The year in Numbers...
Number of points races - 15
Championship Points total - 776
Championship finishing position - 2nd
Main wins - 4
Trophy Dash Wins - 1
Heat wins - 6
Top 5 - 11
Top 10 - 15
Open Comp races - 3
Outlaw Compact 100 Lap Invitational, South Sound Speedway - 8th
WWRA Mini Stock Open Comp - Race 1 - 2nd
WWRA Mini Stock Open Comp - Race 2 - 1st
Not a bad season at all when you break it down like that.
Yup, last Friday the WWRA invited the mini stocks to come on out to the track and have an "open comp" race. All night, people were swapping cars and having one hell of a good time. The set up was this...
Heat race - on the 1/5th mile track... Kris won and Scott, on his first ever race on it, was 2nd in Tonya.
Main #1 - 40 laps on the 3/8ths... What an absolute barn burner this race was! There were over 15 cars that started the main and by lap 15 or so, the top 3 were Steve Green(former champion) in the 2 car, Scott(3 time champion) in the 99 and Kris(Current champion) in the 12. For the remainder of the race, those 3 ran nose to tail, lots of hard, clean racing that you would expect from that caliber of racers and thats how they finished. You could have tossed the proverbial blanket over the three of them, some of the funnest, most exciting racing of the year!
Main #2 saw the rematch between Scott and Steve. Kris asked Scott to drive the 12 car and Nat (another former champion) jumped into the 99 for this race. This time, it was Scott who was able to take the lead with Nat breathing down his neck for most of the race, with Steve fighting to stay within site of the leaders. With 3 laps to go, there was a caution which set the stage for a shoot-out. on the restart, Scott was the pole, with Nat on the outside and Steve inside row 2. Scott was able to get a little separation through 1 and 2 and left Nat and Steve to battle for 2nd, which was a very spirited battle indeed. In the end, Scott won, Nat was 2nd and Steve 3rd. Another cool trophy was awarded and is now residing on the surprise trophy shelf for 2009.
One more thing, as if It needed to be confirmed... Kris Harriss builds one HELL of a race car folks... If you are in the market for a Honda, our car is indeed still for sale, so don't delay!
Well, thats all she wrote, the 2009 race season is in the books. Here is how the last race went down.
Race 15 - Damn Rain!
It was a decent start to the day, with overcast skies and the weatherman calling for clearing in the afternoon... Yeah Right... just as the late models were finishing thier 1st practice, the skies unleashed... for the next, oh... well, day? We scrapped first practice but decided that we needed to at least knock a little bit of the new off our tire, so went out for practice 2 and got a whole 120 degrees of heat into it... woowee, somebody grab me the sunscreen!
Our mission for the night was simple, win. As I stated in an earlier post, we needed to win the heat race and the main to have any chance of winning the championship. The rain was the wild card that had us worried the most. When the heat races came along, I was intently watching Heat #1, where Kris was racing and he finished 3rd. I relayed this info to Scott and he went out and finished 1st in the 2nd heat, a 2 point gain, knocking the gap down to 17 points.
There were 13 total cars that showed up, which was great for us, as we needed car count if we were to stand a chance. Unfortunately, when the main came along, 3 cars had chosen to sit it out (2 RWD cars and 1 with severe fogging issues on his windscreen). This ate up some of the cushion we were hoping for as this meant that with 10 cars starting, Kris would only have to finish in front of 2 cars to lock up the big trophy, no matter what we did.
When the main started, we were clearly the car to beat. Scott made his way quickly to 2nd then into 1st when the 1st caution came out for a car that had stalled on the front stretch. On the restart, Scott chose the outside and the 2nd place car was able to get a good start and lead for a few more laps while Scott just sat behind him, knowing that we could make the pass whenever he wanted, but smart enough to know that he would only make the move when the right opportunity presented itself. Shortly after we took the lead again, another yellow flew for a car spun in turn 4.
This brought about the most bizzare series of starts I've seen in a while. On the 1st restart, Scott got a great jump and the outside car pretty much stepped on his (well you know) and we were gone... until they waved it off and shook the black flag at us. 2nd restart, I advised Scott to bring them down slow and to not even breathe on the throttle until the "official" start line in turn 4, which he did and the outside car was once agian caught sleeping, but this time, he decided the best thing to do was turn into us and try to bring out the caution again. This caused damn near a 5 car pileup as he nearly took himself out and we skittered out to the lead again, alas to have it waved off.. again. By now I was pretty hot under the collar and looking for any official to vent on. Restart #3, they finally felt that it was a good start, but same result as before, by turn 1 we were clear of 2nd place by 3 car lengths.
Meanwhile, Kris was hanging out near the middle of the pack, taking his time and making sure that he was no lower than 8th place on the track. He later told me that with about 20 to go, he was able to see that only 8 cars were running and that was when he knew it was locked up and he could drive a little more aggressively. After 50 laps, we ended up winning by almost 5 seconds and Kris finished 3rd, resulting in a 13 point final difference and winning his 1st championship!
So there it is... Our miracle season has ended and it is time for reflection on what took place, what could have been and what was. In the next week, I'll be posting about our sponsors, car owner and team, so I'll save those thank you's for that post.
The Final Season points standings (top 12) for the 2009 Evergreen Speedway Foster Press Mini Stocks.
1 - Kris Harriss 789
2 - Scott LaCross 776 -13
3 tie - John Roberts 731 -58 (John "Fozzie" Roberts places 3rd via 1st Tie breaker, 2 wins to 1 for Mikey)
4 tie - Mike Fritz 731 -58
5 - Nat Barber 613 -176
6 - Travis Woodward 588 -201
7 - Kenny Schukar 383 -406
8 - Kim Lang 342 -447
9 - Andrew Schukar 315 -474
10 - John Schukar 298 -491
11 - Bob Emery 289 -500
12 - Jeff Miller 235 -554
Congratulations to Kris Harriss for his 1st championship! You deserved it my friend!!!
This is the point where I would normaly say, "see you at the races!" but the season is over. But don't fret... Stay tuned right here to keep up with the goings on over the winter as we plan for next season and a hopeful triumphant return to the Super Late Models!
Posted at 12:01 am by Scott Whitmore
The youngster or the champ?
One title will be decided on the track on Saturday, Evergreen Speedway's Mini-Stock division championship.
