Jan 1^st, 2002

Happy New Year!. 1^st race of the year is at Sandusky speedway, in Sandusky, Ohio. Sandusky speedway is an Asphalt 3/8-mile track. Jay is driving a 4cyl. Car for his friend Rick. Why is Jay driving? His buddy is hung over and can barely walk, let alone drive. Jay was not feeling well the night before, so he had the most rest. Plus, he likes the cold weather, and was in his element. Snow all around, but the race goes on. Jay finished 3^rd in his heat race, and 5^th in the feature. Under powered car, and inexperienced driver on asphalt. 5^th out of 19 cars is not bad for his first asphalt race. My question is why would anybody race in 10-degree weather with snow on the ground? 

Pre-Season Practice – end of March, 2002

Our engine builder refreshed our motor over the winter.  We’ve had it in and out of the car at least 4 times fixing misc leaks and problems.  We’re actually getting pretty good at pulling our motor now.  We think it’s ready to go. 

We also decided to convert our Modified from a mono-leaf to a bar setup over the Winter.  We left the conversion process and design in the hands of our friend, Roger Miller of RAM Racing.  We have absolutely NO idea how our car is going to handle, but we’re confident in Roger’s abilities, so we’re excited about practicing.

We arrive at Cannonball Motor Speedway in St. Clairsville, Ohio.  The track is 2.5 hours from our house, but we consider it our home track and regularly race there on Friday nights.  Track looks wet and rough, but we’re pleased to see that there aren’t many cars there to practice.   

We unload the car and Jay takes 4 easy practice laps to get a feel on the car.  We’re trying to dial in a carb, but decide that testing the motor for leaks and testing the suspension is more important for this practice session.  So, we change the carb and put last year’s on. Jay heads out for another round.  The track is rough and he can’t really open it up and test the suspension like we want.  After 4 more laps Jay comes off.  He pulls up to the trailer and shrugs his shoulders.  I ask, “what happened?”  He says, “oil pressure went to zero, so I came off.”  He sits in the car and I pull the hood off.  I rolled my eyes as I survey the motor trying to find where our quite obvious oil leak is coming from.  There is oil everywhere and lots of it, but we can’t locate the source of the problem.   

Frustrated, we pack the trailer and head for home.  I’m on the phone with the engine builder before we’ve even cleared the track’s parking lot.  He tells us to bring the whole car over in the morning.  Why not…what else would we be doing on Easter? 

April 27, 2002
Saturday

Guess what?  We got our motor back.  Guess what else?  It’s raining.  All the tracks we checked in eastern Indiana, Ohio, northern Kentucky, and West Virginia have all cancelled.   

May 3, 2002
Friday

The weather has been beautiful all day.  Not a storm cloud in site.  I’ve got a great job that allows me to leave early on Friday’s to go racing.  Jay is self-employed, so his Friday schedule is flexible as well.  We depart Ashland, Ohio at 3pm.  On our way to Cannonball I get the overwhelming feeling that we’re forgetting something.  As we travel, I run down a mental checklist with Jay of tools, parts, clothing for the weekend, etc.  Jay’s convinced me that we have everything, so we continue on to the track.  Approximately 5 miles from the track exit we see a racecar hauler….heading the other way.  We look at each other and Jay says, “oh no.”  We continue on to the track, make our turn onto the hilly road leading to the track.  We see another truck and trailer heading towards us…away from the track.  We find that it’s one of our friends.  We both stop in the middle of the road and they inform us that the gates are locked and racing for tonight has been cancelled.  Apparently that overwhelming feeling that we were forgetting something was that we should’ve called the track to see if they were still racing! 

We get turned around and meet our friend in the parking lot at the end of the street.  We discuss trying to make a mad dash across southern Ohio to Skyline, another Friday night track that runs Modifieds.  As the guys discuss it, I pick up my cell phone and hit the button for Skyline…just one of the many racetracks pre-programmed into my phone.  Skyline informs me that they’re running and they’ve been running Modified consi’s every week because they’ve been having such a turnout.  We’ve decided that we don’t have enough time to try and make Skyline and opt to go to the hotel room we’ve already booked in West Virginia. 

May 4, 2002
Saturday

Time to leave for the track, Tyler Co. Raceway.  We had taken a short cut last year from the hotel and decided to take it again today.  Okay….the first road we tried wasn’t the right road.  However, I figured that out before we had even gone a mile.  Luckily there was a convenient large drive nearby and we were able to turn around.  We find the shortcut this time and get to the track.  We’re parked in line with a ton of other racers awaiting the gates to open.   

Guess what?  It starts to rain.  Go figure.   

We recall that we sat thru a rainstorm here last year and know the track is not quick to cancel racing due to rain.  So, there’s still hope.  Gates open and the rain stops.  We go up and survey the track.  Apparently they got a lot more rain than we thought.  It looks like the track had been plowed!   

After an approximate 2-hour delay of working in the track, the cars are released for hot laps.  As you may remember…we still don’t know what our rear suspension is going to do and we’re not positive our motor is 100%.  The track is still wet, but surprisingly in good condition considering how it looked a couple hours ago.   

There are 19 Modifieds.  The “idiot light” comes on in hotlaps as the oil pressure drops to 10-20 lbs when Jay lets off the throttle.  We pull the hood after hot laps.  No apparent oil leaks.  We go out for qualifying.  Oil pressure still dips down in quals.  We convince ourselves that it’s a problem with the oil sensor and continue racing.  We have some problems in our heat laps.  Not car problems….visor fogs over and driver can’t see.  Jay comes off early.  He’s not the only driver having this problem.  Track is too wet to leave the visor up.  We don’t know how to resolve this one, but off he goes for the Feature.   

Things are going pretty well for us in the Feature.  Car appears to be handling nicely.  Motor seems to be strong.  Jay begins to have fogging problems again and comes off the track when it gets too bad.  We finish 14^th. 

We get back to the hotel around 2:30 am.  Wakeup call is scheduled for 8am so we can depart for a day Road Warrior Tour race at Pennsboro. 

May 5, 2002
Sunday

While I'm in the shower Jay takes the room key and heads over to the gas station.  Jay returns, but he can’t seem to find the room key now.  We look for the key for 45 minutes…he eventually finds it over at the gas station.  This should’ve been a sign as to how the day was going to go. 

Jay decides to pick us up some breakfast at McDonalds.  We all want sausage/egg/cheese McMuffins.  He returns with ham/egg/cheese…not sausage.  Another indicator overlooked. 

We’ve never been to the track at Pennsboro, but the two drivers we spoke to at Tyler last night made it sound like it’d be easy to find.  Gates opened at 7am.  It’s 9am now, the track is approx. 1 hour away, qualifying is suppose to be at noon.  We have to change our gear after we get to the track so we’re already crunched on time. 

Good news?  It’s not raining and it looks like the weather is going to be beautiful.  More good news…the “town” of Pennsboro is easy to find.  Now….where’s the track?  The drivers at Tyler made it sound like the track was right on Route 74, which is what we came in on.  We went thru the town and crossed Route 50 and continued out of town on 74.  About a mile or so out of town we decide we missed the track and turn around.  I suggest we stop at the gas station, but you’ll find we don’t do things the easy way.  Jay passes by the gas station and continues back into town deciding that the track must be on the other side of town and we had just missed it on the way in.  Just as we’re about to turn onto the main drag thru the tiny town another Modified driver turns off of that road and heads towards us.  We know the driver so we do a quick turnaround to follow him.  Route 74 turns off to the right and another road goes straight.  We follow the other Modified driver onto this new road.  The other guy is quite a ways ahead of us, but we’re catching up.  As we go up a rather large hill, we’ve discovered the other Mod driver is also lost because now he’s turned around and has just passed us going back the other way.   

Great. Cody (other mod driver) pulled off the road at the bottom of the hill and waits for us to turn around and pull up beside him.  After quizzing us on where we’ve already searched, Cody decides he knows where the track is.  He leads us back to 74 and then we turn onto Route 50.  Sure enough, a mile or so down the road we see the track.   

I had heard from other drivers that there’s a creek that runs under turns 1&2 through the middle of the pits and under turns 3&4.  They all said it was really cool so I was looking forward to seeing it.   There were quite a few cars already pitted in the infield when we arrived.  The whole place looked pretty sweet especially with the creek running through it.  The general admission area was cut into the side of a large hill and overlooked the front straighaway.  It’s pretty cool to pit in the infield, but with all the big rigs in there, it’s impossible to see the whole track and watch the race. 

We crossed the bridge over the creek in the infield and proceeded to park near the turn 2 exit.  We knew we were going to be pushing it to get ready for hotlaps and qualifications.  I took off in search of the AMRA trailer so I could get Jay signed in and draw a pill.  Jay and the kids unloaded the car and got things prepared to change the gear.  I drew a horrible number, 66, but I knew it was just to establish qualifying order, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. 

