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Off the Wall Racing©
A Winner on Track
Race Recap Archive
10/7/00 Race Report
Well... last race of the season showed us a sixth place our best finish of the year and what a dismal year it was for us. On the positive side, I've got to extend my thanks and gratitude to my new good friend Matty and his dad Dave who bailed me out of several bad spots. Also a big thanks to all who helped with the car this season. Apparently last week we only turned 7 green flag laps which means that we went from 17th to 9th in 7 laps. That's not that bad.In warm ups it looked like we we second quickest and the car felt pretty good. We started fifth in the heat and worked our way to a second place finish with a right rear that was going soft. The tire had lost a pound and a half over the 8 lap heat when it usually gains about a half. We had no spare tire so we put some extra air in the tire for the feature. In the feature we started inside of the second row and got a real good jump on the initial start which evidently was too good of a start as it was yellow flagged. On the second attempt the leader got jumped by the outside pole sitter and they let it go. On this start we got bottled up down low, missed a gear and got shuffled back to seventh. We got one spot back and the motor started going soft as we were able to flat foot around the track. (Normally we burp it once or twice just into the corner.) The car loosened up as the right rear lost air and we changed our line to adjust, finally finishing in sixth. I think that the Suzuki has seen its last run in my car. I'm not sure what we'll be doing next year so check back over the off season to keep up on our news.
9/30/00 Race Report
Seems like forever since I've had a car that has been running right. The set up that Kevin put in the car for Matt last week was pretty sweet. The track was dry/SLICK and a horrible push resulted if you got off of the bottom of the track into the loose dust in the upper groove. We started in ninth in the heat and finished sixth after blowing a restart with only a few to go. The motor was better but still was sluggish on the bottom end. We had Kevin look at the carb and made a change. We started seventeenth in the feature. The race director ended the race because of the time limit. I'm not sure how many green flag laps we turned but I never saw the half way flag. So I'm pretty sure we didn't run more that 10 or 11 laps. We finished 9th with the car running pretty well so, I'll just say "Thank you Lord."9/16/00 Matt's (unedited) Race Report
We 9/16/00- I'm getting better we started the practice at the very back, as all rookies do. the track started off very wet and slick and quickly turned to dry slick conditions. we had trouble finding the line but towards the end of practice i was getting more confident in my driving style(although everyone told me i wasn't doing very well).we made tire pressure changes for the qualifiing race and we started and finished at the tail of the feild. i got my pilots wings in the heat race as i was going through turns three and four and the right rear got bite and shot me straight into the inside birm. i landed on all fours in front of the race leader tim bertrand, the motor still running, i put my foot "in it" and went to finish. in the pits kevin tefft came over and said that the car was leaning to the wrong side. so we switched shocks and raised the front end to try and cure a "wondering" racecar. in the main i started dead last, AGAIN, we were passing a few cars and the car handled the best it has for me. the motor never gave me problems and we motored on home 14th out of 23. so all in all i would consider it a VERY good night at the races. i would like to thank brian for letting me run the car again after the "incident", also i would like to thank kevin for all the setup advice as well as letting me use the carb and "black box" again. i would like to thank my crew joe and eric. thanks, and looking forward to the 250/650 show(hope the motor doesn't fumble on brian!!) matt "the thrasher" (my comments... congrats Matt. 14th place out of 24 after restarting from the rear of the field everytime is pretty good. just remember look at the shocks (they are labeled) if you take it apart again.9/9/00 Race Report
We had motor trouble and the track was coming apart. As usual we were fast in the warm ups and the heat before being plagued by motor problems. We've really got to find some sponsorship money to get the honda done. I'm off next week and if Mat and Super Dave can get the car running they'll be at the track. Keep out of the way high stuff and throw the car Matty.9/2/00 Race Report