Entering the season championship race, former rookie of the year Kris Harriss holds a 19-point lead over three-time champion Scott LaCross. No. 3 Jon Roberts is mathematically alive at 47 points back, but would need both of the drivers in front of him to have catastrophic nights to lift the division trophy.
Although LaCross has three feature wins this season to Harriss' one, both have risen to the top of the standings by consistently finishing near the front of the field each week.
Regardless of which driver prevails on Saturday, one person who should be able to celebrate is Mindy Harriss, the wife of Kris Harriss and the owner of the car driven by LaCross.
Visit Scott Whitmore's blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/section/BLOG25
Yea, I know, I've been slacking... but lots has happened since we last talked, so let me bring you up to date... no, that might take too long, let me sum up!
Week 13 - 1st weekend of the Fair. We figured out a little something tonight that we feel was a major contributor to our poor performance in week 12. A minor thing that we had assumed was insignificant was in fact, HUGELY significant. I'd love to tell you what it was, but we still have a race to go and a championship to chase, so that will have to be my secret until the season is over. We went out and finished 2nd in our heat race, behind Kris, who now had what seemed like an insurmountable lead, but in the main, Scott once again showed why he is one of the best by going out and winning the race by an easy margin of just a shade under 4 tenths of a second. It was a good race and we felt great, coming back from such a poor showing the week before to grab the win. Unfortunately for our championship aspirations, Kris finished 2nd, so we only were able to muster a 1 point gain for the night.
Week 14 - week 2 of the Fair, 2nd rain race of the season. Eyup, thats right. It was nice all day long and we once again finished 2nd in our heat race and Kris finished 1st in his. We made a pretty significant call in regards to our mystery change from the week before by going even further with it for the main. Then, the rains came. Not a deluge, but enough to make the track nice and slick, LaCrash jumped out to an early, large lead, driving it in slow and easy on the bottom while most others were fighting to keep control. Most others, except for Fozzy, who was going like a wild man on the high side in his RWD RX-7. As I counted the laps off, I let Scott know that Fozzy was coming fast and rim riding the track, but our car just would not handle up there and eventually, Fozzy caught and passed us for the lead. With 5 to go, Scott began reeling Fozzy back in and a couple of times it looked like he might get the lead back, but Foz held tough and the track was still just wet enough to not allow a good run on the bottom, so we ended up 2nd with Kris in 3rd. To be honest, we were pretty happy to be putting a straight racecar back in the trailer and 2nd was a good finish!
Here are the championship standings going into the final week of the season, this Saturday.
Kris Harriss - 737
Scott LaCross - 718
John "Fozzy" Roberts - 690
Michael Fritz - 681
Nat Barber - 613
Travis Woodward - 548
Kenny Shuckar - 383
Andrew Shuckar - 315
Kim Lang - 308
John Shuckar - 243
Bob Emery - 239
Jeff Miller - 235
Well, this is it. Race 15 is upon us and another season is just about in the books. We are 19 points back. Mathematically still in it. We are going to show up and we are going to do what we need to do, which is win our heat race and the main. The rest is up to fate... come out this weekend and show your support. You arent going to want to be the only person who wasnt there the night that we came back from a double digit deficit to put an exclaimation point on a suprise Mini Stock season! But even if that doesnt happen, you'll want to be there help us celebrate the first of what we here at Team LaCross feel will be many championships for our car owner, Kris Harriss. It's going to be a hell of a fun night Saturday, no matter how it turns out. Come on down after the races, we will be pitted near the entrance of turn 3 on the 5/8's track!
See you at the races!!
Well, we are two weeks into our 4 week run and with 3 races left, we find ourselves now tied for 2nd in points and 21 points out of 1st place. This is how it happened...
Week 11, we finished 1st in the heat race to stay 10 points back of Kris, but in the main, Kris had hit the mythical set up and with the help of some good tire strategy was able to win the race with us finishing 3rd. The car felt a little off, but even had we hit the mark dead on, I think that 2nd was the best we would do that night. This dropped us back to 14 points back, but we were able to extend our gap back to 3rd to 4 points.
Week 12, Finishing 3rd in the heat race behind Nat and Kris opened the gap to 15 points to first and closed our lead over 3rd to 2 points. All day, the car felt a little loose and we kept putting wedge in, adjusting camber and stagger in an effort to make it better. When the main came, Scott made a few aggressive moves to try to get to the front of the pack from our starting spot, but the car kept getting looser and eventually we settled into 5th place. In the mean time, Fozzy had put on 3 fresh tires and ran up to the front with Kris and Nat in tow. At the finish Fozzy won his very first main event (WooHoo Fozzy!!!) and did some really kick ass donuts to celebrate the victory. Kris finished 2nd and Nat 4th, with Mikey between them in 3rd. The end result of the night was fairly disappointing for us as we are going to have to pull some rabbits out of the hat to get back to within striking distance of the championship with only 3 races remaining in the season. I have confidence that if anyone can do it, we can!
The only good thing about the night was that our class sponsor, Foster Press, gave away 2 tires, 1 to the winner and 1 to a random finisher and as luck (or bad luck) would have it, we were the recipients of the random tire, so at least we got free fresh rubber to put on the car this week!
Ok everyone, it is Fair time for the next two weeks!!! 20 bucks gets you a race/fair combo ticket, so there isnt a better time of the year to come on out to the races. Come out early, enjoy the fair and then see the races that evening. This weekend we have twin 50 lap Super Late Model races, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks and the Super Figure 8 Nationals, which is a 1 hour figure 8 race that always brings out a good field of cars.
Stop by and visit with us during the autograph session this weekend but make sure you get there early as we have a limited number of special Team LaCross items to go along with a signed autograph card of your favorite driver that you are sure to want. They are going to go fast so dont dawdle!
See you at the races!
Well how bout that... Racing resumes this Saturday for Team LaCross with the final 5 races of the year coming over the next 6 weeks, including a 4 week run that begins this weekend and which includes 2 race dates during the Evergreen State fair! WooHoo! Corn on the cob, barbecue Beef sandwiches and Purple cows.
It's been uneventful around the shop lately. Tonya is ready to race, we have been doing a little set up work for a few people and pretty much taking it easy. But that all changes this weekend. With 4 in a row, every lap counts even more. One mistake at this point in the season could end a championship run, but you also have to keep in mind that every position is worth valuable points, so you really have to walk a fine line between not aggressive enough and so aggressive that you break the car.
