July 1st, 2008
June
wrap-up: A little bit of sunshine between the storms
(on the track)
What an exciting,
disappointing, nerve wracking, frustrating 2 weeks.
Our team continued to search for the missing handle on
the #5 SST Modified. The 75 lap Weekly Modified
special had Terry starting near the rear because of
points handicapping as we don't run the same class
each week. At the green flag the high powered car spun
the wheels and caused havoc to Terry and those behind
him as he spun on the front straight (I bet the video
is exciting to watch). Restarting from the rear,
Terry's night would begin to look like all that could
be looked for is a mid pack showing, but once again
Terry's driving talent took a 12th place car and
brought it home to a 5th place finish (although with
some wear and tear that needs attention before we
return). Clearly that finish was more due to Terry
than the car. Another piece of good news was the
return of Jody London driving the SST #89 to a worthy
13th place out of 22 cars. We can now start working on
the handling of Jody's ride and watch him continue
moving forward.
The following week was
the fantastic Fan Appreciation Night at Spencer with
half price admission combined with the twin 25 lap
Touring Mod show features plus a regular show plus the
Antique racers. The crowd was huge, the weather was
hot and unknown to us, soon so would be our team. This
evening would be the first main event for the #50 ROC
Modified piloted by Terry and we had Kris Hillegeer in
Terry's #11. Terry took advantage of some wheel
banging between Buck Catalano and Tony Hanbury and
stole the lead at about mid way. Terry would extend
his lead but a caution with 5 laps to go changed
everything. A rough driving penalty moved the second
place car back two spots which put Hanbury on Terry's
rear bumper. For 4 laps Terry fought hard to hold off
Tony who made several outside attempts. On the last
lap hard contact was made going in to the first turn
resulting in Terry recovering from a spin but bouncing
through the infield and recording a 10th place finish
while Tony received a 2 spot rough driving penalty and
a 3rd place finish. The "heat" rose as the
teams conducted minor car maintenance on the front
straight and words were exchanged between crews,
drivers and officials. In the end, cooler heads
prevailed as there still was the 2nd feature to be
run. Mixed in to all this excitement was Kris
Hillegeer's 8th place finish in his Rookie debut!
Nothing short of fantastic although not so surprising
a result. He's that smooth.
In the second 25 lap
event Terry started 9th and he quickly moved up
through the field. By lap 20 (which was really 55 laps
of total wear and tear) all competitors were fighting
worn out tires and here is where Terry's skills showed
again. He muscled the #50 in to 3rd place giving Buck
plenty of trouble as Buck worked over the leader
Hanbury. At the checkers it was Hanbury, Buck trying
the outside and Terry under Buck as they crossed the
checkers. Man I can't wait to check out the DVD of
these races. The fans loved the show and we walked
away knowing that our day to shine is coming soon.
Also, Kris had another great run finishing 10th. We
agreed his two top 10 finishes in these high powered
Modifieds was a night most would relish and the smile
on his face showed it.
A quick note on this
night of "musical chairs", Terry drove our
#50, Kris drove Terry's #11 and Kris' brother Ryan
drove his #18 Super Six and was able to take the win.
Click on one of the Spencer web site links throughout
this site for results and more write ups. Ryan's drive
was exciting to watch, ask anyone that was there.
My final thoughts:
when a lead car gets "taken out" there
should be no way the perpetrator should take home a
better finish. I have attended races in PA and VA that
have instituted rules where the leader is given back
their position, the offender is sent to the rear as if
a caution had come out, and the conclusion is a
"Green, White, Checker" to allow a finish
under competitive conditions for the fans. Spencer's
decision makers claimed to be "consistent"
in their ruling (same penalty as applied earlier in
the event) however, when it involves the lead car on
the last lap there is no way to recover unlike when it
occurs during an event, which makes a huge difference
and there are other track owners who agree. The
results are not under appeal or protest; we just hope
management considers a different approach in the
future. Our team will move forward and we will be back
to race some more.
We continue to look to
make the #5 SST Mod a more competitive ride for Terry
and we will be back this week to see how our next
efforts fair. See you all soon.
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