Sometimes, just being there is a victory

So it was another fine January night at Evergreen Speedway. A fine mist/drizzle filled the air, cool temps were the word of the day and the sky was a dreary Grey color.... Oh wait, Its JUNE!!!!

Yeah, the coldest June in recorded history in our little slice of America has greeted us so far. We arrived at the track about 4:30 and waited outside the back gate, anticipating rain but getting just enough drizzle to make the track a little slick, but not quite enough for them to call the race.

A word: Used tires stink! The grand experiment of saving a little cash by using last week's tires was both a miserable failure and a valuable learning experience... The Hot Rod was terrible most of the night, skating around and threatening to go around smacking into things like Tonya Harding. These are things that you learn when you are new to a series.

During Qualifying, the car snapped loose on our 2nd lap, resulting in our worst effort of the year. However, we did impress all involved when Scott was able to execute a spin & drive away move that Jim Rockford would have been proud of! During the heat race, more of the same, but this time off the track into the wet grass we went, car a little dirty, but unharmed.

Rain + old used up asphalt = Cars spinning on the pace laps. No less than 3 cars did slow spins as the drizzle returned. It was determined that the Mini stocks would run their main first, drying the track for us, much to the displeasure of the guys and gals who were not expecting to run their main until later in the night and were still repairing/tuning their cars.

By the time the main rolled around, it was determined that we should just go out and bring back the car in one piece. I made a couple of adjustments to make the car a little more stable on terrible tires, but it was obvious from the start that Scott just couldn't put the car where he wanted to with any confidence that it would stay there. We pedaled around, trying to bring it home and made one more off track mud bog trip, which made a mess of the airbox, but nothing we cant fix easily. Unfortunately, some guys didn't make it out so easily. The final 2 laps took about 25 minutes to run as several cars wrecked on the restarts.

We finished 12th... a step backwards to be sure, but as the title of this post indicates, every cloud has a silver lining. By just being there and racing, we have moved up a position in the championship standings. We are now firmly in the top ten in 8th place! 27 points separate us from the guys running tied for 6th and only 44 from the guys tied for 4th! It may seem like a lot to make up with our point structure, but if we keep improving and someone has a bad night here or there, who knows how this thing could shake out. I look back at the first couple of races this season, races that we could have performed better at if I had been a little more proactive in replacing a few items that turned out to be a huge deal in the performance of the car and we could definitely be nipping a lot closer to the heels of the top 5. 

We have this weekend off then one more 3/8ths race until we have a run at the big 5/8ths oval. We know the 3/8ths... we have won multiple championships on it... but the big track will be a new experience for Scott and we are all excited to see how we do!

Stay tuned for a new series coming up... Team LaCross, the history!