I returned to the car and we rushed to change the gear.  It took us about an hour to get it changed, set our rear suspension back up, and get the right tires on.  It wouldn’t have taken quite that long, but we had to backup a few steps when Jay forgot to put the panhard bar back on before inserting and securing the driveshaft.  When we were finished I was wearing gear oil, dirt, and racing alcohol from head-to-toe.  Jay wasn’t much better off than I was.

But we were ready and luckily the track was running behind schedule. 

Jay drove over to the AMRA tech area and waited in line with some other cars.  We passed tech inspection the first time through.  AMRA officials told Jay that he was only the 6^th car to pass inspection the first time through.  There were 42 Modifieds there for the event. 

I stood along a stretch of track where I had a good view of turns 1 & 2 as Jay went out for hotlaps.  He went by a couple times and then the cars came off the track.  Jay strolls back into the pit to our trailer with an obvious right front flat with a very bent rim.  He climbs out of the car and I shrug my shoulders and ask what happened.  He said, “I went into turn 3 too hard, couldn’t turn and hit the guardrail.”  I look over the front and right side of the car.  I don’t see any apparent damage other than the tire/rim, so we jack it up and put on a new right front tire.  We drop the car down and I stood in front of it eyeing the tires.  It visually looks like there’s too much toe-out, but I grab the toe-in/toe-out gauge and we do a check on it.  I’m right, way too much toe-out.  Apparently when he hit the guardrail, it knocked it outta whack.  We re-adjust, re-measure, and are ready to go again.   

I reclaimed my viewing area of turn 1 & 2 as I watch the Mod’s go out for qualifying.  It takes quite awhile to get through all the cars.  Jay’s still trying to get used to the new rear setup and had some control issues during quals, but nothing major.  I pulled the power steering cap off and found that it was very low.  Refilled fluids, made a few minor adjustments, and refueled before going out for the heat race.   

With 42 Mod’s, AMRA broke them down into 5 heats.  We started on the tail of the 3^rd heat.  As Jay headed over to lineup for his heat, I asked Jason (my oldest step-son) what else could go wrong.  His reply was “a lot”.  Somehow I worried he was right.  Once again, I headed to my viewing area as the Modified heats started.  Jay’s heat went green and they all came flying by turns 1&2.  It was a tight pack and things looked okay.  Jay was doing good and the car seemed to be reacting correctly.  The third lap by I saw all the cars fly by…..except one.  Guess which one?  I thought, okay, maybe he just spun out and he’s getting straightened out and will roll on by in a second.  Here come the cars again under a yellow…still no Jay.  “Great.”  I head back towards the trailer.  The kids were playing with their gameboys and had no idea what was going on.  Jon, the youngest step-son, asked what happened.  I told them I didn’t know, but apparently we were wrecked somewhere.  They stayed at the trailer as I headed towards the bridge in the middle of the infield.  I kept watching down the path on our side of the creek to see if a tow truck was coming.  There wasn’t so I kept heading towards the bridge.  I heard the Mod’s on the track go green and glanced over to see if Jay was back in line.  He wasn’t.   

I’m half way across the bridge when I see Jay “walking” towards me.  You know, even if you total your car they bring you back on the wrecker.  It’s definitely not a good sign when you leave in a racecar and walk back without it.  He doesn’t appear to be injured or mad, so I’m not sure what exactly to think.  I crossed the bridge and met Jay on the other side to ask what happened and where was the car!  His simple response was “flat tire” and then points to the general direction of somewhere behind him to answer where the car was.  I know he had driven the car back to the trailer with the last flat, so I ask him why he didn’t drive it back or put it on the hook.  He said the rear end was digging into the ground so he parked it and was going to bring the jack and a spare over to change it.  Okay…thinking back on this whole thing…
a.       Our luck couldn’t be as simple as another flat tire.
b.      If it was just a flat tire the shock and spring should hold the rear up high enough to not allow it to dig into the ground. 

Now, back to the story.  We decide to borrow a jack from a racer near the area Jay abandoned the car instead of dragging ours halfway across the infield pits. We get the car jacked up, remove the tire, and stick on the spare tire. Something is not right we think. Left rear spring is missing. Hmmmm, what’s going on? Upon further inspection, we had ripped the jackbolt from the frame! Uggh, Jay walks back to the corner where everything let go. He picked up his spring, which was lying in the grass. He approached the corner worker to find out where the spring cup was. Jay was told, “last time I seen it, it was racing down the track at about 80miles an hour and exiting the track over the wall in turn 3 and 4. Just our luck.  On Jay’s way back to the car, and me he stops at a parts truck to see if they have any spring cups.  We’re in luck…they do.  But Jay doesn’t have money on him so he asks the guy to hold it for us.  He returns to the car and I head for the parts truck while he babysits the car.  I return with a spring cup and a heavier spring for the left rear.  We jack up the car high enough to rig the spring system enough to change the tire and get the car back to the trailer.   

 I get back to the trailer shortly before Jay gets back.  I instruct the kids to move stuff out of the way and packup because we’re going to load.  Jon, the youngest step-son, heads to the back of the trailer to collect the toolbox.  We’ve got one of those nice Craftsman sets that has like 400+  pieces…wrenches, sockets, ratchets, etc.  Only thing I don’t like is the little carrier case.  The pieces don’t snap into the box, they just sit in their respected labeled areas.  Now, two years ago the kids picked up the toolbox at a race in Canada and dumped all 400+ pieces all over the place.  They swore they’d never do that again.  Well….guess what?  Yea, would I have bothered to explain that whole thing if the little one didn’t dump 400+ pieces all over the trailer again?  Jay, Jason and I had the car and the entire trailer reloaded while Jon was still putting the 400+ pieces back where they belonged.  Amazingly, he didn’t lose any of them in the process.   

Now remember…we’re packed and ready to go home….but we’re parked in the infield and there are races going on.  Last year when we were at West Virginia Motor Speedway, they would not open the gates across the track and release the people pitted in the infield until the end of the night.  We’re all crossing fingers that they’re not going to force us to stay, but the way our luck is going today, that’s a real possibility.  I walk up to the officials in the infield and see if they’ll release us.  They tell me that there will be 2 Modified Consi’s coming out next and then they’ll let us go.  I head back to the truck and we get backed out and park over by the bridge awaiting the end of the consi’s.  A guy walks up and motions for Jay to roll down his window.  He wants to know if we have any Alky that we could sell him.  Hey, if we can’t race at least we can make a couple bucks selling fuel.  Jay sells the guy the last 15 gallons we have in the jugs.  Consi’s end and we’re released from the infield and head home.   

The whole way home Jay and I laugh at our unbelievable luck for the weekend.  I’m almost afraid to say “what else can happen.”  Pennsboro is somewhere around 3-3.5 hours from home.  It’s a relatively uneventful trip home.  When we were about 30 minutes from home we notice that our exhaust sounds unusually loud.  Great…what can we do but laugh. 

May 9
Thursday

Weather has been decent this week, but I decide to call Tammy at Cannonball to see if they’re planning on running.  Tammy works the pit gate at Cannonball, but also works at the track owner’s business during the week.  I get ahold of Tammy and we talk for a little while.  I explain that we came down last week to find they were closed.  She asks me why I didn’t call before we left.  I laughed and told her that it was sunny all day, I didn’t think I needed to call.  Tammy’s really nice and I gave her a hard time (in fun) about closing the gates on a sunny day and told her I’d call back Friday to see what was going on.   

May 10- Friday 

Has been raining all week. Clear Friday, good racing weather. Cannonball cancels due to lack of time to get track ready. Plan B. We look for other tracks to race at tonight. Jackson County is racing, and so is Skyline. We decide that we have been to Skyline before, but never to Jackson County. Jackson County speedway here we come. Beautiful drive down to the track. No real big rush hour traffic delays while going through Columbus.  

Despite the fact Jay left the directions to the track at home, we find the speedway without incident.  The track appears to be approx. 1/3 mile in length.  As we walked up to pay our pit entrance we notice that the texture appears to be soft and sandy rather than the slick hard red clay we’re used to.  We pull thru the gate and up a hill into the pit area.  The pit winds around the corner and down a hill.  We see an open spot when we first came into the pit area and decide to park there.  There’s another Modified parked next to us and soon another Mod pulls in on the other side of us. 

I hike back down to the pit gate to see if we have to fill out a new driver form for the track.  They tell me that they’re not into doing those and they just need our name and car number.  Cool.  

After walking through the pits we see there are 14 Mod’s here.  We only recognize one other driver, Eddie Harmon.  We stop by his trailer and chat for a few before returning back to our trailer. 

Hot laps went okay.  Nothing major happened.  Had some difficulty getting the car to turn though.  The Mod to the left of us has motor problems.  He's got oil leaking all over the place.  Jay and I both are betting he blows the motor before the night is over.