Now is when all the hard work we have put in starts to pay off, but it's also the time to work even harder, put in more hours at the shop, become even MORE "anal" than we usually are. We owe it to our Sponsors, our Car Owners, our Fans and of course, ourselves to go out there and perform at the highest level we know how, which as you know is 110% each and every time.
The points as they stand today, August 13th, 2008.
Pos. # Driver Name Pts Pts Bhd
| 1 | 12 | Kris Harriss | 514 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 99 | Scott LaCross | 504 | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | 97 | Nat Barber | 503 | 11 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | 64 | John Roberts | 478 | 36 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | 2 | Michael Fritz | 476 | 38 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | 16 | Travis Woodward | 385 | 129 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | 24 | Kenny Schukar | 336 | 178 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | 33 | Kim Lang | 308 | 206 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | 07 | Andrew Schukar | 246 | 268 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | 30 | Jeff Miller | 193 | 321 |
Dont forget, this weekend is a full night of Racing with the Super Late Models, Street Stocks and Mini Stocks on the 3/8's, Super Figure 8's on the F8, Hornets and Youth Hornets. Come on out and enjoy a lazy summer evening watching some great racing action at Evergreen Speeway.
See you at the track!
Back in the days of old, the mini stock class had a trophy dash for the 4 fast qualifiers or the top finisher in each of the heat races. Points were actually awarded for these dashes and this made for some very spirited 4 lap shootouts. If you had a perfect night, you scored 62 points. 8 for a heat race win, 4 for the dash win and 50 for the main win.
Well, those days have come and gone and the most you can now score in a night is 58. However, occasionally something cool goes down to award the class a dash and allows us all to go for that mythical perfect night, the Hat Trick if you will, and Saturday was just such a night.
One of our Sponsors, Harrissteam.com, put up 200 dollars for a Mini Stock "dash for the cash." Now, as many of you know, when cold hard dollars are on the line, we show up with guns blazing!
The car was ok in practice, we made a few minor stagger and camber adjustments each session and by the time heat races rolled around, we were pretty confident we had a decent set up. LaCrash started on the inside of row 3 of the 7 car heat race and by the end of the backstretch on the green flag lap, he was making his move to take the lead, completing the pass in turn 4. he then ran out to a 6-8 car length lead and finished with the win, Kris Harriss 2nd and Mike Fritz in 3rd in what turned out to be the battle to watch in that heat race with Kris crossing the line about a bumper width ahead of Mike.
Heat race Video courtesy of Mike Fritz - http://evergreenministock.multiply.com/video/item/18
In the Dash, it was lined up with the 2nd place cars from each heat on the front row and the winners of each heat on the back row. This put Kris Harriss on the pole, Kim Lang outside, Us inside of the back row and Nat Barber on the outside. Every one of those cars more than capable of walking off with the prize. Upon taking the green, LaCrash knew he had to make a move and make it fast, so he dove under Kris in turn one and was able to complete the pass for the lead coming out of turn 2, the battle was fast and furious for those 4 laps with LaCrash the winner, Kris 2nd, Nat 3rd and Kim 4th. It felt awesome not only winning the cash, but more inportantly, the Trophy, becuase as you know... its all about the hardware!
Sorry, no video of the dash was available at press time!
The Main rolled around and we started 7th, the inside of row 4, we were surrounded by the top 5 in points, with Nat and Kris behind us due to the invert (at our speedway, the top three finishers are required to start at the back of the main. they do put rookies, drivers with no point average and anyone that just wants to start towards the back behind them however) and Mike and Fozzie were directly in front of us. Quite a gauntlet of really fast cars to be around. At the drop of the green, it was on baby... The inside row moved up and by turn 3, LaCrash found himself in 4th place behind the cars of Jeff Miller(30), Kim(33) & Fozzie(64) with Nat(97) and Kris(12) hot on his heels. This went on until the exit of turn 4 on lap 3 when LaCrash decided it was time to go... he stuck Tonya in the dirt coming out and made it 3 wide down the front stretch and into turn 1, the leader washed up just a little and Scott was on rails as he passed all three cars in turn 1! It was a thing of beauty to be sure.
Nat eventually made it around Fozzy a lap or two later and I thought for sure there was going to be a battle for the lead, but we were on a mission and would not be denied... As Scott stretched it out to over a full straightaway the battle for 2nd thru 4th go interesting with Mike(2) passing Fozzy for 3rd on the last lap and giving Nat a serious run for 2nd!
Main event Video courtesy of Mike Fritz - http://evergreenministock.multiply.com/video/item/19
When it was all said and done, we walked away with 2 trophies, 335 bucks in winnings and another feature winner sticker for Mindy to put on the car. It was a "62" and those kind of nights dont happen every time you hit the track, so we are still pretty jacked about it here at Team LaCross central. But as excited as we are about last week's results, there is another goal looming... we are now in 2nd place in the points, 10 points out of 1st with 5 races to go. Kris is in the top spot and Nat is just behind us in 3rd... 11 points seperating the top 3, with Fozzy and Mike only 25 points behind that. I have a feeling its going to come down to the final race on Championship night.
Can we win championship #4??? You'll have to stay tuned to find out. Come on out to our next Evergreen race on August 15th and cheer us on, or hey, if you feel like a little drive, why not come down to South Sound Speedway in Tenino, Wa. this weekend, where Team LaCross will be invading the ranks of the Outlaw compact series to run in the 100 lap, 1500.00 to win, Outlaw invitational.
You can find directions and pricing info at www.southsoundspeedway.com you'll know you're there when you see the #99 orange and white Harrissteam.com, Flowmaster Gutter, All City Haul-N, Speedway Carstar Honda Prelude on the front page!
See you at the races!!!
Ok, so I am a week behind on my race report for 7/11. But, it was an odd night anyways, so why not make the post off kilter too, right?
It all started early in the week when we were working late every night on some pretty major changes we made to the car. This culminated in a leave the shop to go get some sleep at 5am friday night. Needless to say, we were all a little on edge from lack of sleep at the track.
We only got a single 10 minute practice... A lot of major changes to the car were made, so we were understandably upset about this. 10 minutes to dial the car in, scrub a new tire and work on the race set up.Yeah, right...
