Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Photo of the week

Ok, so at the autograph session this week, Mikey Fritz was giving out these cool little stuffed fellas to all the fans. One of them ended up making the trek back to the shop with us. I found him sitting in the car Monday night so I figured I'd go ahead and let him guard the car overnight and snapped this picture...


Well, imagine my surprise when I got back today and found that he must have gotten a little hungry last night.


Watch out if you got one of these critters at the track... he'll eat your car! :-)

Monday, May 2, 2011

Saturday night revisted

Hi everyone!

After speaking with Scott about the incident in the closing laps of the main event Saturday night and reviewing a posted video, we would like to announce an error in the blog post yesterday. On the restart, Scott missed a shift and a warning light came on. He lost concentration for a moment and moved down about a half a groove, directly into the path of the 12 car, which caused the incident. We accept full responsibility for the contact and apologize for giving out incorrect information.

We at Team LaCross strive to race clean and do not and will not shy away from accepting the appropriate responsibility in any on track incidents that we are involved in. It is important to us that you all are given accurate information, as you are our fans and deserve no less than the truth.

We are currently working hard to fix the damage, which is superficial thankfully and look forward to seeing you all this weekend for our big Twin 30 lap racing night. Thank you once again for being the Best, most Passionate fans any team could ever ask for!

Eddie C, your faithful Crew Chief and blogger.

Race 2, What a night!

Ever have one of those days that makes you feel like you just spent it all riding the Cyclone roller coaster? We had one Saturday for sure on a night that will be one that everyone is sure to remember.

We got to the track under sunny skies for the first time this season. It wasn't quite warm, but it was lovely considering how it's been lately. As Scott headed down to tech, Britt and I readied the pit area and chatted up our fellow racers, everyone seeming to be in great spirits. One of our great Sponsors, Bill Hampton, owner of Monroe MotorWerkes was our guest in the pits and let me tell ya, he had a front row seat for a lot of action!

First practice was cut short due to a couple of cars spinning on the backstretch. Unfortunately, that meant we only got about 5 laps in and really were not sure what we had to work with, so we decided it would be best to go back out without changing anything. 2nd practice was going along alright, but about 10 laps in, Scott came over the radio and said he was coming in early, clearly there was something amiss.

When he hit the pit stall, we commenced our normal procedures and Scott told me, "There is something broken in the left front. Sure enough, when I got the car in the air, the upper control arm had snapped almost completely in half! We had less than 30 minutes till qualifying so the team jumped into action. Bill fired up the generator, Scott ran off to borrow a welder and I pulled the suspension apart. Everything flowed beautifully! Our JZ Motorsports teammate Lance O'grain came walking up and he welded up the control arm in about 2 minutes ( it would have taken me 15 easy! lol) While I put the car back together, Bill pulled off the practice tires and put the race ones on, Scott was busy talking with the producer for the Comcast SportsNet Reality program "Adrenaline Hunter" as they wanted to mount some cameras in our car for an episode they were shooting that night and Britt was doing her best to keep the flow of transmission fluid (blood) at bay from the cut i got on my hand (she's a great nurse!) Right before Scott jumped in the car to qualify, we decided to loosen it up just a smidge and off he went.

Qualifying was broken up into 3 groups this week. we were in the 3rd grouping and with only a few practice laps under our belts, I wasn't really sure what would happen. But as always, LaCrash drove her hard and we grabbed the 2nd spot behind Steve Green. After qualifying, there was a prolonged autograph session as it was sponsor appreciation night. The stands were by now filling up nicely and as we stood on the front stretch, we all remarked about how it looked like old times. Lots of fans, plenty of cars and smiles everywhere you looked.

Heat races began shortly after autographs and since we had so many cars (21 total in our class, best turnout in a very long time!) they broke us up into 3 heats. we were in the 3rd one, which contained the top 6 qualifiers and as the 2nd fast time, we got to start on the inside of the back row. Normally, this wouldn't be horrible, but on this night, it was almost an omen of things to come. The inside line was decidedly NOT the fast line as the race began and soon we found ourselves at the back of the field, struggling to find our way around the 5th and 6th qualifiers as the 10, 12 and 2 cars began to run away from us. The 65 kept making dive moves as we tried to get under him and finally, it worked to his detriment as he dove across our nose going into turn one and recognizing this, Scott backed out of the gas early. He came down in front of us and ended up with 2 in the dirt, which spun him around. Scott unfortunately had nowhere to go and spun trying to avoid him. This brought out the yellow and we were able to get going again and return to the tail of the field for the restart. At the green flag, we had 4 laps to go and Scott got around the 64 and 2 of Mikey Fritz, setting off after the 10 of Steve Green and the 12 car. Alas, there were not enough laps left and we finished the heat in 3rd.

