Ocean Speedway season opener, April 16, 2010
We had 31 Winged Injected 360 Sprint Cars signed in, so it was going to be a battle just to make the field for the 22 car Main Event.
Hot laps started out great, Devon looked real fast & comfortable with the car. The track appeared to be going away pretty quickly, so we tightened him up for qualifying. We adjusted the car too much, & he just wasn't able to turn very well. We ended up with a very disappointing run that put us near the bottom. It was going to be a long night. Devon had complained that the car seemed to be missing, but we couldn't hear anything, & didn't find any problem.
There were 4 groups of heat races. We were in the 4th group, started 7th & finished 6th. The top 4 would transfer straight to the A-Main; the rest would be seeded into 1 of 2 B-Mains. Devon looked OK, but again claimed that he felt he was down on power, & the car was just slightly missing coming off the turns.
We were scheduled to start 4th in the 2nd B-Main, which would be 12 laps; the top 3 would earn a transfer spot to the A-Main. We made some adjustments. In the staging area, Devon wanted to know who was on the front row, & inside of him, & said he was determined to take one of those spots. He just wasn't ready to call it a night.
When the green waived, the top 4 cars started well, & began to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. Devon was closing in on the 3rd spot, & on lap 3, he had caught & made a move on the 3rd place car. The car tried to fight back, but came into turn 3 too hard, & spun himself out. On the re-start, the top 3 cars were pulling away. Devon had a chance to take 2nd, & had it for about a half a lap, but the other car retook the position & Devon settled in just wanting to make the transfer. As they were getting ready to take the white flag, Devon had trouble coming out of turn 4, & seemed to slow. The car in 4th was making a final challenge, but Devon held on, making his car wide, to take the final transfer spot. When he came in, he again complained that something was wrong with the motor, as he felt like he just didn't have full power coming off the corner.
A full inspection found that we did indeed have a plug wire that had actually backed of the plug. The boot visually appeared to be connected, but the metal contact had backed off. We all felt pretty bad that we could have missed that. I think that it was intermittent all night, & finally just came unplugged during the B-Main.
OK, we would be starting dead last (22) in the Main , but we didn't care. It felt like a victory just to make the show, considering how the night went.
This year, Sun Electric Corp is sponsoring a "Hard Charger" award at each race, with a 100.00 bonus going to the driver that advanced the most positions in the Main . This is about all we had to shoot for. Our goal was to try & earn a top 15 finish, the hard charger award, & stay on the lead lap.
The fans were treated to some great racing, & at the end of the 30 lap feature, Devon had moved up to 12th, earned the hard charger award, & barely stayed on the lead lap. The entire team felt like we had salvaged the night with a respectable finish.