Heat Race: Uneventful until Scott was going for the lead... Another car spun bringing out the yellow and as he slowed up, he and the car he was battling for 1st somehow got hooked up and we got a cut tire. Purely a racing deal from what I could see, no malice or intent, just good hard racing and sometimes, things like that happen. Fortunately, they dont count yellow laps and he was able to come in for a tire change and get back out before the green flew again. Starting from the back, he was able to make it back up to 3rd in the remaining laps.
Main: Ok, so after spending a large amount of time fixing the car after the Heat race, we were beign rushed by the officials to get lined up for the main. In my hurry, I spilled about a gallon of fuel in the trunk. I let Scott know to wiggle the car around to get it out on the way to line up. As the Green dropped, I could see fule spilling out of the car for about 3 laps. The caution came out for a car conking out and they pulled us to the infield to check and make sure there wasnt a serious leak then gave us our spot back in line. Scott had started in the back and was picking his way through the field, dodging accidents all along the way. The 2nd to last restart was a good one, with Scott taking the low line at the cone after the leader also went low and 2nd went high. At the green, Scott was able to get a nose under the leader going into 1 when they threw the caution again for what we all assume was a bad start, although Im not sure why as the first two rows were in perfect alignment... but I digress...
The 2nd shot at a restart didnt go quite as well and Scott was left in a dogfight for 2nd. In the end, he finished a disappointing 3rd.
Since the next race has already happened since this post, I'll just go on ahead and start another one explaining it!
I saw this action photo posted on Mindy's facebook page today and immediately it struck me as familiar...
Now, if you are movie guy like me, you've got to be thinking to yourself, "Is that K-Billy's super sounds of the 70's playing the background?" Here is the movie shot that this picture reminds me of...
Kind of funny, eh?
Hi there folks!
Thought I'd spend a moment and update everyone on the track resurfacing project that took place last week in response to the problems they had during the Street Stock and Super Late Model races on 6-27.
As was reported widely in a number of outlets, the track surface developed a new, rather substantial hole in it. This was an issue during the Street Stock main and caused an extended red flag to cold patch the area. Unfortunately, the patch didn't hold and the Super Late Models ultimately paid the price, having their race called after just 5 laps due to concerns for the drivers and fans after several chunks took out one radiator, one window net latch and a nose! It was the right call and the track has done right for those drivers and fans.
Sunday morning the 28th, things started happening. Here is a picutre of the track being torn up...
This repair is actually fixing several problems at one time, as it covers several old patch jobs that occasionally needed repairs. The next shot is from last Saturday, during the 4th of July show. Sorry for the poor quality of this one, as I took it from the stands with my phone camera, but you can make out the darker areas of new asphalt.
Kudos go out to the staff at Evergreen for taking quick action on this one and having the track ready to go quickly. The 4th of July show went off well and the fireworks were the best I've seen out there in some time. We are all looking forward to testing out the new pavement this weekend!
Again, It's Pawn Exchange night this Saturday with the Super Late Models on the big 5/8, Street and Mini Stocks on the 3/8 and the Super and Stinger 8's on the figure 8 track. Come on out and support local short track racing.
See you at the Track!
It was a beautiful day for racing! The sun was shining, the car was... well, the car was. During practice we played with things and then went out and won the heat race, so what did we do? Of course! we changed the car even more becuase hey, never ones to stand pat, we made a few more adjustments and off we went. (Note: Eddie's words of wisdom... Until your name is next to the track record, the car is NEVER fast enough... and even then it still isnt!)
At 40 laps, we were very confident that we had a shot at winning. Longer races have always suited our driver and cars and since the car was not exactly stellar, we figured that there would be plenty of time to work our way to the front slowly and patiently... Boy, was I wrong! When the green dropped it was on like Donkey Kong. We started 9th on the field due to the invert and our 2nd place finish the week prior and by lap 8 had fought our way to 6th. Meanwhile, our buddy Mikey Fritz had taken advantage of his 5th place starting spot to take the lead on that same lap.
For the next 8 laps, we fought a very spirited battle with our Car Owner Kris before finally taking the 5th position, all the while Mikey was pulling out to a large lead. By lap 20 we caught the 2nd place car of Fozzie and spent the remaining 20 laps glued to his rear bumper and Mikey had become a spec out in front of them. The fact that Mikey had completely checked out put the spotlight squarely on LaCrash and Fozzy. Scott, just as he had the week before, tried everything short of wrecking Fozz to get by him, but as is the norm, didnt want to take the position that way, so we settled for 3rd place and the knowledge that we put on one hell of a good show for the fans.
Now a word... While we did finish a disappointing 3rd this week and 2nd last week, there is a strange satisfaction in knowing that we as a team were a part of both of those drivers getting the first wins of thier careers. With Clint it was a couple of helpful set up tips, with Mikey, well, we have been with him all year, doing tweaks and set ups on both of his cars, being tough on him sometimes, but always in the effort to help him reach his potential. Great Job Mikey!!!!! But remember, you'll be starting behind us next race ;-)
The points battle is really starting to heat up. A case can be made for any one of the top 5 cars winning the championship as just 31 points seperates 1st from 5th. Of course, we are going to do our level best to bring home #4, so make sure you come on out to the races and cheer us on... let me know you are coming and we can get you a super cool autograph card signed by LaCrash himself... lol
The points battle as of 6/27:
1 - #12 Kris Harriss - 412
2 - #99 Scott LaCross - 394
3 - #97 Nat Barber - 392
4 - #64 Jon "Fozzy" Roberts - 391
5 - #2 Mike Fritz - 381
Next up for us is July 11th, which is Pawn Exchange night at Evergreen Speedway. The Super Late Models will be on the big 5/8 oval while the Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Super and Stinger 8's tackle thier respective tracks as the race season heads into it's 2nd half.
And dont forget, its the big 4th of july show this weekend...
The 4th of July at Evergreen Speedway will be a night not to be missed. Bring the whole family. The show will start at 7:00pm the evening will be capped off with the biggest fireworks show on the east side.