The main event was the first of the evening and the track decided to give us 40 laps instead of the normal 25 to 30 to make up for the shortage of laps the previous race. (Thanks Evergreen!!) The TV crew came over and fired up the video cameras that they had placed on Scott's helmet and on the roof of the car and we lined up. We were to start on the outside of the 10th row due to our full inverts, but with the inclusion of the 1 second rule, we moved up to the outside of the 5th row. It was a thing of beauty to see 21 cars take the green flag. Scott immediately began making moves and before long he found himself fighting for the lead with the 12 car and our old pal Steve. As we found our way to 2nd, the 12 began making a few poor choices in his efforts to stay in front of us, culminating in spinning the 18 car and bringing out a caution flag. The restart found us leading, Steve in 2nd and the 12 in 3rd. At this point, we were able to fend off several taps on our rear bumper after the restart, which could have been terrible as they could have taken out both us and Steve, who had restarted on our outside and was next to us at the time. At this point, we were able to stretch the lead out to over 10 car lengths and were looking solidly in front. Traffic became a factor, as Scott carefully picked his way through, Steve and the 12 were able to make up quite a bit of ground, cutting the lead to 3 car lengths. Just as we broke free of lapped traffic and began to stretch it back out again, we got another caution flag and were grouped up again. This time, it was the 12 who chose the outside and he was able to retake the lead for a short amount of laps. As the 3 cars duked it out again, another caution flew and on the restart, it was Steve on the pole, Scott outside of him and the 12 behind Steve. With only 3 laps to go, it was shaping up to be a whale of a finish. On the drop of the green, Scott missed a shift, which wouldn't have normally resulted in what happened next as he wouldn't have been slightly off Steve's pace. Out of nowhere, the 12 darted up and hit our left rear. As Scott was pitched sideways, he mashed the throttle to straighten the car out. The 12's right front tire climbed up our left rear and his car got locked onto ours as they came out of Turn 4.

As I told Scott to keep his foot in it down the front stretch, sparks were flying off the locked together cars. You could see the driver of the 12 sawing his wheel to try to unlock the two cars and as they crossed the start finish line, they finally became unhooked. He had a flat right front and spun out going into turn one, then pulled off to the pits for a tire change. Our car was torn up pretty badly and Mikey Fritz relayed to me through his spotter that the left rear was bouncing quite a bit. But we weren't going to pull in, it was damn the torpedoes time! On the final restart, we took the outside line and at the drop of the green, it was obvious something was amiss. While we were able to stay with Steve and give him a good battle, the car was far from the dominating performer it was earlier. As the checkers flew, it was Steve 1st, Scott 2nd, Mikey 3rd, Travis Woodward 4th and Jack McGeehan 5th.

As Scott headed to the tech shack, he came on the radio and said, "Um, bring a jack and spare to tech, we've got a flat." Yup, we ran the last 3 green flag and 3 caution laps with a completely flat left rear tire! The pictures below show the damage better than I can explain it...

The right rear (Yes, the one we just replaced!) after the race

Aaand the left rear with a spare mounted so we could load the car. Guess we need to replace that too now!
Yeah... not pretty, but we got 2nd place with all that damage! So yes, I am not completely upset. We've got a great team, great friends and we can get her all fixed up, if not super pretty by next weekend's twin 30 lap races. 

We would like to take this moment to again thank our sponsors, TNT Mechanical, JZ Motorsports, Monroe MotorWerkes, Millennium Motors, Joes Racing Products, Deyoung, Inc. and our Tire Angels for supporting us the way you do. You are all AWESOME! 

Next up, the first of 3 double header nights we have this season, with Twin 30 lap races. And don't forget, it's mothers day this Sunday and so Saturday night, all Mom's get in free! So come on out to the races and see what happens next!

See you at the races!!!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Photo of the Week

Hi Everyone!

This season, we will be posting a photo of the week for each race weekend. Starting next week, I'll post a questionaire on our facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/Team-LaCross/100436579996391). Vote for your favorite and the highest vote getter will be our Photo of the week.

I chose these ones to get the ball rolling. We always enjoy when kids come down to the autograph session. It's great to see their faces when they get an autograph card from Scott and he spends a little time talking to them about becoming racers some day themselves.

This young fella even got to sit in the drivers seat! Hopefully in a couple of years, he will be out there in his own car and give another child the thrill of sitting in a real race car :-)



See you at the races!

Monday, April 18, 2011

New Season, New Promoters, New Blog home, Same Goals

Hi Everyone and welcome once again to the new blog home of Team LaCross!

Saturday started out exactly as most do in April here in the Northwest... Drizzle and cold, with the weather services calling for partly sunny... I wonder why they even bother trying to predict weather around here.

When we got to the track and unloaded, the skies looked dreary and we rolled out for the 1st practice under a steady light drizzle, reducing lap times substantially. We skipped the 2nd session, deciding to use that time to put a "lightly wet" set up in the car for qualifying and trying to figure out how best to manage our tires, as we were only allowed to put 2 new sticker tires on instead of the usual 4 for the first race.

