After taking a planned week off, the Epic Ventures team had an itch that needed scratching. So with a new set up in the #5 we hauled to Spencer and what happened next was a mix of success and set backs.

Practice gave us the feedback needed to adjust the car to Terry's liking and with stop watch times comparable to our top competitors, we readied for any evening of competitive battle. In the heat, Terry had a good starting spot but with one slip, Buck Catalano was under Terry and although able to keep pace, a 2nd place finish was the best that could be done. Terry felt that the car was performing better than ever but our competition had also raised their game. We were scheduled to start on the pole and that meant it would assure ourselves a clear shot at our first victory in 2009. We waited with nervous anticipation as the rest of the classes completed their main events.

Our friend Kris Hillegeer was having a good night as new tire rules were implemented to make the Street Stock class more competitive, and with our help, Kris grabbed those changes and won his heat going away (his 3rd heat win of the year, a great rookie performance). In the main event he would start outside the front row and would fight hard for the lead before slipping back and then recovering for a fine 3rd place finish. As has been said before by many a racer "we didn't lose, we just ran out of laps".

Now the SST-Weekly Modified feature was ready to go and at the drop of the green we were in for a shock as Terry slipped and ran up in to long time competitor Matt Lees who ended up hard in to the wall and out for the night with major damage to his car. Terry was sent to the rear for the restart and had to fight back through the 19 car field. Within a couple laps Terry would tangle with another competitor fighting an ill handling car and tire spun restarting in the back once again. There were many additional cautions and crashes by racers battling for the lead and Terry would finish the night in 8th place. The night concluded with a walk over to the Lees Motorsports Team so that Terry could speak with Matt about the crash and offer our help with spare parts if needed. We hope that Matt and team can get he car back in the near future but we know how tough things can be sometimes as we experienced the same fate just a few weeks earlier.

For a full write-up on the night's events, click here at July 31st Spencer Press Release.

We gave our SST Modifieds the following week off and Kris Hillegeer continued to secure his Rookie of the Year status with a 4th place finish and his brother Ryan had his best finish of the year with a 2nd in the Super Six class. Ryan sits strongly in 2nd in points for the year while Kris sits 3rd. Watch out for those Hillegeer boys.

This week our main SST Modifieds will remain parked while we assist with our associate teammate Jody London. We have gone over his RE chassis and believe we can take his recent competitive results and give him a car that will handle better through the long pace of a main event.

Following next week we will return in full force as all our SST Modifieds return to Spencer for the 2nd SST 100 where we plan to greatly improve on our season opening hard luck. See you at the ROC show this week.