We had a pretty busy weekend of racing after taking most of the summer off.

 

We started with racing at I-90 in Hartford and of course had to start in the back. First time out with a wing on the Maxim Chassis and after hot laps, I was pretty proud of what we had. It was a Wide Open track and the car was working very well. Then comes the heat race..... we had some luck with another car dropping out and putting us in a 4th place starting spot. We held onto that position in spite of the car being too tight and the motor was running very rich and bogging out. Lucky to avoid the B-feature and at least put us in a back starting spot for the A. Again had to deal with handling problems and after half way through the main event, we had a caution that lined us up and I counted our position back.....I would have to gain about 10 places to get into any money and make it worth the run, and I was not moving ahead at all, so I pulled in and took the night as a learning experience. Not a breakthrough night, but marked it up as learning.

 

Sunday was our premier at Husets Speedway and, of course, we started in the back. The normal car count at this track this year has been about 11 cars, but we lucked into a 15 car field for the night. Heat race found us in the back and I took it easy for the first lap and then had the pedal to the floor for the rest of the race. Still finished last, but the car was working pretty well. We made a gear change and decided to play it out in the feature. I was pleasantly surprised and found that we had a car that could move up!!! I passed cars low and them moved to the high side to pass again. We did not dominate anything, but had a good run from 13th to 8th place in the feature. I was very happy with this in regard to some of the racers that we beat. Gotta love moving forward, rather than backward. Keep in mind...... new car (first Maxim chassis), second night with a wing on, and our lower budget motor...... not too bad!

 

Now, looking at the end of the year and just a few races left. We decided to put the ASCS motor in for next weekend. There are 2 reasons for this: 1) we should have a pretty good starting spot at I-90 and can make the most of the situation..... and 2) I hate to leave the motor sit for over 1 year without running it. Even in spite of storage care, there is always build up of surface rust in the cylinders and alcohol corrosion when things are left sitting. I figure it is best to break it out again and fire it up so that everything stays loose and run-able.

 

We can run a couple of races and make sure that the motor is still performing, also be able to blow the cob webs out for the year, before we plan on our next year program. I only see 2 or 3 races left in our program for this year and then we already have a jump on next year.

 

We will plan on working on the car this Wednesday night and get everything situated for Saturday at I-90. I will not be available Thursday night, but if there are any issues that do not get covered on Wed., we will have Friday night or some of Saturday to be ready to run.