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Blog for August 16

Saturday night’s race at Lanier was a big one seeing as how it was a national qualifier for the Legends cars. Surprisingly enough there weren’t as many cars as I thought there would be but there were quite a few. The normal front runners showed up and I knew I could run with them so I felt like I had a good shot at competing for the win. We ran practice and figured out what had been wrong with the car for so long and that gave me some more confidence going into the Saturday night show. We unloaded and went out for practice and the car was working MUCH better. It was rotating in the middle of the corner very good, really too good. So we came in after practice and made a wedge adjustment to the car to tighten it up just a little bit. I started sixth in the heat race because my draw wasn’t very good at all. I had a pretty good car in the heat race but slower cars in front of me allowed the leaders to get away too much to do anything with. I got stuck in sixth for a good part of the race because the two cars in front of me were all over the place. They were loose and slipping and sliding in every corner. I just eased by both of them as quickly as I could but like I said by then the leaders were a straightaway ahead. I brought the car home to a fourth place finish in the heat race and that was going to start me eighth in the main race. I wasn’t real sure whether or not to adjust the car for the main race or not. I found out in the driver’s meeting that we were going to be running later than usual so I figured the track would gain more grip and the car would be just right. Turns out the track gained just a tick too much grip. In the feature race my car was pushing just enough in the middle of the corner to hurt me in rolling the corner which in turn effects my exit and straighaway speed. It was never really just a “ride along” race. I was constantly working on someone or someone was working on me and on top of that I was working the car too. I brought the Aaron’s Dream Machine home to a seventh place finish which was okay by my standards. I know I am capable of running in the top three which makes it a little bit frustrating but hey… that’s racing. We’ll be back in two weeks to compete up front once again and hopefully take home a win. I want to thank Aaron’s, ABF, and the Dawsonville Pool Room for sticking with us through everything. I also want to thank everyone who helps me out at the track: my dad, Uncle Bill, Casey Roderick, and David Roderick.

Blog for August 12

Tuesday night’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte was the final race of the Summer Shootout series. To start things out I drew about middle of the way, somewhere around 200 out of 400 positions. Having that draw started me fifth in the first heat race. I was excited about this last race because I felt like I had something figured out to where I could run up front again, but that wasn’t the case. I held my own for the first three or four laps of the heat race but after that I couldn’t hang on to the car. I’m not so sure that the car was really as bad as it looked moreso than I was having braking difficulties. That is one part of these cars that you have to have down pat if you plan on running good. The brakes just have to be there. Between the heat race and main races I changed brake pads and scuffed them in and all to check them out. However once I ran them in and then tested the car to see where it locked up first I found that I had MUCH better brakes but the balance of them was off. We did all we could at the track to make the car better and from there we went out for the main race. Right off the bat the car was sideways getting in the corner but that was from too much adjustment on the brake adjuster. But once I came out of the adjuster some it just used almost all right front brake and I was pushing very bad getting into the corner. I can’t really say what my car was doing but it felt tight when I got the brakes off of the rear. If your brakes are acting up then that affects your entry which in turn affects your middle and so on to the exit. It’s definitely a finesse adjustment and probably the most important on these Legend cars. But I stayed out of the wrecks in the race and picked off a few positions here and there when I had a good corner but it was still disappointing considering I know that myself and my car are capable of top five runs. I just have to thank Aaron’s, ABF, and the Dawsonville Pool Room for all of their support this season. I also want to thank my aunt and uncle for continueing to help me along in this once in a lifetime opportunity. You can bet once we get the car’s tweaks worked out we will be contending for wins in the Pro division.

