Saturday Night Aug. 20, 2016 – Double Features (Finished 6th and 18th DNF)

Saturday Night Aug. 20, 2016 – Double Features (Finished 6th and 18th DNF)

Heats: None – Time Trials set the field for 2nd feature

Feature 1: Started 9th  (of 22 cars), Finished 6th

Feature 2: Started 2nd  (of 28 cars), Finished 18th  (DNF)

Comments: Practice rounds were pretty good with 51SK up near the top of the speed charts for practice/scuff sessions. Time trial we were 5th quickest of 28 cars that qualified.

Feature 1 started out OK. Rob restarted 5th at the first caution with 34 laps to go. Next caution came with 31 laps to go and Rob restarted 8th. Cars were 2×2 in front and there was no where to go. Next caution came with 28 laps to go and Rob restarted 7th. Next caution came with 24 laps to go after something crazy happened with the 78 (contact from 88) but he went airborne and landed on the back of our car! He completely caved in the rear tin, but there was no apparent structural damage so Rob stayed on the track to restart 6th. Contact was made and Rob spun with 19 laps to go and Rob restarted in the rear. Next caution came with 13 laps to go and Rob was up to 13th. Rob ran hard to finish 9th before the checkered flag flew.

Team worked hard to rework the damaged body and get the car ready before the 2nd feature. We finished just in time. Thanks to a good redraw after the time trials, Rob got an outside pole position starting position for the 2nd feature. First caution came with 34 laps to go and Rob restarted 2nd again outside the 72. Both Rob and Paul were running hard and they checked out ahead of the field before the next caution came with 30 laps to go and Rob restarted 2nd again. Rob actually laid down the fastest feature lap for the night during the feature on lap 5. On the restart, Rob let me know that something was wrong with the transmission shifting so he had to restart in high gear. Next caution came with 30 laps to go and Rob was the leader after the 72 pitted (not sure what was wrong). Next caution came with 28 laps to go and Rob was still the leader with the 88 of Rocco hot on his tail. With 23 laps to go, there was a HUGE front chute wreck (video below) on the front chute were the 17 of Adam Gada ended up upside down on top of the front chute wall. Rob restarted 2nd since the 88 got the lead just before the caution. On the next lap, the 47 got into the right rear of Rob on turn 1 corner entry and that caused Rob to chase the car up and then other contact caused Rob to slide sideways bringing out a caution. Unfortunately, we learned that the car was damaged and we had a DNF due to a pan hard bar failure (broke in half – perhaps due to the race #1 contact with 78?). We’ve got a lot of work this week to get the car back for next week.