One More To Go

August 28th, 2010

Saturday night at Petaluma in the late model.  Just one more points race to go.  Jeff had struggled the previous week with the handling of the car and had worked in the shop really hard to get the car back where he thought it should be.  He was pumped and was certain that the car would handle great!  We were excited for him as well.

Only 11 late models checked in for the race, but as always, some good competition was on hand.  Went out for hot laps with high hopes and BAM, dropped flat on our butts.  The car was junk.  AGAIN!  Okay, okay, back up.  Maybe it was just the track.  It is majorly greasy… But then why does everyone else look so much faster than us?  No time to make big changes, we have to get back on the track almost immediately.  Ed and John run over to staging and make some quick adjustments and Jeff takes off to group qualify.

WTH??  It’s still horrible!  He’s the slowest car on the track?  This is unbelievable.  Did somebody adjust something backwards?  Again, we think something has to be broke!  He comes into the pits, extremely frustrated.  Pacing back and forth, muttering expletives.  Talking to himself.  Is it the track?  Is it him?  No time to waste.  Just get it fixed!  They make a multitude of changes – shocks, suspension, bar angles.  He heads out for the heat race, starting dead last.

The green flag drops on the heat race and Jeff jumps on the throttle.  Almost immediately, he is in second place.  The car is still not handling like it has in the past, but it is 100 times better than it was in qualifying.  We finish in 2nd place and are happy that the car seems to be heading in the right direction.  After Jeff returns to the pits, he tells the guys it’s still not where it needs to be.  He feels better about the car, but still doesn’t feel like it will win with the current set up.  A short discussion ensues, and a decision to replace the pull bar and some more work on the front of the car is made and once again, Jeff heads out to run the trophy dash.

From the start of the dash and the minute the engine revved up, we knew the car had just made a complete 180.  It was a rocket ship!  Jeff took off and no one had anything for him.  He checked out and won it by a mile.  The funny thing was when the announcer was interviewing him after the dash and said, “So, Jeff, tell us what you did to the car, because frankly, in qualifying and the heat race, it looked like junk.”  LOL!  Huh, no kidding?!!

In the main event, Jeff went out feeling much more confident.  He knew that the car was close to where it needed to be and he felt it had a chance at winning.  He took the lead from the beginning and was checking out on the field.  However, our luck was not golden that night.  Lapped traffic ignored the “Hold Your Line” flag, and impeded Jeff’s winning run.  With traffic blocking his way and the 2nd place runner of John Silva fast closing in, it got really tense for us in the stands.  Jeff was not willing to punt the lapped traffic and risk hurting his own car and that allowed Silva to overtake Jeff with 8 laps to go.  Jeff chased Silva back down and it was a very exciting run for the checkers, but Silva ended up winning by less than 2/10ths of a second over Jeff.  Well, being the bridesmaid isn’t THAT bad, considering… That’s what we told Jeff anyway.  He didn’t want to hear it. 

We still have a 49 point lead over 2nd place in the championship run for the Petaluma Late Model Track Championship.  All Jeff has to do is start the main event on September 11th and he clinches it.  I think I’m going to bring cake and champagne just in case…

Next Week’s Plans

Labor day weekend and we’re off to Santa Maria Speedway to run with the West Coast Late Model Series on Sunday, September 5th.  We’re looking forward to running at another track and competing against a whole spectrum of different competitors.  Come out and see some great racing!