Time for qualifying.  We're suppose to get one lap.  Jay takes 2.  Why not?  I laugh at him when he comes back.  He never realized he even did it.  We qualify 8th fastest.  Car handled better, but still not great.  We make a spring change and right rear tire change.

The Mod to the right of us has problems too.  He's got a miss in his motor and he's trying to pin-point it.  He asks us if we have an extra MSD box.  It so happens we had bought an extra one and carry it with us.  Brand new, never been out of the box.  The guy insists on buying it from us.  Hmmmm, maybe we should get in the parts market!  As the guys next to us go to work changing the MSD box another driver stops over and asks if we have any gear oil we can sell him.  This is getting pretty funny.  We sell him $5 worth of gear oil. 

Time for the Heat Races.  We're in the 2nd heat.  Mod's on both sides of us are in the 1st heat.  Apparently all 3 of us had missed the drivers meeting.  The guy we sold the MSD box to went down to lineup and came right back.  We were backing out to go lineup when he stopped us.  He was told that they're qualifying bombers after the Late Models then us.  So we wait a few more minutes then go down.  First heat of Mod's have 6 cars.  There are 3 fast Mod's pulling away from the others.  The 3 fastest cars wreck and/or breakdown during the heat.  This leaves 3 cars to finish.  Both of our neighbor Mod's and another one. 

Our heat goes out.  It's pretty straightforward.  Nothing major happened.  Car still not handling overly well.  Jay came back after the Heats and  I look at the spring that we had changed and check the rear shock travel.  Shock had too much travel and the spring is warped.  It was the same spring from the Pennsboro incident though, so we jack the car back up and change the spring yet again.  We also change the left front tire.  We reset the ride heights and are ready to go.  The Mod to our left puts his car on the trailer.  We're not sure if he blew the motor or not, but he's done never-the-less.  The Mod on the right asks us if we have a distributor we can sell him too because that's the only thing he hadn't changed.  No extra distributor though, so he was outta luck on that one.

We're starting 8th in the Feature.  There are only 11 up on the board, so several had wrecked/broken beyond repair for the night.  I watched part of the Late Models Feature, which involved at least 2 red light accidents.  I hope our Feature isn't as rough!  Late Models finish up and Mod's come out.  They take a parade lap and then the light goes Green.  We head for turn one and there's a major pileup...light goes red.  Guess what?  We're in the middle of the pileup...not our fault, but we're there!  All sorts of camera's flash down by turn one.  We'd like to have our picture in Mid-American Auto Racing Magazine...but not like this!  Apparently one of the cars had his power steering pump go out.  He let Jay know that he was only going to take 2 laps then come off.  Well, he took off in the Feature and when he got to the turn, failed to maneuver the turn.  I think there were 5 cars involved in the mess.  Jay went into the wreck and did some minor damage in the front.  He also got hit from behind when everyone impacted.  Not too bad though considering.  Our car wasn't bad off and we could continue on.  Several cars, including our pit neighbor came off on the wrecker.  We're not sure if it was the accident or the spring change, but our car starts handling nicely.  Two cars in the 4th and 5th positions are playing bumper tag for several laps.  They push each other back and forth until finally one spins out in turn 3.  Jay is right behind them and locks it up and spins to avoid the other car.  They get lined up again and the officials wave Jay off the track.  We had either cut the left front tire on the spinout or spun it off the rim.  Either way, it was flat and we were done.  Jay didn't realize why they pulled him off until he got back to the pit and I told him.  I had thought I seen our "idiot light" on for the oil pressure, so I thought that's why he was coming off until I saw the tire.  (Oil pressure light was on too).

So, we finished in 6th place.  Eddie Harmon ending up winning.  Congrats Eddie!  We had a nice time and plan on coming back a few times this year.

We decide to get a hotel room in Chillicothe, Ohio and try our luck at KC Raceway on Saturday.  I have a feeling it's going to rain, but who knows.

May 11, 2002
Saturday

Forecast is calling for rain tonight and tomorrow.  Great.  We go out to the parking lot and roll the car out of the trailer.  We do some pounding and reinforcing and inspecting to see if we can be race ready if the weather holds out.  We roll the car back into the trailer and decide to have some lunch and catch a movie then see what the weather is doing before we make a decision on racing.  After the movie (Spider Man) we decide that it definitely looks like rain.  Jay has to work next Saturday, so we opt to head home and gamble on it raining.  Our luck, we'd pay to get in and it'd rainout part way thru then we'd have to come back next Saturday to finish.  When we get north of Columbus the weather lets go and it starts raining.  The farther North we go the harder it rains.  We start seeing racecars headed South on I-71.  Apparently the asphalt and dirt tracks to the North have cancelled.  Of course, we review the weather channel when we get home out of curiosity to see if it's raining in Southern Ohio.  Guess what?  It's not.  There is a clear line dividing Ohio in half around the Columbus area.  KC raced!  Figures.

May 16, 2002
Thursday

The Drag Racing team I work for (Bullet Motorsports) provided us with a bottle of anti-fog stuff to try for our visor fogging issues.  We've wrenched on the car all week repairing minor damages from last Friday.  We've also changed our rear spring...again.  Made a few other minor changes.  Weather forecast is calling for rain all weekend.  Figures.  But, I think we've got the car ready for the weekend if the weather cooperates. 

Guess what?  Just checked Cannonball Motor Speedway's website.  They've already cancelled racing for Friday.  Any other Friday track we'd consider racing at this weekend would require an overnight stay.  It's Jay's turn to work this Saturday morning, so Friday racing is out, now that Cannonball has cancelled.  Guess we'll cross fingers for good weather for Saturday. 

May 18, 2002
Saturday

Not only has it been spitting rain on and off all day, but it's also cloudy and cold.  Jay calls me from work to tell me Tyler Co. Speedway, Muskingum Raceway, KC Raceway, and the KY tracks we had thought about racing had cancelled.  He goes on to tell me that Midway Speedway has posted that they are going to run.  With all the tracks around the area cancelled, we can only assume that there will be a ton of cars at Midway.  We talk it over and decide it'd be in our best interest to not go to Midway.  We had found a problem with the car last night anyway and we'd prefer to take our time on the car to make sure we get the problem corrected properly instead of doing a quick temporary fix, which may result in further damage.

Our friend Roger Miller (RAM Racing) is still racing tonight at the local asphalt track, Mansfield Motorsports Speedway.  There's a special Sprint Car show there tonight too.  The kids decide it's too cold to go to the races, so they stay home and play video games while we head to MMS to help our friend Roger.  MMS gets their hot laps in and qualify Sprints and Mod's before the sky opens up and the rains come down.  We wait it out for awhile as the rain, sleet, and I'm willing to bet, snow, falls for a half hour or so.  Eventually the announcement is made to cancel the show.  Apparently our luck has followed us to MMS as well!  We decide to head across the street with Roger.  The airport has a really nice restaurant that sits at the end of the runway.  We enjoy a nice meal with Roger and hang out there for the evening watching the Winston race on the big-screen TV.  So, the evening wasn't a total loss.

5-22-02
Wednesday 

Car is ready and loaded in the trailer.  We’ve got plan (A) and plan (B) already laid out for the weekend.  Plan (A) is: Friday – Cannonball Motor Speedway, Saturday – Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, and Sunday – The Rock (Cumberland, Maryland).  Plan (B) would take us to the other side of the region.  Friday – Jackson Co. Speedway and Saturday – Mudlick Valley Raceway (Tollsboro, KY).  We thought we’d spread out our options a little hoping we’d hit some good weather in one direction or the other. 

We checked the weather forecast online this afternoon.  They’re calling for rain at all 3 tracks all 3 days for plan A.  Surprise, surprise!  Plan B weather?  So far, looks okay.  But…we’ll see. 

Jay just booked a hotel room…in the direction of Plan A.  Believe it or not, he saw the same weather forecast as I did.  Okay, so he and I aren’t always on the same page!  Tomorrow I’ll book a hotel in the plan B direction.  That way we’ll be covered for either plan (just as long as we remember to cancel the room we don’t head towards!)  Of course, with our luck, we’ll have to cancel both rooms due to rain.    

5-23-02
Thursday 

Called Tammy at Cannonball.  She said the track is ready, but they're expecting rain tomorrow afternoon.  Figures.

I booked a hotel room in the "plan B" direction.  Jackson area is predicting a 40% chance of rain tomorrow.  We're crossing our fingers, but doesn't look good for Plan A or Plan B at this point. 

