Come race time we still could not get stagger, these tires would not stretch, so we took out some cross and raised the track bar one turn to free up the car center out. Drew went out for the feature not knowing what he was going to get under him for a setup for sure. The car was very loose!! Drew did a heck of a job avoiding wrecks and moving up to the front. He even put a Midvale stripe down the front stretch wall, his very first brush with the wall with this kind of race car. No damage was visible and he said the car was actually better. The car was over heating some at this point, a problem we have had and tried to remedy every time we had a chance to put enough laps on the car to get it to do it. He continued his move to the front but after several yellows and 27 green laps into the race the car was over heating too much and he was forced to pull in. At this point Drew was in 8th place and still on the move, considerably faster than several of the cars in front of him.

The next few days we took the motor to Rhyne Competition Engines for a check up only to find that there was no heating problem there and the engine was in as good a condition as it was in at the start of the season. We deemed the overheating problem to not enough radiator capacity. We had put the radiator/oil cooler in the car that Port City recommended but most racers are running motors in the 600 hp range, not ARCA engines with 770 hp. So, this week we are putting an ARCA radiator in the car with a separate oil cooler. We also found something on the setup that we had overlooked which should get the car to work better in the corners. We will also cut about 100 hp from the engine this week by switching to a 390 carb.

Wish us luck as we head to the very small challenging Kil-Kare Speedway this Friday June 5th and then on to the special $10,000 to win race at Angola Speedway on Thursday June 11th. We are very excited about this race as Drew was on the pole and ran right up front the last and only time we had been there.

A special thanks to Aluma Trailers for the great trailer that gets us to and from the track, Elmer Schaeffer & Amsoil for the super lubricants, Impact Safety Equipment for great safety equipment, and Scott Baker at Baker Performance for getting us up and running again Saturday morning.

The Aluma Trailers, Amsoil, Impact Racing, Dodge Charger #21 Outlaw Late Model Team

P.S. Drew got his first fan mail from a young race fan in New Jersey requesting an autographed picture. Thanks to all you race fans out there!!

Saturday May 2 is the big day for Drew’s debut in the new class. Forty three of the best Outlaw Late Model drivers in the Midwest had gathered at Angola Speedway. Cancellation of the ASA race at Nashville had some top teams parking their Template Late Models for the weekend and pulling out their Outlaw Late Models.

Changes were made to the car and two sets of hot laps were taken on the track putting Drew 7th quick among the 43 drivers. Two more sessions were to be run but the team parked the car for the remainder of the tests sessions as the feel was good and the car was fast. With qualifying setup and sticker tires we should be in the hunt. Fourteen cars must qualify to make it in to the 100 lap feature on time, then the top three in two last chance races would make it to the feature, and finally 4 provisionals from last years points finish would round out the field. An invert of eight or ten would be drawn after qualifying to determine the pole and those eight or ten starting positions.

Drew blasted a lap around the 3/8 mile track in 13.94 seconds to put him in the 10th position, solidly in the show without having to come through the second chance races. Now the nail biting would come waiting for the draw, would it be 8th, or 10th place the starts on the pole? IT WAS 10th, and Drew was on the pole for the biggest race of his career in his first start!

The hard work, the years of racing, the hype, the parade laps, all came down to the start of the race. The outside car jumped the start by 3 car lengths, there was no restart, and the race was on. Drew fell into second place. After several laps and restarts from back marker problems, the race settled down for a few laps as one of the race favorites Jack Landis got by Drew. Drew’s car came in, he got into his rythem, and dogged the leaders showing them his nose several times with the front three breaking away from the rest of the field. A few more restarts saw Drew loose several car lengths to the two leaders at the start, only for him to quickly catch them and dog them hard. Then, things seemed to change, the brakes had been glowing red, the car started getting loose, and over the radio came “brakes are gone”! With this new “big bar soft spring setup a driver no longer sets the rear of the car in the corners, but drives it in hard, hits the breaks hard dropping the nose of the car to the track and hitting the gas as hard and soon as possible. And to add to that being faster than the two cars ahead and being patient takes a lot out of the brakes. Very disappointed, Drew pulled the car in to find not only a soft brake pedal, but the two speed Jerico transmission stuck in high gear and a bulging crack in the top cover and oil on everything from there back. The tranny was broke and oil had been getting on his right rear. And to make things worse we found out later that the two that had been running in front of Drew also had problems and dropped back. It was our race to win, Drew did his job, a part failure did us in.

It was disappointing to see our prized swap meet tranny break! It was very encouraging to see Drew qualify well, then to be one of the fasted if not the fastest car in the field. All told we deemed the weekend a success for Drew’s first race with the big boys, they knew he was there!

A special thanks to Aluma Trailers, Elmer Schaeffer our Amsoil Distributor and Impact Racing Products for letting us help them market their great products. Without their products and help our success would not be possible!