Tonight we let Matt drive in appreciation of all the hard work that he has done. I was a little nervous about it at first because I wasn't sure if we had fixed the motor problem. I got to the track late and Matt and Super Dave changed the carb to one that Kevin Tefft had lent us. The problem resurfaced in the warm-ups and we then changed the "black box." The car looked like it was running fine in the heat race and Matt looked good except he was running through the corners too high. Which is common until one learns how to "throw" the car into the corner. Matt used the way high line to avoid a spinning car, lost traction in the loose stuff and caught the backstretch wall HARD. The car was too damaged to be repaired for the feature. We'll probably be back next Saturday but only after Matt has a very busy week. Matt will probably be back in the car for the last show of the season which is the 250/650 combined event. Thanks to Kevin Tefft for helping with the carb and the electrics.8/26/00 Race Report - My Disaster Season Rolls on
We got to the track and had trouble putting the motor on and missed the warm ups. "Super" Dave banged his head on the wing and became an official crew member. There were no heat races tonight so we drew for position. Fittingly for the way this season has been going we drew number 43. We started 20th and had to dodge a couple of wrecks that were very close calls. The hightlight of my night came when I was complimented on my driving afterwards. We made it up to 10th before the skip came back and we pulled off of the track. Kenny Ives Jr. tells me that he suspects that we have been running the fuel mixure too rich because it gets worse as the motor warms up. We'll either fix it or melt the piston trying next week. (That was supposed to be funny, I however am not laughing.) Thanks again to Matt, Dave, Claudia and Kevin.8/19/00 Race Report - No racing
Waah! no motor. The ARDC midgets are with us at the Whip City Speedway next week. Don't miss this show.8/12/00 Race Report - Whip City
Matt, Claudia, Zach and I were looking for a good result this week. The track was in terrible condition (the worst we've ever seen) as it had rained about four inches the previous night. My car seems to like the bumpy tracks although I do not as it usually beats you up pretty badly. (Not to mention that it is tough on equipment.) It was not possible to drive around the ruts as they developed in two and four from the bottom of the track up to the top. We were pretty good in the warms, not loosing ground to anyone except for when we tried the way high groove. We started tenth in the heat and avoiding as many ruts as we could gained a few stops and finished fifth. We changed the main jet in the because the motor seemed like it was not making enough temperature. We went out 13th in the feature and the motor laid down on the first lap. We putted around till the first caution on the third lap and pulled in for a nineteenth place finish out of twenty five. We took the motor off of the car and gave it to Kenny Ives Jr who said that we should keep the motor and sell the car because we already had a pretty good boat anchor. But seriously, we do have a 2000 Honda that is just waiting for some money to "make her go." Anyone want to sponsor a racecar? Also it looks like we've been offered a deal that we can't refuse on a new car. Did you know that racecar is the only word in the English language that is spelled the same backwards as it is frontwards? Well, I hope that the motor is fixed by next week so that we can go racing... I'll let you know.8/5/00 Race Report - Whip City
First the good news. Crew members for tonights race were Crazy Jay, Matt and his dad "Super Dave" as well as Claudia and Zach. Billy and his new family came for a visit. In the warm ups the car was very fast and the prospects for the race looked good. We had put the new axle in as well as a new right rear rim with a different offset. This enables us to move the hub out an additional half inch to compensate for the push. In the heat race we started 10th and were running really well. We moved up several spots before we hit "the rut" and got loose into the cushion tagging the wall with the right rear. This made the car really loose and we finished fifth. Back in the pits we saw that the damage was that the left rear birdcage was moved over about two inches. Matt and "Super Dave" thrashed on the car to get it back into shape. The locking collar on one of the two bearings looked a little questionable but we thought that would be ok. We also made a small air pressure adjustment to the right rear. We started the feature in 18th and moved up to around tenth and had good prospects of running top five as the car was running fantastic (the motor was strong and I could drive the car high or low.) Now the bad news. I had been avoiding "the rut" that had become much worse in the 4th corner but in an attempt to get by a car for position, we hit it and the locking collar did not hold. The birdcage moved and the car got really loose and was jumping through the corners as the left rear suspension was binding badly and we struggled to a 12th place finish. I'm not even going to mention that the kids locked the keys in the truck. Well, if the car holds together next week (after we replace the bearing) we should do pretty well.
Check out these two pics at the whipcityspeedway site of the flip from last week.