5-24-02
Friday
written by:  Jay Howe 

Plan A. (Cannonball Friday, PPMS Saturday, The Rock in Maryland for Sunday)
Plan B. (Jackson, OH Friday, Mudlick, KY Saturday, and Jackson for Sunday show) 

Well, the day is not looking good to race. Rain is fast approaching. Cannonball has not decided as to whether or not to race yet. Time is 3:30. We call Jackson County speedway, they are still racing. Pulling out of the drive at 3:45 towards the unknown. We get to a junction in the road. Turn right, go to Jackson County, stay straight, Cannonball. One last quick call to our friend Roger at Off Road and Performance to check radar. Not good he says, especially since he was going to go and help out. We decide for Jackson County. Rain is not expected there the woman says. Roger continues to tell us that Jackson County WILL get rain sometime tonight. Ugghhh. We go around the block (10 miles) to wait out cannonball’s decision. They now cancel. We decide that dinner with Roger was cheaper than going to Jackson (3hr drive one way). Ponderosa here we come. 

5-25-02
Saturday
written by:  Jay Howe 

Plan A. continued

Get up early, go out to car and change gear for Pittsburg PA Motor speedway is the plan. My crew chief and pit crew, (my wife), says she has a bad feeling about PPMS and that we should not go. Now, when a woman has an intuition about something and it bothers her, you had better listen, cause 99% of the time they are right. Besides, I didn’t really want to change the gear to run PPMS. Plan B now.

Mudlick, KY here we come. We had an uneventful trip down (4.5hrs). Get to the track and park beside a late model team from Toledo, Ohio. And I thought we had a drive! Mudlick, KY is a very nice facility for a dirt track, especially the Modern restrooms!

Mudlick is a high banked 3/8 mile track, tacky all night. Hot laps bring what we thought might be an omen, flat left rear. Here we go again was my thought. Qualified dead last. Started 9 in my heat, finished 5^th. Started 5^th in feature, finished 4^th. Ended up being a good night. Nothing tore up, and car was hooked up finally, as long as I hit my mark going into the corner. Met some very nice people there, one guy named Walt. What a character! And of course the folks who run the show, know what they are doing. Late models, mods, bombers, and Chevettes. All classes were finished by 11:15 including the dash’s, and the consi’s. When they call your class, you had better be lined up and ready, cause they won’t wait for you!!! One of my top 5 picks for a very nice night of racing.

5-26-02
Sunday
written by:  Jay Howe

We drive up the road to Chillicothe, Ohio to check into our hotel. We go to the matinee for a movie, Star Wars. Good movie, but not a great one. Head to pizza hut for lunch. Sitting at the table, I notice 2 heavy set women going up to pay their bill. I smile and think to myself, our next door neighbor lady is hysterical some days. She backs out of her driveway at a hundred miles and hour, no exaggeration! The ladies walk outside and get into their car. I turn and said something to my wife. Glance out of our window, and watch the 2 ladies do exactly like our next door lady does, backs up 100 miles an hour into our trailer! You have got to be kidding. Our truck and trailer was parked on the other side of the parking lot! I watch the lady get out of her car, go back and look at her car and our trailer. Looks again at both, gets in her car, and drives away. I got her license plate number. Hit and run I said to my wife. Can you believe that? I get up from the table to go outside to check on our trailer. Here comes the funny part, glass and plastic is all over the parking lot near our trailer. It has to be hers cause it wasn’t there when we walked in. Now to our damaged trailer. Our trailer sustained a small dent of about 1 inch vertical, by ½ inch horizontal. No big deal; caught the trailer at a corner. Remember our neighbor?

Off to the race track. We arrive, and pits are filling up fast. Special sprint show tonight also. Pits end up packed to capacity, plus some. Qualify 9^th out of 19 cars. Car is getting faster as I learn to drive a bar car. Started 3^rd in Heat, blew it, finished 4^th.  Started feature 12^th, survived a lot of wrecks of other cars to finish 8^th. Nothing tore up too bad, just cosmetic.

Once again we were in selling mode at Jackson.  Sold Alky to two different teams.

PS: Jackson called racing Friday night due to rain, just after the heat races! Now I feel better about not going there originally.

All in all, a very nice weekend of racing. 

On a side note, I must say that I have the best crew chief in the world. My crew chief is my wife. She is not afraid to change a gear, or just plain get dirty. I really need and appreciate her supporting our racing program.

5-30-02
Thursday

Jay and our friend Roger have thrashed on the car all week getting it race ready.  It started out to be a quick project of welding a bracket on the rear so the spring cup won't rotate.  Well, by now, you know it's not that simple.  Once they got the car on the lift they discovered more problems.  So, what should've taken 30 minutes took 2 days to fix.  Car is ready to go now, hopefully.  The car and fuel is loaded, but the rest of the trailer isn't.  Shouldn't take too long though (famous last words, I'm sure.).  The trailer is scheduled to get lettered in the morning, so we'll have to pack quick after work.

Weather forecast is calling for rain for Friday.  We want to go to Cannonball, but may end up going to Lakeville and tagging on the back of the street stocks just to get some laps.  There's a Road Warrior Tour Event next Friday at Lakeville, so the practice would be nice, but I'd prefer to race for real. 

5-31-02
Friday

Made the decision to go to Cannonball.  The weather looked beautiful.  Internet radar wasn't showing much in the way of rain, so we made the drive.  We paid to get in.  Jay walked down to look at the track.  Clouds rolled in.  The radio station that the track had playing over the PA system was interrupted by the famous "severe weather alarms".  Severe thunderstorms was rolling into the area.  Wicked lightening starting flashing to the North and the East of us.  It was headed NE, so it might miss us.   Yea...sure it would.  We never pulled the car out of the trailer....luckily.  I won't say it "rained".  It was more like a torrential downpour!  The pits didn't have standing puddles of water accumulating.  It had fast streaming rivers flowing through them.  It finally let up enough to toss the tires back in the trailer and lock it up.  They called the race and we got out of the pits.  The sun was out and the weather was beautiful again before we ever cleared the facility.  Damage had already been done though and they had already called the race.  Figures. 

Cannonball is having Friday's makeup race on Sunday.  Of course, Sunday is Jay's birthday and we've already made plans to go out on his dad's boat.  Guess we're outta luck again.

6-2-02
Sunday

Happy Birthday Jay!

6-3-02
Monday

We've decided to address our oil pressure problem again.  Our engine builder wants us to check the clearance between the pickup tube and the bottom of the oil pan to make sure it's not too close.  I head to Wal-Mart after work to buy some Play Dough for the task at hand.  There is a cross bar under our motor, which means whenever we want to pull the oil pan off we have to pull the whole motor.  So, once again, out comes the motor.  We check the clearance twice and find it's at an acceptable distance. 

I call the engine builder to see what else we should check while the motor is out of the car.  We've already tried two different oil pumps.  We've moved the location of the oil sensor from the intake area to the spot above the oil filter.  And we've checked the clearance from the pan.  We're out of ideas again and so is the engine builder.  Could be a bad sensor or gauge, but we bought those last season mid-year, so that's not likely either.  We put the oil pan back on and put the motor back in the car.

Engine builder is planning on coming to the race at Lakeville this Friday, so maybe something will come to mind then. 

6-6-02
Thursday

It's been raining hard all week.  Hopefully Lakeville will have enough time to get the track ready.  But hey with our luck......need I say more???

June 7, 2002
Friday 

We’re pretty excited about racing at Lakeville tonight.  Lakeville is located about 20 minutes from Ashland.  Unfortunately they don’t run Mod’s on a regular basis, but Lakeville is running 2 Mod shows this year.     

It had rained all week long and we weren’t sure what to expect of the track and pit area.  When we arrived, we found that the track looked to be in pretty good condition.  A rather large ‘lake’ had formed in the infield, but that wasn’t going to effect racing.  The pit area had been partially paved since we had been there last season, which made it nice because the non-paved area was a muddy mess. 

Twenty-Nine Modifieds showed up for this AMRA Road Warrior event.  There were also several heats of Midgets, Dwarfs, and 360-Sprints rounding out the schedule.  When I sign Jay in they tell me the timing system for the track is down, so there will be no qualifying.  I draw a pill for position and pull #67.  Great.  This is not the kind of start we’re looking for.   

Hotlaps:  The throttle stuck open resulting in Jay spinning out in turn 4.  He came off and we moved throttle springs and made some carb adjustments. 

Heat:  We’re starting 8^th in heat 2.  Ten cars are in our heat.  They’re taking the top 6 to the A-Main.  Usually the pole sitter starts things off rather fast.  Not this time.  It was a crawling start and everyone was bunched up tight.  After a couple laps, Jay came racing through turn two in a pack 4-wide.  If you’ve ever been to Lakeville, you’ll know that 4-wide is next-to-impossible.  Well, it happened, but after they got through the turn the 4-wide group settled into each other.  Jay cut a left front tire and destroyed a rim.  Tire didn’t go flat, but was cut pretty bad.  We came out of the heat 8^th and advanced to the B-main. 