Blog for August 9

Well this past weekend’s race at Lanier National Speedway was just one weekend away from the national qualifier which is going to be held there next weekend. So this past weekend was just as much a practice as it was anything, but it was also another week’s race. I took the same setup there this past weekend that I have been running very well with but with just a few changes. One change was one in which I controlled which was a piece of lead on the car… I was too light. The other change was the track. I went out for practice and was pushing like an absolute freight train. I mean I couldn’t even touch the gas on corner exit or it pushed right into the wall. When I came in and started looking at the track during the driver’s meeting it hit me that the track had an absolute downpour on it earlier in the week so there was no rubber on the track. As I watched the rest of the guys have there qualifying heats and practices I could tell that everyone was BAD tight. In the pits before my heat race I made a wedge adjustment to loosen up the car and it helped quite a bit. From practice to the heat race I knocked off seven tenths of a second. I started on the pole in the heat race and wasn’t quite good enough to hold on to the number one spot. However myself and the second place car swapped the lead two or three times until one of our competitors came from the back of the pack to just go screaming by us. He was fast! I ended up third in the heat race and came in and didn’t touch the car. I was expecting the track to come to me as cool as it was supposed to get and as much rubber that was going to get put down but it didn’t get quite enough put down to satisfy my car. I also think my setup wasn’t working because of the lead I put on the car so I have to go back and rethink that for the qualifier. Well the main race came around and I found myself starting in fifth place. At the start of the race I was running in fifth place comfortably until we had a few cautions back to back on lap five. After the first caution we had the choose and I could have gone outside and picked up a position or two but I had a gut feeling that said don’t go high this time. Turned out my little gut was right this time because when we came back around to the start finish line after the restart I was under a wreck that happened going off into turn one. The next choose I went outside and found myself sitting in second because of it. On the restart the first two guys got away from me. They were stout. But the third place car and I weren’t seperated by much at all. The rest of the race was run under green flag and I was just watching the leaders slowly pull away from us in the third and fourth positions. The third place guy wasn’t gaining on me and I wasn’t loosing to him but I just couldn’t get up there and rattle his cage the way I would have liked to. I brought the Aaron’s Dream Machine home to a well run fourth place finish and I learned a lot this weekend too. Hopefully I know enought now for the qualifyier where I can run in the front of the pack and compete for the win.

Blog for August 7

Well the final week of Thursday Thunder has come and gone, however it was a double feature night. Week nine of the series got rained out so the first race of the night was the week nine feature, where I was to start in the back. Once we unloaded our cars we decided to go run them in the parking lot to make sure everything was okay. My car’s brakes were not working well at all so when I brought the car back into the garage bay we took the front brake pads off and scuffed them up on the concrete. Once we got them back on and hooked up and all we sat the car back down and I tested the brake pedal to see how it was. There was no brake pedal when I pushed down! From here we bled the brakes and I still wasn’t getting any pedal at all and I knew something was wrong… I just didn’t know what. While all of this was happening the first pro feature of the night was taking place and I was sick to miss it. Not only did I miss the week nine feature race, but I also missed another perfect opportunity to see what my car was doing for week ten’s heat and feature races. We went through every part of the brake system on the car trying to trace the problem and I finally didn’t know what else to do. I went and asked a friend of mine who actually helped me get into Legends racing and got me started off competitively. He knew a lot about the cars and I told him the problem and what it felt like and as soon as he got to the car, boom it was done. He had the problem fixed in a minute (no exageration). Thanks to him I was able to make my heat race and my second main race of the night. I drew pretty good when we drew for starting positions in the heat race and I was starting right behind our new teammate Casey Roderick. I was pumped and planning on me and him jumping out and running one, two but my hopes quickly changed. I slipped up off of turn two on the first lap fighting a tight-loose racecar and I go freight-trained back to about fourth place. I was doing everything I could to wrestle the car to the front but it was once again just too much to handle. I came in and made a wedge adjustment trying to get the car working better but I think I missed the spring setup. The main race was going to be another hard faught race for sure. As it started the car was just all over the place. I was fighting a condition I never had and boy was it hard to hold on to. I would enter the corner and the rear of the car would come around on me and by the middle of the corner I was pushing like a dump truck. With the middle of the corner so tight that made me bad free off and there was just nothing there for me. I adjusted the brake valves trying to find a balance but I couldn’t get one. I was driving the wheels off of that car trying to keep my position on the track but I failed to do it. I brought the car home in tenth place and very disappointadly I might add. With all of the struggles and only running five of the ten races in the Thursday Thunder series I still brought the Aaron’s Dream Machine home to a tenth place finish in the championship standings. I just have to appologize to Aaron’s and everyone else and really thank them for standing behind me through such a tough year. I can assure you though once I hit the setup I will be fast and win races.