7/29/00 Race Report - Whip City
Back after several off weeks. Yay, the motor is finally fixed and Matt's dad Dave showed up to "watch" (he did more helping than watching and we appreciated it.) Warm-ups showed us that the push was back in a big way so we made adjustments. We also had to thrash on the brakes because I had none. We started last in the heat race and finished last.... not good, the push was MUCH worse. We were also first hand witness to a really scary flip right in front of us. For the feature we made air pressure adjustments, flattened out the wing, tweaked the ride height and made spring changes to the right front and the left rear. We started eighteenth in the feature and started working our way to the front. Along the way we had contact with another car that flatted the left front tire. On one of the restarts I got a great jump and passed three cars. Then while running in tenth place with about three laps to go we had BIG contact with another car which bent the rear axle and the right rear rim badly. We struggled to a tenth place finish and were happy for it considering the condition of the car. This is starting to get expensive. I think that we probably had a top five car without the incidents but... that's racing. I've ordered a rim, an axle and some bearings so that we can go racing next weekend. Anyone want to sponsor a race car?7/1/00 Race Report - Whip City
We got to the track and put the car out for warm ups and we were as fast as anyone. The usual push was non evident and we were looking forward to a good night. Thrasher Matt, Claudia, Zack and Lynda were on hand to help. We started on the outside pole in the second heat and on the start were attemping to pass underneath for the lead in the second corner when the leader's car popped out of gear and we got into him. Neither he or I spun but it bunged up the field behind us and a yellow was thrown. The field had trouble getting the race going as there were incidents on the next three attempts at the start (with one car getting on top of another ripping its hood off.) The race director mandated a single file start and we finally got going. Sometime early in the race the motor developed a skip that was not allowing the motor to put out full power. We still finished fourth and immediately went to work trying to find the cause. We tore down the fuel pump, made a low end jet change in the carb and went through it, we changed the plug and fixed a faulty wire connection. We were scheduled to start on the outside pole in the feature but dropped to the rear of the field as we did not cure the skip and did not want to cause a giant pile up on the start. We finished last as we pulled it into the pits on lap four when it was evident that the skip was not going to go away. The bad luck that we had was experienced by quite a few cars as several cars flipped and a few more had other problems (only eight cars were running at the checkered which is very unusual for the 250's.) We are on vacation next week so we won't be back to the track for at least two weeks.
6/24/00 Race Report - Whip City
- Gone Fishing -
(not really, i was quite ill)6/17/00 Race Report - Whip City
Matt "the thrasher" Rzewnicki came to the rescue again helping out in the pits. I'm gonna have to make that kid crew chief! I've also got to thank Zack and Claudia for pushing the car up for the push off. The track was good in warm ups with a lot of bite out of the corners but it promised to break up in the corners which it did. The track crew didn't touch the track between warm ups and heat races so the track was BuMpY. We ended up with a fifth place finish in the heat and qualified for the feature. We figured that they would grade and water the track before the feature and so, made a small spring rate and air pressure change and opted not to change the panhard bar. The track that we got was not the smooth track that we expected and we ended up with a small push which was actually quite drivable. We started on the pole and lost a few spots back to fourth before we figured out our line. Contact with another car attempting a slide job in turn four flatted the left front tire. If the car had been neutral to loose, it probably would have been OK but with the car being a little pushy, the flat tire amplified the push. Instead of pushing out of the corner the car pushed bad going in and was getting loose out of the corners. This condition worsened as the tire lost pressure. A few more laps and we would have had to park it so we had to settle for tenth which really wasn't that bad for what we had. The bad news is that last week was double points and with a DNS we went from seventh to twentieth in the points... bummer. I'm going to change the rings this week so maybe we'll look for a little more power next week. Till then, Ta!
