11th
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.