Blog for August 5

Tuesday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway was the ninth week of competition in the Summer Shootout Series. I have been struggling on the 1/4 mile tracks all year but have been running good on the 3/8 mile tracks. Ironically complete opposites from the previous year. Well I drew good at Charlotte with a 95 out or 400 pill draw. That started me outside pole in the second heat race so once again I was pumped up about the race and was trying to be positive about my car again this week. Well the heat race started and I dropped like a rock once again. I ended up finishing my heat race in eleventh place and the car was pushing awefully. I came in and made a big adjustment on the car and was sure it would loosen the car up enough so I could actually race it, but only time would tell. My eleventh place finish in the heat race had me starting 22nd in the feature race and I was poised to march my way to the front. Well the race started and the car was a little better, but nowhere it needed to be to run up front. I was hanging on the the back of the field and making up positions through attrition where others had wrecked. But a big pre-race mistake was made by myself and I am very lucky I wasn’t seriously hurt or that the car didn’t get torn up. After a late caution I was pacing around the track in third gear and just before coming to the green flag I dropped down to second gear. Well we came to the green and I couldn’t get my car to pull into third gear. I was completely confused as to what happened. The car would downshift but it wouldn’t upshift. So as my car slowly rolled around the track in first gear I pushed the clutch in on the start finish line and let it roll into the infield for the remaining two laps of the race. I came in and got out of the car to look around and see what the problem might be. Uncle Bill came over and started tinkering with the car too and as we pulled on the gear shifter we noticed the whole entire engine moving up and down. Come to find out the two motor mount bolts that bolt DOWN into the motor backed out a good ways. I take full responsibility for what happened but I still couldn’t believe that of all of the motor mount bolts that came out it was those two. I am truely baffled by what has happened in the last year to me on these 1/4 mile tracks. Uncle Bill has told me it is the track change but I just can’t seem to get a grip on the track no matter what I try to run. It is really frustrating because I know I am better than my runs and  finishes are showing. I just have to find the right setup and go from there.

Blog for August 2

Well I spent the whole week rebuilding my car from the crash at Lanier a few weeks back. So my first race back was to be the same place I have had a few accidents in the past. However I did shake the car down the day before so I could go ahead and work out the hard spots. Race day came around and I was confident in my setup and how the car ran the day before. I didn’t draw very well for the heat race but my car was good and I knew I could finish up front. The heat race wasn’t very interesting. We ran nose to tail for 8 laps and I ended up finishing third in the second heat. With that run I started sixth in the main race with a good car. It was really about a top three car but I was just focused on finishing the race in a respectable position. I ran sixth the whole race right behind the leaders. About eight laps into the race the two cars in front of me got together and it sent the guy on the outside spinning on the high side of the track. That brought out a caution and then it was time to choose position. We can either choose the inside or outside for restarting and that puts the guys in the back back up to the front with us even if they aren’t as good as the leaders. I stayed on the bottom the whole night because when something happens it usually happens up high. I restarted ninth on the last restart and boy was my car hooked up. On the last restart we had two or three to go and I could put my car absolutely anywhere. If I had better track position I feel I could have run in the top three and maybe even competed for the win but I fought for and took what I could get. The last two or three laps I drove from ninth to sixth and was on a charge to the front but I ran out of laps. We came in and I missed tech by one spot but it turned out one of the top five finishers failed inspection and got disqualified and I picked up the fifth position. It was a good run for me and got my confidence back up some but I knew I had a top three car which made me feel even better. I was running conservatively and just wanted to protect my car but still run well. Next week you can be sure the Aaron’s Dream Machine will be competing up front again.

