August 20, 2011 Dunn Tire Raceway Park, Lancaster NY

Our team has wanted to run this event since acquiring our 2003 Troyer chassis in 2008. As we have only run a part time schedule in past years, we’ve missed this event. In 2011 we got together and committed to adding this event to our selective schedule. Optimistic after our 3rd top 10 finish at the July ROC 200, we arrived 1st truck in line at the pit gate on Saturday afternoon.

Practice threw us a curve as the car did not perform as expected but by the 3rd session we had gotten the car back to a competitive pace. Terry fought hard in his qualifying event and captured the last redraw position. Amanda picked for Terry and gave our team the 4th starting spot, outside the 2nd row. Things were looking up again.

We knew a couple cars were faster than us but we appeared a match to several top tier teams which meant, if you could catch a small break or stay out of trouble, a top 5 was more than just a possibility. With a few thousand dollars of bonus money available to everyone, we readied our veteran spotters and young pit crew consisting of some new faces, and others with new responsibilities come pit stop time.

At the drop of the green we got shuffled back slightly as expected, settled in to 7th place and took advantage of other’s misfortune as the laps accumulated. A lap 45 caution turned in to our setback as a car suffered a part failure and rolled on in to turn one rather than turn in to the infield track. The leaders rapidly took evasive action and Terry bumped the right front enough to cause an ill handling car for the remainder of the race. With no critical damage, he stayed on track losing then regaining positions. On lap 69 we called Terry in for his new RR tire and the team executed without incident and safely in tight quarters. Terry was now 13th and on lap 75 a hard crash took out some top cars while others pitted for damage and others tried a late pit strategy. With 20 laps to go Terry was now 7th and ready to press for further positions.

Unfortunately, by lap 85 Terry was having difficulty with the car’s ill handling, something was broken or damaged. During the next caution we observed that the LR shock was no longer working. We asked Terry to do his best and he wrestled and manhandled the #50 home in 8th place, salvaging another top 10 finish that could easily have slipped away.

With a little of the bonus money falling our way and knowing how close we were to running with and challenging the top teams, we packed up the truck with our heads held high. At this time it does not look like we will be running the #50 again in 2011. If things change you will hear about it on our FaceBook page. In the mean time, the team is concentrating on several good finishes and battles for point championships in various classes at Spencer Speedway. Once finished, two of our team; Kris Hillegeer and Torpedo Tom Fecteau will bring their Super Stocks back to DTRP for the US Open – David London Memorial 50 lap special on Saturday September 17th. We hope to see you at Spencer and DTRP, enjoy friends.