B-Main:  Changed left front tire, adjusted toe-out, and prepared for the B-Main.  Jay starts B-Main in the 5^th position.  They’re taking the top 3 to the A-Main.  Green flag drops and Jay is doing terrific.  He’s quickly secured the 3^rd place spot and fights to hold it when the 4^th place guy tags him out of turn 4 and Jay hits the guardrail over by the flagstand.  He rebounds off the guardrail and continues racing.  As he enters turn 3 and 4, I can see that the left front tire is twisted and turned sideways.  Apparently the officials don’t see it because Jay races two more laps before 2 cars spin in turn 1 and Jay slides into them sideways.  Jay comes off the track and pulls up to the trailer.  

Jay has no idea of his damage.  The rest of us roll our eyes upon closer inspection.  The shock is literally in the form of a question mark, totally destroyed.  The upper ball joint has snapped off.  The upper A-arm is completely warped.  I don’t think I could’ve put a bend like that in it with a sledgehammer!  The lower ball joint is bent.  The tire is cut and the rim is destroyed.  We’ve got a spare ball joint, upper A-arm and shock in the trailer.  We decided to fix that part so we could load the car into the trailer.  While Roger tries to take the shock off he finds that the lower control arm is toast as well.  So, add that to the “parts to buy” list for this week.  We get the left side fixed up enough to load the car.   

Todd and Jay are getting the winch ready and I look at the right side of the car for the first time.  I was rather shocked to see the right side had so much damage.  Right side damage came from a combination of hitting the guardrail and sliding into the final wreck in turn 1.  The right front rim was shot and another tire cut.  The door panel was dented in, but we can pound that one out.  The rear quarter panel and the upper panel that comes down from the roof were bent and sliced open!  The two sliced panels will need replaced and so will one of the panels on top of the car.  Great!  Of course that also means we’ll be giving our graphics guy a call for more decals to replace as well.   

What a night.  It was fun, but geez, what luck.  We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us this week. 

Thanks Roger Miller, Mike & Shelli Dzurilla, Todd Hickey, Rick Maffett, Carl & Laura Ricart, and Dennis & Ruth Harris for coming down to the race and helping us out tonight.  We appreciate your help and support!

June 8, 2002
Saturday 

Since we were obviously not getting back on the racetrack this weekend, we headed to Mansfield Motorsports Speedway to watch our friend Roger Miller race on asphalt.  Roger took 3^rd in the Modified feature.  Congrats Roger. 

June 9, 2002
Sunday 

Our buddy, Jim Long, who promoted the Carolina Modified Tour last year, keeps giving me a hard time because his name has not been mentioned in our diary yet.  Well, my friend, we’re suddenly in the market for racecar graphics.  So, give me a call!!!  

By the way, if you’re looking for graphics, Jim owns a decal shop in North Carolina called All-Star Design.  Drop him a line, tell him we sent you, and ask him for a quote.  910-484-5505.

June 10, 2002
Monday 

Worked on the car for 4 1/2 hours tonight.  Succeeded in getting all four sheet metal pieces designed and riveted back on the right side of the car. 

We also wired Jay's new "anti-fog" system. That spray bottle of "anti-fog" stuff we tried didn't work for us.  So, we bought a new helmet and had it re-engineered by F.A.S.T. and had them install a fresh air blower system on the helmet.  Hopefully this will resolve any fogging issues.  If anybody reading this wants info on F.A.S.T. drop me an email.  Of course, wiring the system was more complicated for us than it should've been.  Surprise, surprise.  The idea was to install a switch to flip on the unit.  In theory you plug in the helmet, flip the ignition switch, flip the FAST system switch on and the blower starts.  Well, for the first hour or so our result was:  plug in the helmet and the blower started....flip the ignition switch and the blower shutoff.  For the next hour or so we had...plug in the helmet, flip the ignition switch, flip the FAST switch...no blower action at all.  Then we had...plug in the unit (nothing happened) flip the FAST (without flipping the ignition switch) and it flipped on the ignition...but not the helmet blower.  After 2 hours and 45 minutes, we got things happening in the right order.  Geez.

June 13, 2002
Thursday 

Jay's dad picked up a couple lower control arms for us at the local junkyard.  Our friend Roger cleaned them up and is going to weld the shock tabs for us.  Hopefully, he'll have them ready tonight and we can get the left front area squared away and can be race ready. 

Of course, they're predicting rain Friday and Saturday.  So, even if we are race ready, weather conditions are not looking favorable...again.

June 14, 2002
Friday 

Well the car is all ready to go.  Since they predicted rain, we held off on loading it into the trailer.  It won't take long to load though if we decide to head out.  Jay and I both watch the Internet radar all day.  I call Tammy at Cannonball around 1pm.  She said they're going to try it, but there is a 40% chance of Thunderstorms tonight.  Great.  We really want to race the Road Warrior Tour event at I-79 Speedway next Friday.  So, we want to be extra cautious this week.  If we get rained out part way through the night, we'll have to come back to that track next Friday.  With that in mind and the radar showing scattered rain throughout Ohio, we made the decision at 3pm to stay home for the night.

Since we weren't going to race, I stayed at work until 5pm.  Jay had already left work, so he went to the car to do some basic maintenance checks.  Even though we had changed oil the week before, something told him to change it.  He drained the oil and found some flakes in the screen over the oil filter.  He walked in the house a few minutes after I got home from work.  He looked rather depressed.  I asked him what happened.  He said "I think something in the motor let loose.  I found chunks of metal in the oil."  Great. 

I call the engine builder.  He's already taken off for the races at Lakeville.  I leave a message telling him to call us in the morning that we had "pieces" for him to identify.  Jay calls him after I hang up asking if he has our spare motor ready yet.

June 15, 2002
Saturday 

Cannonball ended up canceling last night, however, Jackson Co. raced.  It's raining, cool, and windy out.  Jay and I go out to the car so he can show me the chunks of metal.  We grenaded a motor a couple years ago, so I'm familiar with "chunks" of metal from the motor. I'm thinking chunks the size of a small nut or something.  Jay hands me the filter screen and it has a couple tiny shavings of metal on them.  I said, "that's it?"  We were going to pull the motor, our debate on "chunks vs shaving specks" halted the pull.  We opted to take the screen to our engine builder for his opinion before continuing.  Thirty minutes later and a detour through Autozone, we arrived at the engine builders house.  He looked at the screen and told us that it was nothing to worry about.  Relieved, we picked up the spare parts he had ordered for us, and headed home. 

It was still raining in the Ashland area, so racing for Saturday night wasn't looking good.  Jay has to take one of the kids to a sports camp Sunday and I'm heading out of town at 7:30am Sunday for a Drag Race in Columbus.  That and the rain pretty much limits our options.  Our options are basically Muskingum Raceway or Midway Speedway.  We decide to go watch a movie instead of risking a rainout.  Jay and I watched "Sum of All Fears", which is excellent!  The kids watched "Scooby Doo", which they enjoyed too.  Muskingum ended up raining out.  Not sure about Midway, but they're not too far apart, so odds are they got rained out too.

June 16, 2002
Sunday 

Happy Father's Day.  Had a nice time at the Drag Races in Columbus.  One of the drivers I work with made it to the 5th round in Super Gas before being eliminated.  So, that was really cool. 

We have an ongoing joke with our engine builder.  Jay keeps telling him he needs to adopt him.  The engine builder says it's the other way around, we need to adopt him.  I convince Jay to call the engine builder and wish him a "Happy Father's Day from his adopted son."  We had fun with that one!  Engine builder thinks we're nuts!

June 20, 2002
Thursday

Our buddy Jim Long, Carolina Modified Tour, has informed us he'll be putting on a Modified show Sept. 14 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC.  It'll be a support race for the Southeastern Dirt Late Model Championship event.  We'd love to go and have tentatively added it to our schedule.  Unfortunately, there is a Road Warrior race scheduled at Jackson Co. Raceway the same date.  Depending on how we're doing in the RWT points race will determine whether we head south or not.

June 21, 2002
Friday 

Car and trailer is loaded and we're ready to head to Shinnston, WV for the Road Warrior Race at I-79 Speedway.  It's 5+ hours down, so we're leaving at noon today.  Hopefully we made all our necessary repairs from the previous RWT race!  It's a long drive to find out we missed something!!!

We departed Ashland on-time and made our way to WV without any problems.  Our estimated 5+ hour trip turned out to be closer to 4.5 hours, so we were ahead of schedule.  Our hotel was a few miles up I-79 past the track.  Jay said gates opened at 5:30, so we checked into the hotel first since it was only a few minutes after 5pm. 

When we arrived at the track there were already 2 lines of vehicles parked waiting to get in.  There were several cars in the pit, but the lines outside the gate weren't moving.  After about 5 minutes of sitting there and not moving, a lady walked by.  Jay asked her what was going on.  She said they aren't opening gates until 6pm and not a minute sooner.  Great.  It's 5:30pm right now.  Haulers are still rolling in fast.  We walk up and stand in line with the rest of the people.  Apparently the few that had made it into the pit got in thru a side gate that had accidentally been left unlocked. 

