Sunday, June 12, 2011

Bad luck at Boyd Raceway friday nite

Boyd raceway nicknamed the bull ring is one of the fastest racing surfaces in our area and many of the state and national IMCA points leaders run here, so its usually an elite field of good cars and drivers. This was my first time to Boyd this year so I have to start on the tail of the field, if you race consecutive weekends at a track you draw for starting position in your heat race. I started last in the 8 car heat race and was able to move up to 5th, the track was really heavy and fast. That put me in a 14th starting position for the 20 lap 17 car A feature, I ran my air pressures higher than normal for a feature since the track had so much moisture and grip, I put 2 rounds of spring pressure in the left and took 2 out of the right and added fuel. Usually I adjust 6 rounds on each side for a dry slick track to keep the car from being to free on the slick surface. Tonight is a hammer down wide open tacky track with lots of grip and lots of speed, this usually means alot of cars will get tore up. I took the green flag in heavy traffic and dove to the bottom of turn 4 passing 2 cars before the flagstand on mid straight away one of which was Tom Earl Jr. National Points leader, he always finishes at the front so I knew he would be hard charging to get his spot back. I ran the middle groove early on and was able to avoid a few spinouts in front of me which gained a few more track positions, The setup was perfect and the car was handling great so I decided to try the high side of the track and keep more momentum. I would lift for just a second entering the turn, tap the rear brakes to set the car and start the slide and then you can feel the cushion catch your right rear and keep you from sliding off the back of the track. When you feel that tire bump the cushion thats when you stand on it! Wide open out of the turn down the back straight and repeat the process thru turns 1 and 2, this is known as riding the highline highway it is the longest distance around the oval but the fastest. I had moved up to 6th or 7th position after 2 single file restarts with me passing cars right at the cone on the back stretch. I noticed on the previous lap the car behind me was taking the low line thru 3 and 4 and starting to show me his nose as we went down the front straight so the next time I entered 3 on the highline as usual but in the center of the turn I dove to the bottom of 4 to cut him off before entering the straight. That was successful and we were keeping pace with the leaders and gaining on the lead pack with some lap traffic starting to come into play. Then next time I sailed in 3 and dove down in 4 my competitor and I came out side by side entering the front stretch as he was drifting up closer to the wall he never lifted nor did I and his right side made contact with my front left tire and it was over! I went sliding sideways then head on in to the wall with the right front tire and wheel absorbing most of the impact. I had a bent upper A arm and ball joint as well as a flat tire and bent rim, but i stayed out on the track thinking I could catch the 14 car that put me in the wall and return the favor. The flagmen knew my intentions and black flagged me before I could carry out my plan. I was showed as finishing 11th but the car that put me in the wall finished 4th, I know tonight would have been a top 3 finish but thats racin.

No comments:

Post a Comment