8/15/06 IA State Fair
Monday Night Notes...
A cool evening for August and State Fair standards brought fans
and racers alike to the 2006 IA State Fair on Monday evening.
Both the pits and grandstands were packed. Once again we
drew bad, had to start 10th in our heat race. We came up
to 5th but missed the invert by one position once again.
We would start 14th in the A-Main. The track turned out to
be really slick once again with the high car counts. But
for the most part the track was smooth and you could race on it
if you had a good car. So we threw everything we could at
the car since this was a non point race to see if we could learn
some things about car setup.
Jeff did an outstanding job driving feathering the throttle in
the slick spots and the car seemed to react to the different
things we tried. We ended up coming through the pack
fairly decent. Normally you can figure on 3-4 cars in
front of you having problems and falling out. As luck
would have it, on this night that didn't happen. Everybody
raced clean and the couple of cautions that happened were wrecks
behind us so we had to work for every position we got on this
night. The last couple of laps we ran down the leaders and
were all over defending national champion Damon Murty but just
couldn't get by him. We ended up 7th at the checkers the
same position we finished at the State Fair Day race on
Saturday.
We feel like we had one of the fastest cars on the track and we
just started too far back challenge the leaders until the end.
That's something we've struggled with all year. Not making
the invert in the heats and then having to start mid-pack.
We're always fast in the features and still moving forward at
the checkers. We've lost out on many feature wins and top
4 runs because of that. So we'll keep plugging away to
improve our program for the future. Next up is Boone on
Saturday night to do some more R & D on our short track program.
Results
1 62 Rick Gustin, 2 9V Luke Veren, 3 3W Jeff Wollam, 4 57V Mike
VanGenderen, 5 90 Leland Mitchell, 6 99D Damon Murty,
7 11ss Jeff Johnson, 8 81X
Randy Killen, 9 43s Greg Shepherd, 10 B1 Russ Byriel, 11 44 Todd
Fisher, 12 3H Ty Hill
For official results and stories for all classes go to:
IA State
Fair Speedway Official Website
For info on the IA State Fair go to:
Iowa State Fair Official Website
8/13/06 Weekend Notes...
Saturday morning-
We
raced at the IA State Fair which is one of our favorite races to
race at. The atmosphere is always great and a few racers
from other tracks usually come to race with us as well so the
competition is always tough. If you can do well at this
race it makes you feel good. This year track officials had
a few problems with the track. They had put several truck
loads of new dirt on the track and unfortunately they had
problems getting the new dirt worked in because of the cooler
than normal early morning temps. In the end they had to
scrap all the new dirt off and then the sun came out which made
the track slick and dusty like the norm for this race.
They must be commended for their effort, just didn't work out
the way they planned. Hopefully they've had time to put
the new dirt back on to make a good racetrack for Monday's race
and races for the rest of the year.
Also the norm for us, Jeff drew terrible and we had to start in
the rear of our heat. It mostly was one lane and we fell
sort of making the invert. So we started 16th for the main
on a dry dusty racetrack. Made a few passes early to get
into the top 10 and worked our way to 7th by the end of the
race. Towards the end of the feature it was mostly one
lane around the bottom. Jeff was reeling in the 4th, 5th
and 6th place guys but just ran out of time. We were
disappointed cause we wanted to do better but all in all it was
an ok run for us. Congrats to Ricky Brown on the win.
Hopefully on Monday the track conditions and our luck in drawing
for starting positions will work out better for us. Should
be a good show to come out and watch with the late models and
dirt trucks in attendance as well.
Results
1 75 Rick Brown, 2 62 Rick Gustin, 3 99D Damon
Murty, 4 55 Steve Hill, 5 11 Steve Campbell, 6
29 Mike Todd, 7 11SS
Jeff Johnson, 8 7B Eric Stanton, 9 5H
Ronnie Hill, 10 25J Josh Daniels, 11 81X Randy
Killen, 12 9M Terry McBowell
For official results and stories for all classes go to:
IA State
Fair Speedway Official Website
For info on the IA State Fair go to:
Iowa State Fair Official Website
Saturday evening-
We decided to try our hand at
Boone on Saturday night for the first time in about 10 years.
We used to race there weekly back in 1996 and 1997. Won a
couple and finished 4th in the points in 1997. Boone is a
first class facility and we always enjoyed racing there plus the
racers, track people and fans are just the greatest in our type
of racing. Ran into lots of people we hadn't saw in quite
sometime and got the chance to catch up with them. It was
lots of fun.
Since it was the first time there for us this season, we had to
start in the back of everything. The Boone officials had
the track in great shape. Jeff got into his short track
driving groove relatively quickly and the car performed
relatively well. We just need to get a little bit better
in all areas. Running short tracks is a lot different than
running the big half miles. We missed the transfer spot by
one position in both the heat race and B-main. We really
wanted to make the A-main but just couldn't get the job done.
Considering we hadn't been on the Boone track in several years,
having to start in the back of everything and all the fast
teams/drivers that race in Boone...we had a good first night
back to learn or re-learn a few things. Plus it was just a
lot of fun to be back at Boone. Next week we'll have a
front row start in the heat race. With a few changes on
the car and as Jeff gets more comfortable we're looking forward
to going back to see what we can do and hopefully learn some
things for the upcoming IMCA Boone Supernationals.
8/5/06 No Race This
weekend...
There was no race this weekend in Des Moines due to the State
Fairgrounds people getting ready for the IA State Fair. So
let's take a look at our 2006 season and talk about our plans
for the rest of the year...
For the most part we've been successful. We won mid season
championship night to give Jeff his first win since 2001 and it
was also the first ever win for the SS Racing team. We've
had other strong runs as well. 1 second place finish, 3 third's
and one fourth place finish. Pretty much no matter if we
start 10th or 17th...we generally get the car up in the top 4.
On 3 nights where we finished 6th, 7th and 9th...those nights we
were running strong, probably would have been three more top 4
finishes but those races were shortened by 4 or 5 laps because
of the time limit that Des Moines has. We've only had
three nights were we didn't finish. 2 crashes and broke a
ball joint one night while we were running third. Those
misfortunes resulted in a 15th and two 16th place finishes.
Then we had two other bad nights. One was when we had a
motor lay down on us finishing 16th and the other one was when
we got spun out with two laps to go while we were running 4th
and finished 17th.
Our consistency has resulted in us leading the points at Des
Moines most of the year. We were in control of the point
race but now unfortunately we have lost that luxury. There
is only one point night left at Des Moines. Now we find
ourselves 5 points back. We will not only have to have our
stuff running well to pull the championship out but the stars
will have to be aligned and hope the two guys in front of us
both have bad nights on the final night. Stranger things
have happened. We'll just show up, run hard and we'll get
what we get in the points race. We'll be starting third so
we have a shot at another feature win. On the final night
there is no heat races, just a feature that will be lined up by
points.
One Race At A Time...
The rest of the year we're taking one race at a
time. It all depends on how we finish race
to race and what type of purse money we pull in
as to how many of the year end specials we'll
attend. Here's a tentative schedule for
the rest of the year and what we'll run if
everything goes as planned.
Aug 12th- IA State Fair Day Race (non point
race)
Aug 12th-Boone Speedway (night)
Aug 14th-IA State Fair Deery Bros. Race (non
point race)
Aug 19th-Boone Speedway
Aug 26th-Boone Speedway
Sept 1st-IA State Fairgrounds Season
Championship
Sept-4th through 9th-IMCA Boone Super
Nationals
Sept 22 & 23-IA State Fair Speedway Fall
Special