We had never been to I-79 Speedway.  The pit area was setup nicely and was very clean.  The view was awesome.  There was a chain-link fence about 60 ft or so from the track.  Pit-side crews and spectators could stand at the fence and get a full-view of the track.  The track was a mid-banked fast, red-clay, 1/4 mile track.  Track appeared relatively smooth. 

The I-79 event was a Road Warrior Tour race.  Jay and I usually guess at how many cars will be there before we get to the track.  Jay guessed 38, I guessed 34.  Well, we were both wrong in a big way!  Fifty-two Modified's rolled in for the event.  There was talk of it being a record turnout, but I never heard if that was confirmed.  With that many cars, it took forever for everybody to get tech-inspected.  RWT races tech cars quite strictly.  Six inspectors typically check each car.  If you fail inspection, you must fix the problem and re-inspect before you can race.  Due to the large turnout and long inspection process, the show started late. 

We didn't learn much in hot laps.  The track was really really wet.  Car handled nicely though.  All Mod's qualified, 2 laps.  Several cars appeared to have engine problems during quals.  Fortunately, we weren't one of them.  We never heard any of the times on the quals, but Jay qualified pretty well.  He ended up in the middle of the pack somewhere.  We were happy with that, especially since we had never been to that track. 

Heat Race:  5 heats.  Jay starts 6th in heat 5.  Top 3 transfer.  We didn't have any problems in the heats, just couldn't lock up a top 3 finish.  We finished 5th and advanced to the consi.  There were 2 consi's for Mod's.  The first one had 19 cars and the 2nd had 18.  They were taking the top 3 from each and then they would have 3 AMRA provisionals to round out the A-main field. 

I decided to start the generator while Jay was coming off the track.  The generator wouldn't cooperate though and I ended up pulling the cord out and it wouldn't retract.  Jay thought I broke the internal spring mechanism (he did that last year).  Junior Nolan (Alltel Car) was pitted next to us.  Junior was nice enough to let us plug into his outlet to charge our battery.

B-Main:  Jay started 7th in his consi race.  Five laps into the race Jay dropped down low into turn 3 to pass the 4th place car.  The 4th place car had gone into the turn too hard and started to lose control half way thru the turn.  He got it sideways but was still on the throttle.  Jay saw the guy start to turn and hit the brakes to try and avoid him.  When Jay hit the brakes he got his car turning sideways.  The two cars came together door to door.  The impact straightened the 4th place car out and he continued on his way.  On our end, the impact shoved Jay lower and pushed him into the infield.  It didn't appear either car sustained much damage in the incident.  The yellow came out for Jay.  He didn't take off right away, so the 4 wheeler came over to push start him and check on him.  There are tires half in the ground and half sticking up as a barrier around the edge of the infield.  Jay was hung up on the tires.  The 4-wheeler wasn't big enough to help, so the wrecker came over.  The wrecker hooked on and dragged Jay off the tires and back into the track.  The car fired up and Jay took off to get back in line. Even though Jay hadn't caused the accident, he ended up on the tail.  The light went green and Jay fought ahead to get back to the front.  In several laps he had worked his way back up to 5th.  We ran out of laps though before we could make it any further. 

We had a really nice time at I-79.  It's definitely a track worth checking out.

June 22, 2002
Saturday

We sustained quite a bit of cosmetic damage on the right side of the car.  We broke off a support bar and had concerns whether or not the tires in the infield had caused any damage to the oil pan, tranny, or anything else under the car.  We opted to head for home Saturday instead of trying another track.  Jay nearly got a speeding ticket on the way home, but luckily the officer busted the car behind us instead.  Jay wants me to post that he's a "law abiding citizen"...but reality is he was flying thru PA on I-79 and got lucky!  Oh yea, and ask him about his U-turn with the racecar trailer in Marietta last year.  We may not have the best of luck at the track...but Jay does okay with the law!

June 28, 2002
Friday

Our closest track is 2.5 hours away and they're running 6 classes now.  We used to roll in between 2am-3am when we'd race there and drive home. Jay works Saturday morning, so we decided to stay home.

June 29, 2002
Saturday

Car and trailer is loaded and ready to go.  Jay gets off work and we plan to leave for KC Raceway at 2pm.  We have lunch and Jay decides to lay down for awhile because he doesn't feel well.  Great.  It doesn't take long for us to figure out we're not going racing. 

Well, looking on the bright side, we didn't tear anything up this weekend.  And we're packed and ready to go for the 2 Road Warrior Events this coming weekend!  I put together a racing word search puzzle over the weekend.  Try your luck at it.

July 4, 2002
Thursday

Happy 4th of July!  Our car and trailer are still loaded and ready to head for the RWT race tomorrow.  Based on the I-79 car count, we're anticipating another big turnout at Jackson and at West Virginia Motor Speedway.  We've decided to depart Ashland an hour or so earlier than we normally would in hopes of getting a decent pit spot.  Since it's a holiday weekend, we also anticipate traffic in Columbus to be a nightmare! 

July 5, 2002
Friday

As we often experience, the morning was full of little indicators that maybe we should just stay home...but, as usual, we didn't listen.  As we reached Columbus on the trip to Jackson Co. Speedway, we were faced with the "do we go through or around" question.  I left the decision with Jay who decided to go through.  We were cruising along nicely until we saw a sign that there was an accident ahead.  We could see traffic stopped, but was able to jump off an exit ramp just before the traffic jam.  Jay made a left off the ramp before I could get the map out and figure things out.  Of course, if we would've gone right, we would've been fine.  I re-plotted a route for the direction we were headed though.  Instead of following my instructions, Jay thinks he finds a short-cut and takes it.  We're now back on I-71 south of the accident but heading NORTH!  We exit again and I re-plot.  This time we get it right and maneuver our way around the accident and back onto course.  Even with our several small detours, we still arrive at the track in plenty of time. 

I was surprised that there weren't very many cars in the pits.  I knew Jackson had decided to race the night before as well, but still thought the pits would be packed.  There were only a handful of late models, maybe 9 total.  Twenty-three Mod's came to the event.  I sat in the stands with another driver's wife during hot laps and qualifications.  She informed me that she overheard some other drivers talking and that tonight would be the last night for the track.  It was closing.  Hmmm. 

After the qualifying session, I told Jay what I had been told concerning the track closing.  He was surprised as well.  I decided to verify the rumor with AMRA.  They confirmed that it was true.  Of course, that meant the Road Warrior race in September would be cancelled.  If AMRA doesn't pick up another RWT race for that day, that'll allow us to go to the Lowe's Motor Speedway dirt event and not risk losing RWT points.  That makes me happy because I really want to race at Charlotte!  I look at our point standings while I'm at the AMRA trailer.  We're ranked 19th going into the Jackson event. 

We had qualified quite well and was slated to start 4th in the 3rd heat.  Since there were only 23 Mod's, everybody would make the feature.  As we prepared for the heat race, AMRA officials walked around and gathered drivers for a second drivers meeting.  Oh boy, this can't be good.  I went with Jay to the drivers meeting.  We were informed that the Jackson promoter cut the RWT purse...nearly in half.  Most of the drivers were upset, but still wanted to race, as long as it was for points and a cash payout.  We were informed by the AMRA president, Bill Hayes, that it had to be unanimous.  If one driver left, then he would not run the race with RWT points.  After quite a debate, it was decided to run the race for RWT points, but cut the Feature laps to 20 instead of 30.

AMRA negotiated a cash payment with the promoter and the track agreed to let the Modified Feature run first.  Our heat race went off without any problems.  We got back to the pit and prepared for the Feature.  We started 15th in the Feature.  There were several accidents and one fight in the Feature.  Jay went back and forth with another Mod throughout most of the race.  We finished 12th, it was a good race.  Rick Walker in the 17x won the race. 

July 6, 2002
Saturday

We spent the night at the Days Inn in Jackson, Ohio.  The morning went well.  There was a nice paved empty parking lot beside the hotel, which gave us the chance to roll the car out of the trailer and change the gear.  We made some chassis adjustments and tire changes while we had it out.  Re-loaded and headed out for our hotel in Marietta, Ohio.  We checked in the hotel, had lunch, and then headed to West Virginia Motor Speedway.  Everything had gone smoothly up to this point.  We arrived at the track around 3:45pm.  There were already quite a few Late Models and Modifieds in the pits even though hot laps weren't scheduled to start until 7pm.  After seeing the updated RWT points, we found we were 14th going into the race. 

I drew a high number for our qualifying order, which was nothing new.  There were 34 or 35 Mod's registered for the WVMS RWT event.  The UDTRA/AMRA show was being televised, so they paused our qualifying at 8pm to do the Star Spangled Banner and allow 2 skydivers to drop in. 

