place with Mike Stacy close behind and that is where he would finish.  He would start the feature in 12^th place.

We put the qualifying tires back on, along with a new left rear, made a couple minor changes and went out in the feature.  The first lap the guys up front got in a mess and a bunch of cars piled into them.  Drew some how drove it through the mess and got a bonus moving him up to 6^th starting position.  Things were looking real good with Drew running 6^th till about lap 30 when things started getting really loose.  He made some adjustments from the new in-cockpit adjuster which helped but about lap 70 there was a yellow, he made an adjustment and I guess we found out where the adjuster goes really loose because that is what happened and three cars got under him.  About lap 80 the battery started going dead.  Next year an alternator goes back on, we could not even run the tach when he pulled in the battery was so drained.  Drew would make a last lap pass on the outside to finish the race in 8^th place.

The finish was fourth among Main Event Series regulars in this final event which helped move Drew up to 8^th in the final points standings.  If it would not have been for the broken timing gear the practice night before the first race at Angola we would have had a top five points finish!

Thanks to all our fans and our sponsors, Aluma Aluminum Trailers, Elmer Schaeffer your Amsoil Dealer and Impact Racing.  Without your help and support none of this would be possible!   We had a learning year with the new car getting faster as the year went by.  We feel we left two or three poles on the table, we were fastest in happy hour at Kilkare and hit the rev limiter too hard in qualifying settling for 4^th, then got crashed passing for second going for the lead.  At Shady Bowl Drew had an awesome qualifying lap going and the nose bottomed out hard, then we got wrecked again while in a good starting position.  Drew started on the pole at Erie Speedway and led the first 36 laps of the race before the car got too loose and he could not hold off a few cars behind him.  We just got too aggressive freeing the car up.  We really thought we had a shot at the pole at the Main Event Finale, and that darn clutch!

Next year we plan to run the Main Event Outlaw Late Model Series again as well as a few Great Lakes Outlaw Late Model Series races.  We will again put 3 to 5 ARCA races on the schedule.  We are aggressively seeking marketing partners to help us make this happen.  We currently have one ARCA race car completely ready to go for the first race at Toledo, the Mansfield race and then the second Toledo race.  We have a line on a great Penske intermediate car that will be very competitive and if we have some success selling two or three of our unused race cars we will be running that car at the televised ARCA races at Chicago and Michigan.  These televised ARCA races provide a marketing partner much more bang for their buck than the ARCA short track races.

We know what we have to do to make the Outlaw Late Model faster next year now, and with a little luck and the continued support from our great sponsors and supporters, next year will be a GREAT YEAR!!

Thanks a bunch everyone!!