It's been a Roller coaster year for us so far. I know we have only raced one time but we have also practiced the modified 3 times! We have been working and changing things on the modified a lot. We are determined to get this thing handling the way that it should. The weather was not good but we took a gamble that it would hold out because we needed to get the car on the track. It was a good gamble we practiced all day and then it rained on the way home. We unloaded and had the car teched. The tech inspector told us our car was the first one that passed 100% that just shows our outlook on safety first. The first practice at Monadnock was mostly to shake the car down and get some seat time. The engine is running awesome since we fixed it. The handling was more than a handful the first time out. We adjusted on the car to make it drivable at least but Bryon was having a hard time turning the car. We had recently changed power steering pumps and the flow and relief valves were not right for the high banking and big tires we are running on. Bryon said basically he was running with no power steering through the center of the turns and it was evident it was wearing him out by the end of our last practice. All in all a good first day at the track. We found later in the week that the right front shock was no good adding to the evilness of the car.

We worked on some different chassis stuff the next week to see if we could make the car better along with changing the parts in the power steering pump. When we got to the track we prepared the car for practice. The car felt better right off the bat to Bryon. We took 3/10th off our times from the previous week putting us in the 13.0 range, not super fast but consistent none the less. We maintained those times over both of our practices and got the car feeling better too. Bryon and I talked a lot about the feel of the car on the way home and had a few thoughts about what was causing the car to feel twitchy. We decided that it would be beneficial for us to go to Twin State Speedway on Sunday to try a few things and get more seat time. We worked on the car for a few hours redoing the rear geometry then loaded the car. We got to the track early on Sunday because they were having a car show and we thought it would be nice to show off the car. Thanks to the fans for all the nice comments. We hit the track and the car felt much more stable to Bryon with the changes we had made. Once again not super fast but consistent, I could tell he was getting a lot more comfortable in the car by the way he way driving into the corners. We came into the pit and Dwight Jarvis came over and made a few suggestions to us and there was no way I was turning down his advice. I did the things he suggested and the car started to come to life the next round of practice. He then made a few more suggestions and the third round of practice was by far our best one of the spring. Bryon was driving the car into the turn hard and smashing the gas in the middle it was the sound I have been looking for all spring! The last round we also found out we would need to make even more changes to the cars rear suspension if we wanted it to be any faster.

The next week we spent getting the pro stock ready for the season opener at Monadnock. Originally we planned on running the mod too but we decided we need a little more experience before we jump in with that group. The car was a rocket right off the trailer. We made zero changes to the car all night long. We started on the pole in the heat and lead most of it until Russ shot by us down the straightaway...things that make you go hmmmm. Anyway we were happy with the car and left it alone, we figured it may just be because we didn't put new tires on the car. We started the feature in fourth and slowly went backwards, the outside groove was horrible. We were back to about 7th when there was a wreck on the front stretch involving Ron "the animal" Smith and Brandon Ovitt. Brandons car was pretty trashed unfortunately. We moved up to fifth and watched the battle between Mike Parks and Russ Hersey. Meanwhile "the Flamethrower" of Barry Gray was out front, funny I have never seen regular gas do that? Russ and Mike got together on the frontstretch and Russ kinda went around then the caution was out. The next start was single file we were up in the third spot now, the car was starting to get loose into the corner now. The caution came out again and the cars were shown single file restart and the light were out. Barry was on the hammer as he was paying attention and Parks was not we about cleaned him out when I told Bryon the green was out. Bryon shot to the inside of Mike going into turn one and took the spot. We ran out the race that way Mike lost third to Russ on the closing laps. Congrats to Barry on his win we held on for second with a right front tire going flat, found a nice hunk of aluminum through the tread after the race. We were happy with the finish we figured we had a fourth place car and sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

This week we rained out but we will make our debut in the mod next week at Monadnock. The Pro Stock with probably be idle most of the season, we can't afford to run it on the purse that is being paid out unfortunately. We had a few sponsors in the works but it looks like they can't make the commitment with the economy the way that it is. We will run as long as we can, hopefully for the whole season!

May 19th We ran the modified this past weekend at Monadnock Speedway. We continue to struggle with the car but we have not given in just yet. The car had stretches where it was really going good then it would just go haywire. We talked to a few people and we all came to the conclusion that there was a bind somewhere in the car. Well anyway we started the heat race in the 6th position and made our way to the 4th spot missing the qualifiying spot by one. This put us in the 12th starting spot for the main event. We made a small change to the car and at the drop of the green we fell like a piece of lead back to about 20th spot. The car was a handful as we still have not solved the power steering problem and other evilness in the car. Bryon did a good job considering missing a few wrecks and making his way back to challenge for the 13th spot. The car was going pretty good then all of a sudden off turn 4 the car snapped loose and he went in the infield. At that point we decided there was nothing more to gain so we sat in the infield for the final 8 laps and watched Chris Pasteryak clean out Rob Goodenough. I guess it was true what we heard Chris say in lineup... he was going to the front no matter what. Sucky deal for Rob who has had nothing but bad luck this season. Congrats to Kirk Alexander on his win. We hope to have the car ready for this coming week. If we have enough time we will be there, if not see you in a couple weeks. We did find a bind in the rear of the car and that is fixed now we are mapping out the front geometry and that takes a long time to get it all right. 

Until Next time, Phillie