Blog for July 26

Saturday night it was on to Lanier National Speedway where we have been racing in preparation for the national qualifier there in a few weeks. I changed my previous setup there from my last big accident in hopes that I would find something that would work. When we unloaded for practice I honestly wasn’t too sure how the car was going to feel so I just went out and ran. To my surprise the car was awesome. I was running laps in the 15.9 second range: the fastest I have ever run there. So as you could probably imagine I was very, very pleased. I did not draw very good at all for my heat race but I knew I had a good car so I wasn’t worried about it. All of the competitive cars were in my heat race… four of them to be exact. I started last in my heat race which was only fifth, but I was quickly running with the top three cars and running them down to be exact. I was so happy with the car that I cannot even explain it. I just knew this was going to be my race this weekend. On about lap three I had caught the top three cars who were running in a little pack right together. Little did I know my bad luck was about to strike again. I was just behind the second and third place cars on the front stretch when they went racing off into turn one. It was a normal entry into the corner when somebody is trying to make a pass but it didn’t stay normal for long. I was making the normal entry into the corner as was the second place car, but the third place guy ducked way down low to try and out brake the second place car. Let’s just say that wasn’t a good idea. I was about a half a car length or so off of them when the third place car locked up his left front brake, sending him into the guy on the outside. The next sequence of events happened real fast but I do know what happened. I already had my car pivited towards the bottom of the track in the entry of the corner and when they bumped wheels it sent the third place guy right into my line. Once I knew he was coming up the track it was too late to make the right move. In racing you only get one chance to make a split second decision. Sometimes it’s the right one and sometimes it’s the wrong one. It’s a fifty-fifty chance most of the time. But Saturday night at Lanier my conscience made the wrong split second decision. If I had stayed on my entry line instead of trying to move up the track I probably would have drove into the back of the third place guy and been okay, but instead I tried to go high real quick and I hit his right rear like a launching pad. It sent me over his car and my car hit the pavment on it’s left side tires. From there they dug into the track and rolled the car over. Before the first revolutiion was complete the wall was there to stop me and the belly of the car hit the wall. The car slid back down the track on it right side and I just sat there thinking “Wow… I cannot believe my luck.” Then I suddenly saw gas pouring out of the carbuerator and decided it was time to get out. I had to climb out of the window the regretably the second time in my Legends racing career, but I’ve learned and hear from the best that it happens in big time auto racing. Regardless of how mu night ended the Aaron’s Dream Machine was blistering fast and I know I would have brought home the victory that night. All I knew I could do was remember my setup and put it in for next weeks race to show just how good the car was going to be.

Blog for July 24

The eighth race at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s Thursday Thunder Series was the Pro division’s autograph session week. First of all in hot laps my car wasn’t too bad at all, but the track was very tight for some reason and it took a lot of throwing the car around to get it to turn. I drew fourth for the heat race and that was where I ran pretty much the whole heat race. After the heat race I came in and made some more adjustments to the car trying to get it to turn in the corner. Before the main race we all had our autograph session and were lined up on the frontstretch. The field got inverted so I was lucky enough to be starting on the outside pole of the main race. Once thee green flag flew I dropped down in line as quick as I could and I was running third or fourth going into turn three when I once again got spun out by the same guy that pushed me a week before. We went off into turn three and I was ducking low to make the pass and nobody was there. All of a sudden as soon as I made my move to get into the corner he tried to duck under me but was nowhere near in position to do so. I knew it was going to be close so right when we entered the corner I could feel him hook my bumper and I was around from there. I sat there and brought out the caution but I couldn’t get my car started; my battery had died. Once the green flag flew again I was slowly coming up through the pack and I got stuck is sixth place. My car wasn’t running right and it turned out the battery was completely dead and it wasn’t giving me the juice I needed on the straightaways to do anything with my competitors. It was a disappointing night for the Aaron’s Dream Machine but we once again had at least a top five car. We just didn’t have the finish to show for it.