Also in store for the evening will be a Demo Derby, boat races, school bus races, a rollover contest, “The Beast” jet powered dragster will perform a show where he melts a car. Mr Dizzy is going to do a death defying school bus jump. Along with everything else, we will have the hornets& youth hornets
Pit gate opens at 2:00pm
Grandstand Gates open at 3:00pm
Main Events at 7:00pm
General admission tickets will be $18.50 for adults, jr/sr’s(11-17, 62+)$13.50, child(6-10) $7.50, 5 and under FREE
Family pass, 2 adults and up to 4 child/jr’s for $60.00
Reserved seating also available for any age at $22.50
call the speedway office to purchase tickets in advance Tuesday through Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm 360.805.6100
See you at the races!!!
Well, what can I say? Saturday started under threatening skies as we were all worried about rain. Fortunately, while overcast, it stayed dry and a pleasant temp as we took to the track for Week 7 of the race season. While Nat (97) and Kris (12) were out to a pretty comfortable lead in 1st and 2nd place in the points, 3rd through 5th were very tight with a total of 7 points seperating Fozzy(64) in 3rd, LaCrash(99) in 4th and Micheal (2) in 5th place.
Trying to build on our Week 6 win, we continued to work on making Tonya faster. A good part of the past two weeks were spent on tweaking this and that in an effort to get rid of some of the HP and handling gremlins that always come with driving a different car than you are used to. And while all our hard work is begining to show up in our performances as of late, we know that there is still tons of potential in this little orange and white Honda Prelude!
During practice, the car was good, but had developed a pretty significant on throttle burble. A few minutes spent deliberating with our team owner and teammates finally sussed out the problem, which was a bad plug wire. A replacement set went in and with that, we went out and had a spirited battle with Kris in the heat race, which we won.
As the main started, we of course started near the rear of the field due to our win the race previous. Both of us were more than a little concerned about our ability to make it to the front with the car handling somewhat poorly, but that wasnt going to stop us from giving it the old college try.
LaCrash was in top form as he picked his way through the pack, eventually finding himself in 2nd place. The first place car was driven by Clint Lang and through the virtue of one heck of a great restart, he had gotten up front and tonight, would not be denied! Scott did everything short of wrecking Clint as they battled for the top spot over the last 10 or so laps. Going through turn 4 a couple of times even dropping 2 in the dirt, causing sparks to fly as the car bottomed out and making the crowd around me roar with approval at the effort. At the end, Scott made a last effort to make the pass on the outside coming to the line, but Clint closed the door and scored his first ever victory as Scott finished 2nd and Kris 3rd.
I will post the official standings later this week when they are updated, but by my calculations, the current points battle is:
1 - Kris Harriss 362
2 - Nat Barber 356
3 - Scott LaCross 340
4 - Jon Roberts 330
5 - Micheal Fritz 326
Things are starting to tighten up and we are going to do everything we can to close that gap up even more and see if we can give our car owners thier 1st championship! Of course, it would be pretty cool for us to win #4 too...
Next up, Mid Season Championship night Presented by Les Schwab Tires, this weekend, June 27th. Come see the MiniStocks, Super Late Models, Street Stocks, Super Figure 8s and Stinger 8s battle it out for the honor of winning and taking home the hardware!
See you at the track!!!
Listen in tonight on AM 1380 KRKO Northsound racing show at 8pm when Scott will be on the air during the show with Steve Mortland, continuing a proud tradition of appearances!
You can also listen live here: http://www.krko.com/listenlive/
Here we see LaCrash in victory lane with Brady Douglas, News Anchor from KETK in Tyler, Texas!
Brady is a High School friend of Scott's and was in town last weekend to visit family when he decided to come out to Evergreen Speedway and watch some short track racing. It was a great suprise for both of them!
You never know who you will run into when you head out to the track for a night of fun!
These are the words I uttered to LaCrash as he crossed the finish line with a 2 second lead over 2nd place.
Eyup... Back in the saddle again! What a great feeling it was to finally be back in a very familiar place for us during our years running Mini-Stocks in the early 2000's. I dont know exactly who was happier, Me, LaCrash or Mindy our intrepid car owner. Hand shakes and congratulations seemed to come from everywhere as we savored what turned out to be a pretty dominant win.
The day started out with a very loose racecar and only one practice session due to the track surface having a little issue. We adjusted thinking the car wasnt very fast (Mylaps confirmed that we were wrong, the car was moving along at a fairly respectable clip) and in the heat race, LaCrash played it cool as we ran 3rd behind our teammates Kris and Fozzy, but ended up a disappointing 5th after another driver made a Banzai move at the checkers on the inside while we battled Mikey Fritz for the 3/4 spots.
The Main came and with it, more adjustments. We started inside row 2 and had the lead by the exit of turn 2. Scott never looked back from there as Kris Harris pressured him for about 10 laps, keeping within 2-4 car lengths and biding his time. Then a strange thing happened... I was scanning the field for a moment and when I picked the car back up, the lead had stretched to over 10 lengths! I kind of rubbed my eyes and told Scott about the separation which got a surprised, "Huh?" over the radio.
The final laps saw the lead expand to as much as 3 seconds as Scott tried different lines and tried not to overcook the tires. As he began to catch and lap cars, I had my fingers crossed for no cautions... In the end, we finished 1st, Kris was 2nd, Mike Fritz 3rd... a great 1/2 finish for our car owners, who's 3rd car finished 6th! Not too shabby eh?
Well, it looks like we are going to end up running the full season and are currently sitting 4th in the points, 2 behind Fozzy in 3rd and only 35 points out of 1st... Is a run at the title a possibility??? Hmmmmm... one never knows! ;-)
Next up for us is Gradutation Night at Evergreen Speedway on June 20th with the Super Late Models, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Super figure 8s, Hornets and Youth Hornets. And dont forget that if you are looking for a whole lot of action, this Saturday night at Evergreen Speedway is "Extreme Night" with the Hornets, Youth Hornets, Rollover contest, School Bus figure 8, Gauntlet, Stinger 8's, Renegades, Stunts and School Bus Dominoes... you dont want to miss it because as the old commercials said...
"YOU CAN BUY THE WHOLE SEAT, BUT YOU'LL ONLY USE THE EDGE!!!!"
See you at the races!
Hey there race fans!
Last time, I posted a few photos from our friend Marcia. Marcia has got the racing bug BIG TIME and was with us on our crazy LaCarerra Panamericana journey back in 2007.
