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The week leading up to The Copper on Dirt USAC National Midget opener was a long one. Team Gurney Racing had to pretty much build a car in a week. The brand-new engine we bought from Fontana Automotive would not fit properly into our newly purchased Beast chassis. The oil pump was hitting the frame rail on the left hand side so we took it to Beast to make changes to the tube. We worked long hours over the weekend to get the car ready to leave for Manzanita Speedway by Tuesday afternoon.
We weren’t able to fire the car before it left because the streets of Brownsburg were covered with six inches of snow. We tried to fire it Friday afternoon at the track, but come to find out, there was a bad electronic wire that led from the Mag box to the timing.
We were able to concentrate on the race car after fixing the electronics. The car felt great in practice, and I was ready for the heat race where I would start eighth. I would get up to as high as third before we had a fuel pick up problem in the middle of the corners that dropped me back to a fifth-place finish. With the way passing points worked and where I finished, I had enough points to get one of the 20 locked positions in the main event on Saturday.
We fixed the fuel pickup problem and cleaned the car Saturday morning in the hotel parking lot. We headed to the track in the afternoon to get ready for the 30-lap feature. The top 20 that was locked in got one practice session before the semi’s. I rolled off 18th on the starting grid.
Through the first five laps of the race, I wasn’t gaining any ground on the competitors running the high groove. I started to pick off cars when I changed my line to the bottom of the racetrack in turns one and two. Davey Ray’s engine in one of the famed white #9 cars blew up, locking his rear end and sending him in a slide right in front of where I was committed to going in turn three. We made contact, and I rolled over knocking out the front end. The race was over.
The car felt great before the accident, and I was happy with the way we preformed. We’re looking forward to racing the entire USAC National Midget Series schedule this season. I just want to thank all my family, friends and sponsors that made the trip to Phoenix happen!
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