6/10/00 Race Report - Whip City
Mechanical failures were the words of tonite. Matt earned the nickname "Thrasher" tonite and even though disaster awaited he did a stupendous job and earned my respect and thanks. I got to the track late and we went to work changing the gear and got the car done in time for warm-ups. The car was very good in warm-ups with a small (you guessed it) push. A wing adjustment and tire pressure changes were made to the car. We started third in the first heat but got bottled up behind the pole sitter and ended up fourth before we finally got around him. We stayed there the whole way up to the last lap. It seemed every one up front was pretty even and due to the track we all had a tough time getting good speed out of the corners. The pack came up on a lapped car in the groove on the white flag lap and everyone passed him high until I got to him and he decided he would move high and I hit him in the rear nerf and spun him. My car threw the front sprocket, the seal collar and the chain on the restart and we could not finish. We did not have a spare collar but after searching the pits we finally found one and got the car ready for the feature. I had to put the dinged up chain back on the car and I knew that there potential for trouble was great. We were to start 22nd but had the same problem on the formation lap and I watched the race from the infield. What really hurts was that guys that I was faster or just as fast as that started in the rear of the field finished in the top five. We've got a bunch of work to do on the car this week and anyone willing to help can give me a call (hehe.) My thanks again to Matt for helping and watching my little girly girl while i was in the car.6/4/00 Race Report - Whip City
Well I guess the track was the big story again tonight The weather was not kind to the new surface this week and it broke apart in all of the corners even in the heat race. I started shifting to fourth in warm ups and that seemed to be the way to go so we left the gear alone. We did make a small change to correct a (what else?) push condition out of turn two. In the heat race we started third and got a tremendous jump to the lead in the outside of turn one but had trouble holding the outside groove and ended up fourth. The problem with the car surfaced as the gearing. The car was out of power (not pulling) at the end of the straights and when we shifted to fourth the motor was just below the power band and was not pulling like we needed it to. As I was unsure of just how big of a change to make, we left the gear alone for the feature and made a change to the right rear spring and bumped the tire pressure. We didn't change the gear because I knew that it was fast in third gear but that I would be giving up some speed and the bottom groove mainly into turn one. We started third in the feature and ran second with a straight-a-way lead on third, but the track went away fast and my push redeveloped. It turned out that the right rear tire lost four pounds of pressure after contact with another car, explaining the push. The sun and dust was terrible down the back straight we could see pretty much nothing for the entire length of it. We got passed but we also did some passing in turn and ended up seventh so we are still gaining ground on the handle of the car. All in all, not bad for the condition of the car with the tire going down and the gear being off. The radiator has developed a small leak and a problem with the transmission may be surfacing so we'll have to get those thing checked out. This week we WILL be making a gearing change to the car. Thanks again to Mike and Chris and Matt.5/27/00 Race Report - Whip City
What an up and down night. Mike Hanlon is very close to signing on as full time crew chief he is currently negotiating the package deal for himself and his son Chris. We are also close to getting a new sponsor.
In the warmups we still had a push, so we made some adjustments for the heat. I drew the pole in the first heat (which stacked up to be the toughest heat of the night), I finished fourth, (still with a push) even though I probably had a second place car. The track crew put down a TON a water before the feature and the first corner was not ready for racing when the green flag fell. This was evident when cars flew off the track in the first turn and off of the back staight. We started the feature on the outside pole and ran well in second for about five laps. Then the driver made an error in the first corner getting in too high into the wet stuff, had to pedal the car and went back to fourth. I made a few more errors, once getting into the wet stuff again in turn one loosing a couple of more spots and then clipping the burm in turn two which bound up the motor coming out of the turn. Well a ninth place finish isn't great but we're gainin' on it.
The good news is that we did have a top 5 car but the bad is that we had a ninth place driver. We should run much better next week after changing the gear, putting on a new right rear, taking our vitamins, eating our wheaties and spending about two hours cleaning the clay off of the car.5/13/00 Race Report - Whip City
Well, as Billy has been sidelined with a injury I'm hoping Mike, Chris and Steve will become regulars because they all performed excellently and despite the eventual outcome we all had a good time.
The car had a small push in warm ups which I think we dialed out (with Kevin's help) and I drew the seventh position starting slot in the first heat. I lost two positions on the start but got one back on the next lap. The motor stumbled going into turn one on the next lap and then gave up the ghost out of two. I've never seen a bigger cloud of white smoke out of a 250. Fortunately the damage appears to be minimal and we should be in action again on May 27th.
contact me at
mrspeed@efortress.com