She has her own blog where she posts pictures and thoughts on all kinds of different forms of road Racing as well as other fun adventures. Why not take a few moments and check it out!
http://roadrallyrhythms.typepad.com/
BTW, we ARE racing this weekend and its goign to be a fun one, with the Super Late Models running 2 50 lap features on the 3/8 along with the Mini Stocks, Steet Stocks, Super Figure 8 and Stinger 8 divisions. Remember that gates open at 5pm.
See you at the track!
Here are a few action shots captured by one of our dedicated and most kick ass fans, Marcia Blas!
Well, it certainly was an eventful weekend at the track. We had a new shock package in the car and it did exactly what we had hoped, no more hippity hoppity in the corners. However, the car was a bit slower... Which isnt a good thing!
The day started off on a bad note as our pal Roger was out testing Jeff Knight's 70 car on the 5/8's when he lost a tire and hit the wall in turn 1, breaking the fuel line and starting a fire that pretty much finished the car off. Roger is a little sore, but otherwise ok and Chris Preston offered up his back up car so that Jeff could race that night. How absolutely cool is that??? We will be heading up to the TVM shop over the next couple of weeks to lend any assistance we can to get Jeff's back up car, the "White Knight" ready to go for the next race.
As I noted, the 99 car is much more driveable now, but it is a bit slower. We are going to work on some other items to address that problem, but are at least happy we are going in the right direction on the handling. Unfortunately, at about lap 3 of the main, we broke a brake rotor and ended up finishing 7th. Not a stellar performance and one that dropped us to 4th in the points, but still, we are doing pretty good all things considered.
This weekend, we pitted down next to our team owners and got this shot which shows all the Flowmaster Gutter sponsored cars together. Please visit our links page and check out thier website or Give them a call at (425) 257-9799 or toll free 1 800-884-0633 ... you know you need new gutters and springtime is the best time to get those taken care of! Mention that you saw them here at ScottLaCross.com so they know that thier sponsorship dollar is hard at work!
We are off for the next 2 weeks, which puts our next race date on June 6th.. dont miss it as it is also a double header night for the Super Late Models with 2! main events for them! Dont forget to go to the track while we are away... Upcoming events:
May23rd: Monster Trucks and Super Moto
May 24th: Monster Trucks, Demo Derby, School Bus Figure 8, Rollover cars, Boat races, Hornets, Youth Hornets, Grudge races and Fireworks!
May 25th: Drag racing
May 30th: 60 Minutes of Fear, Hornets, Youth Hornets, Stinger 8s, Street Stocks and Super Late Models(on the big track) and its Motorcycle Night, so bring your Hog, Crotch Rocket, Trike or any other Motorbike to show off!
See you at the track!
Dont forget to check out the latest post below, but here are a few recent pics!
Photos courtesy of Mindy's Sister Hailey... Pretty cool Huh??
You know something is afoot whenever there is a full moon and man, racing did not disappoint on that front. Allow me to bring you up to date on Saturday's races of interest here at Team LaCross, the Super Late Models and the Mini-Stocks... No, that would take too long, Iet me Sum Up instead!
Super Late Models - The night started with a 10 car heat race (don't ask me why as there were only 10 cars to start with) and true to form, it was a complete melee' with one car destroyed for the night, several scrambling for parts and all on edge. When the main rolled around, it was pretty much more of the same, with 2 cars getting together, sending 3 additional cars shooting off turn 1 and off onto the 5/8. You would think there would have been a caution at that point, right??? WRONG... they kept it green, sending the guys who just avoided the wreck 2 laps down... Isnt that peachy? being penalized for driving heads up... go figure. In the end, I think 7 cars finished and only 4 were on the lead lap. With carnage like that, the desire to get our car finished up and out there grows weaker and weaker every race that goes by.
Mini-Stocks - Well, it wasnt a great night for Team LaCross but we are trying a lot of different things to get the most out of the Honda. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. The heat race was relatively uneventful, but the Main looked alot like the SLM race that was to come later. Two cars got together in turn one, sending one spinning in front of the field. Everyone took evasive action and Mikey took a flyer off of turn 1, tearing up his radiator, oil cooler, steering rack and rod ends. While paddling around, Scott was tagged in turn 1 and had the car completely sideways... and by sideways I mean the nose of the car was pointing at the inside wall and the rear was pointing at the outside... He did a great job of saving it and holding his position, which shocked more than one or two people! In the end, we finished 6th, but moved up to 3rd in the season point standings. Not too shabby for jumping into a car with 3 days to go before the season started, eh???
Next up, A combo race on 5-16, Super Late Models on the big 5/8 oval, Mini Stocks, Renegade V8's, Hornets and Youth Hornets on the 3/8. It looks like a nice Saturday, weather wise, so come on out, enjoy some hometown hero's and see where the NASCAR, IRL and F1 stars of tomorrow are getting thier starts... Local Short track racing!
See you at the track!
Ok, so one of the things that we as a team did NOT miss about running Mini-stocks was the fact that they run, rain or shine... Well last week was a little of both.
All day it was fairly nice and we were turning decent laps with the new set-up. I was ready to make a few tweaks after the pit meeting when the skies opened up and in came the rain and wind. As we contemplated packing up and going home while standing under the easy-up, holding it down and getting soaked, we finally decided "what the hell" and tossed a rain set-up in the car.
The heat race went off very wet and we were by no means setting the track on fire, but finished 2nd and figured out that we didn't go far enough in our changes, which we rectified for the main. By the time the cars lined up for the main however, the rain had let up and the Street Stocks were taking their own sweet time completing their race, which spelled doom for us as this meant the track was drying up fast.
Starting on the outside of row 2, LaCrash took the lead coming out of turn 4 on lap 1 and held it for a while until the 2nd caution when a missed shift caused us to drop to 3rd. Eventually, Crash worked his way back into 2nd and with 1 to go, the car slid wide going into turn 1 and the 3rd place car squirted under him to grab the position. We finished 3rd and moved from 6th to 4th in the points chase.
The best part of the night may have been the after party at the Team LaCross race shop, which raged on until about 5am with beverages, rock band and lots of race stories going around.
We are being blessed again this week as Kris and Mindy are pleased with our performance and allowing us to race their car again this weekend. Also, it will be a 3 car team effort as a "Mystery" driver will be out in their 3rd car this week. I know who it is, but you're going to have to come on out to the track this weekend to find out for yourselves, or wait until next week and catch up on all the action in the blog.
