With team owner and driver Tom Fecteau away on business this week, Terry Cheetham and crew were looking forward to a totally focused night of twin 20 lap features and a chance to leap forward in the SST standings. In stead, it was an evening that makes drivers and teams look face to face with their dedication and commitment and forge ahead when circumstances try to make them quit.

An omen for the evening occurred in the first SST heat, when an early accident sidelined seven of the eight cars running. Officials rescheduled that heat and forged ahead with heat #2, Terry's event. While charging towards the win, a power steering hose failed spraying Terry's windshield with fluid and forcing him to the pits for repairs.

This DNF caused Terry to start scratch (last) in the first "20" where he planned to wait out the first laps and move forward once the field spread out. Unfortunately, that plan never had a chance to be used. On lap three, something happened a few cars ahead of Terry's position. As the cars stacked up, Terry became partially turned sideways and Andy Lewis had no place to go but in to the driver's side. Andy hit at such an angle that he rolled up on to the hood of the #5 coming to rest there. Terry was momentarily stunned from the force of the crash. Safety workers checked him over and Terry assessed the damage as mostly minor and cosmetic. He and the car were decidedly lucky.

The pit crew received the bent car and made extensive repairs and sent Terry back out only one lap down where he finished an amazing 17th (thanks to many spins and misfortunes of our competitors). It was looking like the on track racing was rougher than usual as many caution flags waved this evening.

For this special twin 20 lap format, teams were required to make their 10 minute pit stop on the main straight-away where fans could watch and interact. Our crew performed a yeoman's job moving tires around, resetting air pressures, adding fuel, and resetting the front end alignment. Yes we are very proud of our family of volunteers.

With another start near the back, Terry set his sights on a possible top 10 finish in round two. That dream would suffer a set back as on a restart, something caused a competitor up ahead to suddenly slow and the ensuing chain reaction again found a competitor (Bill Hebing) driving over the left side of Terry's car and over the front end with both cars crashing in to the fourth turn wall. Terry again limped in to the pits where parts were straightened as best they could. Terry returned to the fray finishing 11th while pressuring the 10th place car. Again, several cautions and attrition helped our finish.

Later inspection would discover several bent parts that resulted in the front alignment being lose and variable. A testament to Terry's driving but a potentially hazardous condition as those parts were destined to fail had the race run longer.

Check out the Spencer Speedway Photo page for June 29th, 2007. There should be lots of photos as so much action was viewed by fans and photographers alike.

Next week is going to be a jammed packed evening as we will have both SST racers and Terry's ROC Modified at the track. The entire Epic Ventures team has set our sights on getting Terry the ROC 100 lap victory. We hope to give you a show worth remembering and results we can all be proud of. A reminder that owner, John White has reduced the cost from $28 to $25 for general admission next week and racing starts earlier, at 6:30. See you soon.