We had a decent qualifying time, but ended up starting 8th in the 3rd heat.  They were taking the top 4 from each heat.  After qualifying and heat races, we decided that we need to invest in a higher gear for that track.  We ran a 4:56 and our tack was reading 9000 RPM.  WVMS claims quite a few motors due to being such a large and fast track.  We didn't make the top 4 in the heat, so advanced to the Consi. 

We went out for our consi race and Jay looked really good.  They were going to take the top 4 from the consi.  We might have made the top 4, but we didn't get the chance to find out.  Several laps into the consi, Jay's pack came out of turn two and headed down the back straight-away.  Jay was running on the inside and one of the cars running on the outside near the wall broke and came across the track quickly into Jay.  Both cars were airborne and it appeared Jay's was about to flip when it rather violently redirected and straightened out.  Both cars crashed hard into the guardrail.  They broke the guardrail and then pushed a second guard rail back approximately 3 ft.  All emergency crews were immediately on the scene and the race went red.  The car that broke ended up on top of the front of Jay's car.  Both drivers were sore, but thankfully uninjured.  After reviewing a video of the incident and discussing it, we came to the conclusion that the other car saved Jay from flipping over.  When the other car came down on the front of Jay's it straightened his car out from the mid-air flip. 

They pulled the cars apart and drug them back to the pits.  Thank you to all the racers, crews, and pit-side fans that assisted us and stopped by to check on Jay.  We appreciated your help and concern. 

July 7, 2002
Sunday

Jay awoke a little sore from the previous night's wreck, but surprisingly he wasn't too bad.  Our chassis builder is Huff, who happens to live in Marietta.  We had breakfast at the hotel and called Mr. Huff before departing for home.  He gave us directions to his house and asked us to bring the car by.  After looking over the car, he asked us to take it home, take a few things off, and bring it back down to him this week.  He doesn't think it'll be too hard to fix and that we shouldn't be out for very long. 

We had decided since the wreck was so bad and at a high speed that we should pull the motor and go through it carefully.  We had wanted to pull it mid-season anyway and have it checked over, so this would be a good time to do that.  We got home and worked on the car for about 4 hours.  We prepped the car to be delivered to the chassis builder's and dropped the motor off at the engine builders, then called it a day. 

Between the car, the motor, and the extensive sheet metal that needs replaced, we anticipate being out of commission for at least 2 weeks.  The next RWT race is slated for Aug. 17th at Pennsboro, WV.  We hope to be back on the track way before that though!

July 12, 2002
Friday

Our engine builder expects to have our motor back to us on Monday, providing he doesn't find any major problems.  The rest of the car is still in Marietta.  Jay and I took it down there Tuesday night.  Hopefully, we can pick that back up next week as well.  We've got new steering component parts and a power steering box, which were all destroyed in the wreck.  We still have quite a bit of sheet metal to design and replace once we get the car back.  Odds aren't in our favor (as usual) to getting back onto the track next weekend, but we'll see what happens. 

July 16, 2002
Tuesday

Chassis is still in Marietta, but we picked up our motor last night.  We actually have good news to report.  No damage to the motor!  Jay's hopeful that we can get the car picked up and everything ready for Saturday racing.  I'm not so confident of this happening though.  We still have a ton of stuff to do.  We might be "watching" the races again this weekend. 

July 18, 2002
Thursday

Jay talked to the chassis builder and his assistant Tuesday afternoon.  They basically cut the front part of the car away and are replacing it from the sounds of it.  They're also heating and bending bars back into place on the rear of the car.  We're suppose to call them back this afternoon to check on progress.  Even if it's ready today and we were to go down to pick up the car tonight, there's no possible way we'll be ready for this weekend.  Especially since Jay works Saturday morning.

July 24, 2002
Wednesday

Racecar is still in Marietta, but it's ready to be picked up now.  We're making the trip down Saturday morning to get the car.  Unfortunately, that means another weekend of not racing, but we're getting closer now!

July 25, 2002
Thursday

Since we don't have any racing stories to share at the moment, I thought I'd share this joke I found today on a racing message board:

An old country farmer, with serious financial problems, bought a mule from another old farmer for $100, who agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

However, the next day he drove up and said, "Sorry, but I have some bad news. The mule died."

"Well, then, just give me my money back."

"Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

"Ok, then. Just unload the mule."

"What ya gonna do with a dead mule?"

"I'm going to raffle her off."

"You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

"Sure I can. I just won't tell anybody she's dead."

A month later the two met up and the farmer who sold the mule asked, "Whatever happened with that dead mule?"

"I raffled her off just like I said I would. I sold 500 tickets at $2 a piece and made a profit of $898."

Didn't anyone complain?"

"Just the guy who won. So I gave him his $2 back."

July 27, 2002
Saturday

Got up early and drove to Marietta to pick up race car.  We decided to buy a couple extra front bumpers while we were there too.  We got back into Ashland around 2pm.  Dropped the motor in, changed the gear, and did a few other things on it.  After about 4 - 4.5 hours, we called it a day.

July 28, 2002
Sunday

Jay took off around 9:30am to go work on the car.  The kids and I ran to Wal-mart to pickup more spray paint for "touch up" work and picked up lunch before heading out.  We arrived just before noon.  We put a big dent in the "to do" list the past two days.  We still have 2 sections of sheet metal to design and a door panel to hang.  Other than that, I think the "maintenance" work is complete. 

We still need to scale the car and make chassis adjustments though.  Hopefully, after spending all weekend in the garage, we won't have too many late nights in the shop getting ready for next weekend. 

Of course, with our luck, it'll rain all next weekend.  Long range forecast calls for isolated thunderstorms on Friday, but just cloudy on Saturday.  So, we'll see.

July 31, 2002
Wednesday

Well, I only have one door panel and a small "modification job" on another panel left for the sheet metal project. 

Something in the motor or the electronics associated with the motor is giving us fits though. Our engine builder is coming out tonight to see what's going on.  Jay has used two different timing guns and has found that the motor cuts out and dies when timing is set where it should be.  If he sets it higher, the motor purrs.  Something is definitely not right somewhere here.

The power steering pump fried itself too.  It went up in smoke Sunday when we started the car.  We're still trying to figure that one out.

We're still hoping to race this weekend.  With any luck, we can get our "issues" resolved tonight and scale the car.  Hopefully Lakeville practices tomorrow and we'll be able to get out and do some testing before trying to race somewhere.  If they don't practice, we may go to Lakeville for their Friday night race and tag on the back of one of their divisions to test.

If all goes well in testing, we're planning on racing....somewhere...Saturday.  Of course, we don't have the best of luck, so who knows. 

August 2, 2002
Friday

We've decided to head to Lakeville for some practice laps in the Limited Late Model class.  Even though we're not allowed to race with them, we are allowed to tag onto the tail for some laps.  The owner also said we could get some laps in after the races were over.  So, we can shake down the car and see what happens. 

Before packing up and heading out, we setup to scale the car.  What should of taken 15 minutes takes an hour.  Why?  The percentages are just WAY off.  But we had gone thru a bad wreck resulting in replacing our front clip, and we had decided to change all 4 springs.  So, we could understand being a bit off on the percentages.  What didn't make sense was the fact that no matter what we did, the cross percent wouldn't change.  I double-checked the connections on the right side of the car and found that they were fine.  Of course, I should've checked the other side then, but didn't.  About 40 minutes later, I checked the left side scale connections and found that they were switched around.  I switched them to where they should be and zeroed out the scales.  Dropped the car and found they were near perfect percentages.  We made a couple minor adjustments and were happy with the results, so loaded the car.

Lakeville had free admission on the general admission side tonight, so we dropped the kids off over there before going to the pits.  Our friend Roger Miller came down to help us out and watch the races.  Lakeville had a 100 lap Enduro race, 10 lap 4-cylinder race, 10 lap Late Model race (which had been postponed from the previous week after a bad accident), and a Limited Late Model feature that was also carried over from last week. 

Jay took a few laps with the Limited's before coming off the track with a low right rear tire. We changed the tire and made a few adjustments on the car preparing for the after race practice laps.  Of course, lightening began to flash in the distance and soon it was raining.  We loaded up and were notified that Lakeville was going to open up a practice session from 10-3pm Saturday.  We headed for home intending on practicing the next day.

August 3, 2002
Saturday

Headed out and arrived at Lakeville around 11am.  We didn't expect too many cars to be there and were correct.  There were only 5 cars, including us. 

We have a tight spot in our steering caused by a problem with our power steering box.  This is the second bad one we've had on there since the WVMS wreck destroyed our other box.  Based on advise from Jay's dad, I made some adjustments on the box before officially writing it off as "junk" and taking it back to the store.  Jay took about 4 sessions of laps with me making minor adjustments on the box trying to fix the problem. 

After about 40 laps and several adjustments, we've decided the box is bad and it's going back.  Hey, but now, we've got more problems!  Jay comes off the track and tells me he thinks the right rear went flat.  I walk to the right side of the car and see something obviously broke and the right rear axle shifted forward.  The tire isn't low, but it is slammed up against the sheet metal of the door panel.  There's a wonderful deep groove sliced into the tire from where the sheet metal had cut into it.  Great. 