In other news, www.TeamLaCross.com is back! We have gotten the rights back to our original team website and will be updating it soon and possibly linking both sites together to enhance your viewing pleasure!
Up this weekend, It's "Ladies Night" at Evergreen Speedway with Flowers for the Ladies from Flowers by Karen and Massages by Still Waters Massage Clinic. Super Late Models, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Stinger 8's and Renegade V-8s are on the schedule. Dont miss a moment of the action on what should be a lovely Spring evening in Monroe. Pit Gate opens at 2pm, Front gates at 5pm... come watch qualifying and catch the Autograph session!
See you at the track!
Ever notice how somewhat homely your race car looks without it's stickers? This weekend, we pulled all the vinyl off of the Hot Rod... If we sell it, that saves the new owner a step, if we go ahead and put it back together, well, we need to paint it anyways! It's also always fun to peel them off and see the pristine paint under them, surrounded by large areas of faded red and blue... but hey, dont look at those rivits holding the cracked fenders together! Nothing to see here!!! :-)
As we look towards trying to get out there this season, visions of Transmissions, Brakes, Shock packages, etc. dance through my mind and sniff around my wallet looking through the dust bunnies for something green and large in denomination to eat. As I was peeling stickers, the thought occurred to me... what are we going to do for a paint scheme? Last year was actually pretty easy as we designed our paint scheme to highlight our primary sponsor with the flames for heating and the snowflakes for air conditioning. But what about when you dont have a large sponsor?
The simple answer would be to go monotone... dare I say understated, but that really isn't our style. Flat black, ala' Daytona test dates would be cool, but someone is already doing that. Perhaps something retro, commemorating our past with a paint scheme from one of our championship Mini stock cars... Even without a sponsor, part of creating a fan base is having a car that appeals to the eye. Something that people see and can instantly recognize. Let's be honest, ask a casual fan who Kyle Busch is and they might look at you confused, but if you tel them that he drives the M&M's car, most all would immediately know who you are talking about and some would admit to being a fan of his just because of the car he drives.
What do you think? At this point, I am completely open to suggestions. If you are artistic or just have an eye for color, drop us a message and give us a few ideas. Who knows... you might see your name right here on the Blog someday being given credit for helping us design the next Team LaCross paint scheme...
Dont forget, We are racing the #99 Harriss Racing Mini Stock for the last time this weekend out at Evergreen Speedway. I'ts Cinco De Mayo night and I'm sure the beer garden will be buzzing with activity. We have been brainstorming a lot and may have come up with a few little tweaks to get the HarrissTeam/Flowmaster Gutters/Susan G. Komen race for the cure/All City Haul -N-/Speedway Autocraft Honda Prelude into Winners Circle!
Grandstands open at 5:00 Racing starts at 7:00... Bring the whole family! Visit www.evergreenspeedway.com for ticket info...
See you at the races...
Well, another week has come and gone at the racing stables of Team LaCross and here is the latest news:
Mikey has been exploring purchasing a new race car since before the season began and after makign offers on 3 other pretty damn good cars, I think he ended up with a hell of a nice hot rod as he finalized the purchase of a new race car this week. The #10 Scirocco of former champion Steve Green and master Motor builder Jamie Thomas is currently awaiting a graphics re-design and will be at the track for the next race on May 2nd. This is in addition to a fine 3rd place finish in the Main for Mikey in his trusty Corrado. Next race, he will put his driving skills to the test and be starting from the back... but in what car??? Hmmmmmm.... Goooooooooooo Mikey!!!!
Can I just say "Whoa Nelly!" about our racing day? Being the Anal guys we are, 19.4's were not good enough for us week one... so we put a completely new set-up in the Honda. Much more of a Late Model style package, we were determined to go out and shave a couple of tenths off of the previous week's best time and spent quite a bit of time experimenting with sway bars while the car was sitting on the scales. We went out for 1st practice and it was noted that the car felt rather bouncy again and would require a bit of tuning to dial that out. Then... It happened... As Scott and Steve were side by side going through turn two after a practice restart, Scott clipped the uke tire with the left front wheel, breaking the tie rod and axle... when the car came down, it immediately shot to the right and hit Steve's car, sending him off the track and into the outside wall. Both guys hopped out of their cars and were ok, frazzled a little but still in good spirits.
As Steve's spotter Eric and I stood there staring at the cars on the track and shaking our heads, we could do nothing but laugh at the situation. The Flagman came walking up to us and I figured we were going to get read the riot act, but he just shook his head and said that he KNEW that it was an accident and that no intent was there because they are good friends and would never wreck each other intentionally. Steve drove back to the pits and Scott came back on the wrecker... both cars needed a fair amount of work, so we went at it on both.
While Scott and Mindy ran up to the Harriss homestead to grab parts for the Honda, I got it all apart, fixed the minor body damage and hoovered around Steve's pits offering help if they needed it. In the end, Steve was able to get his car fixed for Qualifying and we missed it by about 10 minutes... fortunately, we did get the car put back together in plenty of time to get a couple of safety laps in before the heat races.
Heat Races: Did I mention that we turned the fastest recorded lap of the year in the Mini-stocks Saturday? 19.240... nowhere near the track record, but still not too shabby. We finished an unspectacular 4th in the heat race as Scott drove predictably cautious for the first few laps after all the parts swapping done a couple of minutes earlier. But then that 19.240 appeared shortly after a 19.3something. Funny thing is that the car was not handling very well and it still was pretty fast...
Main: Started in the back due to missing qualifying. Went green to checkered once again and we finished 6th. The car was still not handling very well and we think we have figured out the problem, so we are going to address it and possibly a couple other items and see what happens. Whoever drives the car next, we want it to have that bounce eliminated so they can drive it even faster than we have. We feel that we are just scratching the surface of the potential of Tonya and hope she continues to show well even after our time in her is done.
I'd like to point out that the show was great in the Mini's again this week, with Steve Green and Kris Harriss putting on the races of the night in both the heat race and the main... last lap passes and nose to tail/door handle to door handle racing between these two absolutely stole the show. Great racing from a couple of great competitors!
The big news of the week is
...