Qualifying:
New for this year is weekly qualifying instead of qualifying heat races. We still run heats, but they do not set starting order anymore. Also new is F-1 style qualifying, which is where they send 5-6 cars out on the track together and allow you to run 6-8 laps. They take your best time in those qualifying hot laps and there you are. The track was drying out nicely at this point and even with a semi-wet set up in the car, we qualified 3rd, with our good pal Steve Green setting the pole.

Heat Race:

For the heat race, we still were not sure the rain was going to hold off, so we dialed back the wick a little on the set up, but not quite back to a full dry set up and headed out. We started inside row two of the 7 car heat race and Scott was able to take advantage of the pole car sliding up the track in turn one to make a quick move to the front of the field, quickly stretching out a 6 car length lead. A late caution brought the field back together, but we were able to hold off a hard charging Steve Green to take the win.

Main event:

We went ahead and left the set up alone for the main, as rain was still a possibility. We started outside of row 2, due to the full invert and several cars being sent to the back due to the new 7/10's rule, which puts any car that does not qualify within 7/10's of the pole time to the rear of the field. We were told just before the start that our race would be cut down to 25 laps from 50 due to time constraints, which was pretty bad considering the fact that all of the other classes got their full shows and went WAY over their allotted time. The start was a crazy blur, with cars beating and banging into each other, but the fast qualifiers quickly made it to the front. Scott was doing amazing things weaving through traffic, one time I almost had to close my eyes as he was the meat in a three wide sandwich! Eventually we found ourselves settled into 3rd place behind the 12 car and  Steve Green. In turn 3, the 12 car slid up the track just a tiny bit and that was all it took to open up a hole for the 1099 train (Steve and Scott's car numbers of course!) to slip by on the inside. The 12 hung with us for about a half a lap, but coming out of turn 2 Steve and Scott pulled away and by the entry to 3, they had pulled out to a 6 car length lead and it became very clear that they would be the two cars fighting it out for the win.

Lap after lap they ran nose to tail, Scott looking for an opportunity to pass and Steve doing his best to make sure he stayed out front. When the final caution came out around lap 20, we felt that we certainly had a shot on the restart of being able to get around Steve by going high, but alas, it was not to be. The track went red as  the EMTs were called to the stands to care for a fan who was having a medical issue(Heard today that she is fine, so that's great news) and race control decided to throw the checkered flag, declaring Steve the winner and placing us 2nd. It's too bad really, because the remaining fans were going to be treated to what I think was going to be the absolute BEST final laps of any race that night. Two wiley veterans who in addition to being great drivers, are great friends and know each others driving styles very well.
LaCrash and Steve celebrating the 1, 2 finish

In the end, the top 4 were Steve Green, Scott LaCross, Dale Creager and Michael Fritz. We couldn't have been happier to see this finishing order (well, ok, if we had won I might have been a smidge happier... lol) as these guys are all our very good friends and to see them all do well is a great sign that this year is going to be an absolute barn burner! You are not going to want to miss a single race this year!

Next race is April 30th, Car Sponsor Appreciation night. Check out our Tire Angels Program post below and perhaps you too can become an official sponsor of Team LaCross!

See you at the races!

Sponsor Links

Hi everyone and welcome to the New blog page. I will be posting a race report for Saturday night shortly, but I wanted to point out a new feature here... See those little tabs at the top of this post? Those are direct links to all of our fine Team LaCross Sponsors!

Our sponsors are the ones who provide us with the means to go to the track and provide you with great entertainment each weekend. Please show them how much you appreciate their support of Team LaCross by clicking on the links and taking your business to them as often as possible!

And don't forget to check out the Tire Angels Program post just below this one. You too can become one of Team LaCross' sponsors for 2011 and when we win races, you can turn to the person next to you in the stands and say, "Hey, I bought them that tire they won on tonight!"

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

PRESS RELEASE: New Tire Angels Program Announced!

Many people have asked us how they can support our racing efforts during the year.

 I quote Harry Hogge in Days Of Thunder, "Tires, Cole, is what wins races."  Truer words have never been spoken. All the preparation in the world goes out the window without good tires on the race car. 

 Team LaCross is proud to introduce an exciting way for our fans to become more involved with the new "Team LaCross Tire Angels" program. 

 Join great companies like TNT Mechanical, JZ Motorsports, Millennium Motors, Deyoung Inc. and Joes Racing Products in showing your support.

 The Tire Angels program is a fun opportunity to get more involved with your favorite racing team by allowing our fans to purchase a brand new Goodyear Racing tire. All members of the Tire Angels program will have their name proudly displayed on the race car as well as receiving a limited edition "Tire Angels" sticker.

Membership in this elite and exciting program is a mere $100.00.

 Our past and future success is due to our great fans.  Without you, we wouldn't race. 


Membership Options:


Checks or Money orders:   Scott LaCross, 10121 Evergreen Way # 25-541, Everett, WA 98204


Paypal.com: Select "Send Money"  and follow the on screen directions. Our user account is:  home@getcoolparts.com


Our season opener is April 16th and we hope to see you there!  Stay tuned for race updates. 


See you at the races! 
Eddie C.