Sunday, October 15, 2006

I’ve actually typed several updates over the past month, but I can’t seem to get them uploaded to the site. I’m trying to at least type stuff up while I still have some recollection of the events as they transpired.

I’m trying a little something new tonight. I bought a new little toy (a flash drive) and I’m sitting comfortably in my recliner in the living room typing up this little piece on Carrissa’s laptop. Hopefully, I will then be able to dump the file to my new flash drive and do the uploading from my main PC. I just wish I could be really high tech and have high speed internet with a wireless router and then I could be online anywhere in the house or even the yard. I guess I’ll just have to settle for dial-up Internet and a peaceful view of the country.

This little piece is going to focus on the Butler Speedway Racer’s Rumble. It’s comparable to the Dealer’s Choice races that we’ve run in the past. Many different tracks have started running the multi-class shows at the end of the regular season, so it’s no longer such a great tradition, but it can still be a lot of fun if the races are run well and you approach the weekend with fun in mind.

The schedule called for qualifying on Friday night, heat races and dashes on Saturday and all the features to be run on Sunday. Scott had to work, and I spent the day trying to get everything packed for the weekend. I also had to slip uptown to partake of a quick couple of Bingo games at the Auburn Free Fall Festival. We were fortunate enough to have our best friends, the Pifers and the Sroufes up to the track early so they could save us parking spots. It was the first time all year that I didn’t have to worry about running to the back of the pits if we needed to change a tire or something.

Scott and I got there about the same time. I went out to hotlap with my Street Stock tires on, and the car was loose as a goose. I came in and Travis made a tire change for me before qualifying. When I qualified, I just concentrated on not screwing up or spinning out. I really didn’t even have the opportunity to get fully into the throttle for fear of losing going into the turn. When I came in to the pits, Scott was not a happy camper with me because he didn’t think I was trying. Of course this ticked me off to no end, so when I went out as a Sportsman, I tried to get into it as hard as I could and was absolutely awful through the turns. After I finished that lousy couple of laps, I found out that I actually had fast time as a Street Stock, but I qualified slower with my Sportsman tires on. Turns out that was the pattern of the day though, Scott timed in with fast time in the Sportsman class, but his time as a Limited Late, with bigger tires was a slower time also.

Saturday was a rainy cool day and we weren’t sure if we’d be able to get the races in or not. They let some late arrivals time in, and the track was considerably quicker. I lost my fast time in Street Stocks and several other fast times were set on Saturday. Scott held on to his fast time for the Sportsman class though. We added another little wrinkle to the weekend and Scott hopped into the #37 of Mark Pifer to qualify and run it as an Open Mod. He really misses being able to run that class.

Heat races… let me see, we’ll have to go a class at a time. First up was the Open Mod, Scott started out pretty well, but the car was real ? and he dropped back to a ? place finish.

Next up was Street Stock and I had second quick time, so I got the pleasure of starting 9th of 10. I was trying to carefully make my way around a very slick race track and promptly got hit in the … !@#$ left rear, and spun in turn four. In the hopes that the field would not come around and run into me, I re-fired the car and got turned around just in time to realize that the yellow flag didn’t come out. CRAP! I put the pedal to the metal and was supposedly holding my position in the front of the pack, but of course I was technically last. Just wonderful!

Just so you don’t think I’m full of myself, I can’t really expound much on Scott’s races because we were busy changing tires, fuelling, and fixing anything messed up on the Camaro as soon as the car came off the track. Next up was the Limited Lates for Scott, he started in the 7th spot and I really am glad that we had such good pit spots so I could at least keep track of how he was doing. He got up to 2nd place before the checkers flew. As soon as he came in, the flurry of activity shifted to his car as we added lead, changed tires and added more fuel to get him ready to go.

I was up in the first Sportsman heat since I timed in at 25th of 32, or something like that. Of course I was just fast enough to start dead last in my heat. Things were definitely looking better though, I was a rocket coming off the corners and managed to come up through the field to finish 2nd. Scott started 8th in his heat and also charged to a second place finish.

That took care of the heat races for Saturday night, and since only the heat winners got to run in the dash, we were done for the night. Sunday morning brought a beautiful sunny day and the promise of a typical dry slick race track. Not my favorite. I had to get ready to run first, because I stunk so bad in my Sportsman qualifying that I had to run the B. Only two cars would transfer and I started in 8th spot. The track was definitely slick, but the car was still pretty good and I managed to stick with my old saying, “If you have to run the B, you better win it!” It’s kind of depressing to be happy with winning a B, but I still enjoyed the winner’s circle.

Scott started out the A’s with the Outlaw Late starting in spot #5. All of our teammates of sort, were also in the race. On the first lap, the #56 of Randy Archer decided to go for a spin and managed to collect all 3 of the team cars (#37 Scott driving for Mark Pifer, #21 Tod Pifer, and #12 Terry Sroufe). I hope someone got a picture of that! Tod and Terry both had flat tires, but Scott managed to come out okay. He led most of the race until a right rear tire started going flat and he succumbed to the blazing fast #12 of Terry Sroufe.

Next feature out of the chute was the Street Stock A Main which I started 15th. The dust was horrid, and visibility in turns 3 and 4 were next to nothing. This was proven when someone drove straight into the left rear of my car on the first lap. It absolutely shredded my tire and I limped up off the track where Travis and the guys changed to the only tire I had for a spare. I restarted on the tail, a whole 2 spots behind my original start position and came up to finish 5th. Not what I wanted, but not bad considering Travis said that tire was definitely not what I needed on a dry slick dusty track.

Next up was sending Scott out for his Limited Late feature. He started in the #7 position with a bunch of really fast cars. I again, was busy getting my car ready for the Sportsman feature, so I didn’t get to watch any of the action other than when he went through turns 1 and 2. I saw him make the pass for the lead and he held off some of Oakshade’s finest for the win.

Last but not least for the Gaff team, was the Sportsman feature. Scott started in 10th, and I started 17th. The sun on the back stretch combined with the dust on the track made the race one of the most treacherous I’ve ever competed in. I thought I was just being a whiner, but Scott said he almost pulled off and told them to postpone it for 15 minutes while the sun set. Since I was in the back, I just tried to find the track and prayed there weren’t any cars sitting where I was going. At the start of the race, you literally had no idea where the 3rd turn was. I almost ran over the cone on the backstretch a couple of times because you just couldn’t see anything. I was scared to death that I would run over Stew (the backstretch flagman) when he was standing on the track. I never thought I’d say this, but I was really glad that they had so many cautions, about halfway through the race, the sun went down far enough so you could see most of the backstretch and the turn and I finally started racing. I got up far enough in the field where I could watch Scott make the pass for the lead. I remember thinking that I should NOT be watching the race while I’m in it. I started trying to make my way past some of the cars and managed to get up to 6th spot.

It was a pretty good weekend, but we were all exhausted by Sunday night. I announced that I was retiring from the racing ranks and Scott finally agreed that he’d call it an end to the racing season for 2006. We’re looking forward to the Butler Banquet on October 28. Maybe I’ll find the time to tell you about some of the fun and games that go on.

Come visit, or stay tuned for the results.