There is a light down at the far end of the Late Model Tunnel. We are going to start turning our attention back towards our Late Model program. We have been setting aside a little here and a little there and with a little gentle prodding from our fellow competitors in the class, the juices are flowing again to get to work. As work progresses and news develops, you will see it here first!
Next scheduled Team LaCross race date: Saturday, May 2nd, "Cinco de Mayo" Night at Evergreen (although shouldn't it be "Dos de Mayo"?) featuring the Street Stocks, Mini Stocks, Super and Stinger Figure 8's and the new Renegade 8's.
Also, please don't forget to head out to the track this Saturday night for the Super Late Models, Super and Stinger figure 8's, Hornets and Youth Hornets as well as Friday night for the WWRA racing schedule and Sunday for Drifting!
See you at the track!
Please leave us a comment or suggestion on what you might like to see or hear about! I Try to update weekly as well, so why not bookmark us and become a regular!
On another note, we are still looking for Marketing partners to work with for the 2009 season. If this sounds like your cup of tea, please send us a message... we would love to talk to you!
2009 - I think that we will call this one, "Moving forward by going back"
As you might have figured out, The 2009 Super Late Model season has started and we here at Team LaCross have a race car, but its up on jack stands in the shop. With the economy the way it is, sponsorship opportunities did not fall into place as we had hoped and we will not be able to compete for the season points championship in the premier division at Evergreen Speedway this year. While we are disappointed about this, we had to make the decision about what was best for the team's long term goals and scale back our plans for the year. There is a possibility that we will make at least a couple of the 5/8s races if things go right though, so all is not lost!
However, it is often said that from the ashes of disappointment, new opportunities arise and that opportunity has come from an old and dear friend... The MiniStock division!
This is the #2 VW Corrado of Mr. Mike Fritz. Some of you may remember this car campaigning last year with the Nintendo Wii and Super Mario Kart colors. For about a month now, we have been working with Mike on set-up and improvements to the car and Saturday night all the hard work paid off with a great 4th place finish in the A-main for him. He even led his first laps ever.. how cool is that?!?!?! Congrats to the entire Fritz racing team of Mike, Enoc and their new Tire specialist, Fatima. You are all great people... We have enjoyed helping you alot and look forward to seeing you have even more success as the season moves along.
In a last minute deal, Wednesday night we hustled up to Kris and Mindy Harriss' place and picked up "Tonya" the 1989 Honda Prelude campaigned the past few years by Mindy. This extraordinary opportunity was presented to us over hands of No-Limit Holdem Poker at Nat and Amy Barber's place a week ago and we of course were happy to run the car. Over the next couple of days, we added a little lead, changed the numbers and did a little maintenance to it and went on out to the track Saturday hoping for dry skies.
We missed the first practice session while I stood in line to check in tires, which was a little worrisome, since Scott had yet to drive the car at all. But we went out and turned some pretty decent lap times in the 2nd session and LaCrash reported back that he really was digging the long wheelbase and predictability of the car. We made a few minor adjustments after a less than stellar qualifying effort and then went out and WON our heat race. I gotta tell ya, it felt like we never left the class at that moment. :-)
Race time came and we started inside row 4 and when the green flag dropped, the car starting in front of us completely "put out the anchor" so to speak, resulting in us getting stuck behind him as the field went by on the outside. When we finally got a spot to go around, the field had checked out and we were playing catch up. Normally, there is at least one yellow, but this week we went green to checkers, so LaCrash had his work cut out for him. We picked our way back through the pack until we got up to the 4th thru 8th place cars, where there were some very hot battles going on. LaCrash looked high, looked low, looked in the middle but everywhere he went, there was a car. Not wanting to wreck Mindy's car, he kept applying pressure, but with Kris hugging the low line and Kim on the outside of him, an aggressive pass just wasn't in the works... we really didn't want to end up getting tangled up with the man who was so generous in letting us drive one of his cars after all!
In the end, I think we finished 7th with a car that I fully believe we could have finished top 3 with. This week, we are going to spend a little time setting it up "Team LaCross" style, which as I am hearing is "kind of anal" :-). We really would like to go out there and compete for the win this weekend and send Tonya home with a victory. We cannot express enough our gratitude and delight with Kris and Mindy Harriss for letting us drive their car. Thank you, Thank you and Thank you again... you guys Rock!!!
By the way, This car is also for Sale! If you were ever considering getting into racing, the MiniStocks are a GREAT starting point for your career. And let me tell ya, this is a pretty nice little Hot Rod! Asking price is $3,500.00 complete minus seat and I think its worth every penny and more! For more info, just drop us a line and we will put you in touch with Kris and Mindy!
So, here is the deal... right now we are set up to drive Mindy's car again this weekend. There are also a few other things in the works that may allow us to drive a few other MiniStocks this season on select nights. As those deals get hammered out, I will post our race dates here. We really do hope to see you all out at the races, cheering as loud as always because we appreciate each and every one of you coming out and spending your hard earned money to help support not only us, but Racing in the Northwest as a whole.
Next Race is this Saturday, 4-18 on the 3/8s track, with the Super Late Models (Come cheer on our friends Jeff Knight #70 and Natalie "Speed" Sather #94), Street Stocks, MiniStocks, Hornets and the NW Legends Tour, who are making their 1st stop this season at Evergreen.
See you at the track!
First Practice, March 14th...
First race, April 11th...
Will we be ready for practice? Probably not... First race?? I hope so!
There are a great many things to talk about and I will update everyone very soon. Until then, Why not take a moment and stop by Tom Hughs Website: www.thracingonline.com and cast your vote for Scott in the most recent poll, "who will be the driver to have a breakout season in 09" Hurry... voting ends this weekend!
Thanks for supporting us and talk to you soon,
Your faithful webservant, Eddie C.
Ahhh January... the time of year when a young man's fancy turns to... Racecars!
We here at Team LaCross are diligently working away at securing the items needed to field a competitive race car. As the race season grows nearer, we will share with you these things along with more pictures, stories and general mayhem that is part of the off-season.
If you would like to see your name in print here on the blog or perhaps even see it racing around Evergreen Speedway, remember that sponsorship is a great way to accomplish both! If you or your company is interested in expanding your marketing horizons, please let us know and we would be happy to sit down with you and discuss how you can Market with Team LaCross and NASCAR!
Talk to you soon!