Blog for July 22

Well Tuesday night’s race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte was threatened by mother nature all night. I was trying a new setup there and was hopeing I hit the nail on the head but I could tell by the heat race that I was way off. I started the heat race in sixth place and I dropped like a rock to the back of the pack. The thing just wouldn’t turn in the middle of the corner and I couldn’t even touch the gas or I would just about spin out. Needless to say I came in and made some big changes for the B-main. We rolled up to the grid for the B-main and I was anxious to see what the changes to my car did to it so I was really wanting to run the race, but a few cars didn’t show up and they just got us off of the track and transferred us all to the main race. Well the main race came around and I was starting caboose on the field. I felt like the car was going to be decent at least and at the start of the race I started picking off a few cars. Just a few laps into the race there was a big wreck on the frontstretch that involved the leaders and I was well away from that wreck. Once the red flag was over we got back to running. It wasn’t but just another 2 laps or so that there was another wreck in the exact same spot on the track. This time it was right in front of me though so I had to make so evasive moves and I dove down low on the frontstretch to avoid the melee. Once that wreck was cleaned up it was back to racing, but right as we were coming to the green flag mother nature let go and jus dropped it on us. We were racing in an absolute monsoon. The race director only gave us two laps under green before he threw the checkered flag. By staying out of all the trouble that the night produced I was able to bring the Aaron’s Dream Machine home to a top fifteen finish which is pretty good considering our last place start.

Blog for July 19th

Saturday night’s race at Lanier was an exciting one for sure. However we did have some trouble that stayed with us for most of the night. We unloaded the car with a new setup there and I was excited to see how it was going to react and hande. So we went out for practice and when the green flag flew my engine started sputtering. I did get in about 2 or 3 laps though to atleast see what my car was kind of doing. So I pulled off of the track early and came in to diagnose the problem. At first we thought it was the coils so we changed them. Then we decided that maybe one of the sparkplugs was acting up so we got four new ones and threw them in the car. By the time all of that was said and done it was about time for the heat race. I drew pretty bad and that had me starting fifth in the 2nd heat race. The race started and I was just hopeing that the engine would run, but it wasn’t running very well at all. During the first and only caution of our heat race I pulled in because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to tear up the engine. So when I got back to the pits I got the green light from Uncle Bill to go after it. I went back out on the track in 8th place and in four laps drove back up to fourth where I would end up finishing. Once back in the pits it was time to doctor the car some more and we decided to change the ignition box. Guess what… problem found. I made a little wedge adjustment to the car before the main race and fixed her right up. Finishing in fourth place in the second heat had me starting eighth in the main event. On the start of the race I quickly picked up a position and fell in line. After that it was a follow the leader line with a little slicing and dicing here and there. I knew I had a good car I just needed to get up front and show them I did. On about lap 8, two cars spun out and that brought out the caution. I noticed the track starting to get real slick just before the caution came out and low and behold one of the cars that spun out layed down three lines of oil around the track. Talk about being loose. Well when those two cars spun out that out me fifth. During the caution we got to choose which line we wanted to restart in and I chose the inside simply because of all the oil layed on the track. Making that choice ha me backed up to seventh for the restart. However, being on the inside I thought I could run the apron of the track and be just as fast as those who were running in the oil. On the restart, the guy in front of me and myself took off for the apron and I watched him drive from fifth to first in about 3 laps while I picked up one position and was all over the guys in front of me. I just had that guy feeling there was going to be a wreck while we were all scrambling to find some kind of grip. Well sure enough while I was running sixth on the white flag lap two guys got together and spun out which put me fourth place and gave me a VERY satisfying top five. The Aaron’s Dream Machine was awesome on Saturday night at Lanier. I really think we are starting to get back to where we were last year and I am really pumped up about going to Charlotte on Tuesday. You can bet we will keep finishing in the top five and hopefully click off a win here soon. I would also like tp thank my uncle and everybody else who helped out on the car at Lanier this weekend. It wouldn’t have been the same deal without all of the help that I had.