Upon closer inspection, we decide that a weld on the rear axle broke loose causing a bracket to shift and allow everything to rotate forward on the right side.  Shouldn't be too tough to fix.  I called our friend Roger to let him know we needed to get the car into his shop for a welding job.  We also tell Roger that we'll be over to watch him race tonight at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway.

Our friend Roger one-upped us on the wreck scale tonight.  Several laps into his feature he was involved in a major crash resulting in he and another driver being transported to the hospital.  They kept Roger overnight and ran a ton of tests.  Fortunately, Roger is okay and was released Sunday morning.  He's got a sore back, but was pretty lucky considering.  Unfortunately, you can probably classify his car as totaled.  Jay teased Roger, "that's one way to get out of fixing my race car."

The other driver that had been transported to the hospital has a cracked rib and was released Saturday night.    

August 4, 2002
Sunday

The AMRA Road Warrior Tour schedule has been updated.  The two events that were originally scheduled for Pennsboro and a Jackson County Raceway event have been cancelled.  The AMRA Nationals have been added to the schedule for Sunday, October 20 at West Virginia Motor Speedway. 

August 8, 2002
Thursday

Replaced the brake line, replaced the bolts that we sheered off when the rear axle shifted, welded the rear axle bracket back in place, replaced the power steering box.  We had our carb sent away and rebuilt too.  It came back this week, so we put that back on too.  "Might" be ready to go racing.  Of course, Jay works Saturday...so no racing Friday.  We're not sure where we're going to race Saturday...maybe Mudlick Valley Raceway in KY or Midway Speedway in southern, Ohio.  

August 10, 2002
Saturday

After much debate, we've decided to head for Midway Speedway in Crooksville, Ohio.  We haven't raced there in 2 years and heard they widened the track since we had been there.  I'm looking forward to racing there.  It's a nice little track from what I remember.

We depart Ashland and travel the 2 1/2 hours to Crooksville.  Gates opened at 5:30pm and it's around 6pm when we arrive.  The pits are completely packed.  We drive through each aisle finding zero empty spaces.  As a only resort, we park at the end of one of the rows, which is kinda in the way of where cars go out on the track, but not too bad.  Well, after we unload the generator and car, we're approached by an official who politely asks us to move.  We inform him that there is no place to move to.  The guy makes us a spot in the path leading to the general admission section and we park there.

After the Late Models and several groups of Pure Stocks run some hot laps, the track cancels the rest of the hot laps sessions due to track conditions beginning to deteriorate.  We're already afraid we'll bust loose our welds, but have no choice but to go directly to our heat race. 

There are 3 heats of Mod's.  Jay goes out for the second heat and starts on the tail.  Car is handling great, but white smoke starts to fly.  Great.  I guess something gave and the axle slid forward again and the smoke would be from the tire in the sheet metal.  Lap four, Jay gets black flagged.  Lap seven, Jay notices the black flag and comes off the track. 

First glance, tire isn't in sheet metal and doesn't appear damaged. Jay pulls into our pit area and stops.  I crawl under the car to the increasing puddle of fluid.  Rear end oil leak near the tire.  We spray it off and look it over.  Load the car and head for home.  We'll try again next week.

August 16, 2002
Friday

It looks like it might rain down in St. Clairsville tonight, so we watch the weather online all day.  We call the track several times on the way down to make sure Cannonball is still running.  It's a 2 1/2 hour drive down there, one way.  We get the answering machine every time, but no message saying they've been rained out, so we continue down.

We arrive at Cannonball and find our reserved pit spot.  This is really the first time all year that we've been able to take advantage of our reserved spot.  We unload our car and I sign us in and draw a pill while Jay goes down for inspection.  I draw a high number, but it doesn't matter because we want to test the car out anyway, so would probably request "the tail" for our heat.  Jay gets a point knocked off during inspection because we don't have an "A" on our fuel cell indicating we run Alcohol.  However, this has never been published in the AMRA rules, so I'm not happy about it.  Another driver thought it had been an amended rule that came out via newsletter.  I have seen no such revision, but will be looking into it.  I duct tape an "A" on the fuel cell and we go out for hot laps. 

Track is wet.  Can't tell much during hot laps except that the car isn't handling well.  There are 18 Modified's.  We start on the tail of heat 1.  Jay gets on the throttle a few times and the car gets away from him.  It just isn't handling at all.  The whole load seems to be carried on the right rear tire.  The left front tire is up in the air and we look like a Late Model out there.  Now we have another problem.  Smoke out of the rear end.  Great.  Apparently, we haven't fixed our leak like we had thought we did. 

Jay comes off the track and smoke is just rolling off the right rear tire area.  No obvious puddles or anything, but there is fluid on the tire.  We jack up the right side and pull the tire off.  It's HOT!  We pull the axle apart and let things cool off.  Jay decides that we need to put in a new seal or bearing.  We put it back together after giving it time to cool off.  We decide that I'll go down to the track exit area so Jay can see me during the Feature.  If he's smoking again, I'll wave him off.  We have to get 5 Feature laps in to get paid, so he'll stay out at least for 5 laps. 

We're suppose to start 13th, but tell the officials we'll start on the tail.  The first 3 laps are fine, but then after it gets warmed up, smoke starts to roll out the back.  I give Jay the "wave in" signal and he acknowledges it.  A caution comes out that lap and the cars regroup and roll around the track a couple times while the spun cars get squared away.  The flag drops green and Jay runs a couple more laps without any smoke flying out.  Apparently, the caution laps cooled things down enough to not make us smoke.  Another caution comes out.  Still no smoke.  Jay runs a couple more laps then comes off the track.  Once Jay gets back to the trailer, the smoke can be seen rolling off the brakes and tire again.  So, it was good that he came off.  Besides, there was a wreck between 3 cars just after Jay came off.  The 3 cars were the ones he was running with.  It's likely we would've been caught up in the mess. 

August 17, 2002
Saturday

We had reservations at a hotel in Cambridge for Friday night.  We intended on racing at KC Raceway on Saturday.  After talking it over, we decide that we'll try to fix our seal/bearing problem and run at KC.  If nothing else we can get some practice laps in and find out for sure if we had fixed our problem or if we need to look at other possible explanations for our leak. 

Jay flips on the weather station.  Chance of thunderstorms - 60%.  Not good.  Cold front coming in.  Not good.  Potential 60+ mile per hour winds.  Not good at all!  We walk down to Bob Evans for breakfast and then pack up and head for home.  We're not going to take a chance with that forecast. 

Did KC run?  Of course they did!

August 23, 2002
Friday

Our anniversary is Monday, so we've decided to take a road trip to Niagara Falls for the weekend.  We think we've got the car all ready for KC Raceway next Saturday, so it should be a pretty easy week in the shop.

August 26, 2002
Monday

We picked up a mobile lift from Jay's dad this evening.  We decide to put it together and test it out.  Directions suck, but what else is new.  No diagram to go by...just vague instructions.  We figure it out, mostly thru trial and error.  There aren't too many parts to assemble, so it doesn't take too long.  We test it once without anything on it, once with me on it, and once with the car on it.  Works great.  It only lifts about 3 feet, but that's a lot higher then the usual jack stand method...and safer.

For some reason, Jay decides to pull on the left front wheel.  Hey, guess what?  It's loose...VERY loose.  Great.  Upon further inspection we discover 3 nuts are not tightened on the lower control arm and spindle.  We tighten them and slide the cotter pins back in place.  Check the other side and retighten them just to be sure.  Finally, a disaster cut off before it happened....we head for home.

August 27, 2002
Tuesday

One of our goals for the year has been to race once at the legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.  With the season winding down we were beginning to think that we weren't going to reach that goal this year.  However, we've discovered that Eldora will be running a Sunday race this coming weekend.  Providing we get out of the KC race in relatively good shape, we've decided to head Northwest to Eldora. 

Eldora runs their Modified's under UMP rules.  We'll have a few minor adjustments to make after the race Saturday to become UMP legal.  We'll also have to change our gear.  I'm sure we'll be on a tight time schedule due to a Sunday race being early in the day, but hopefully, we won't run into too many problems.

August 28, 2002
Wednesday

Ever wonder why a driver/team picks the color(s), number, and style of car?  Here's our story:  Why number 26?  Our first car was number 13.  My birthday is on the 13th and Jay's favorite number is 13.  So, neither of us believe in the "unlucky 13" thing.  However, Jay decided that changing our number for year number two would be a good thing.  So, we doubled the number and made it #26.  Of course, 26 is also the day we were married...so I always tell people this helps him to remember our anniversary!  We decided that we'll continue on with #26.

Our first year's car was a Cobra Wissota Modified.  It was heavy and built like a tank!  It was the perfect first year car for us.  It didn't have much in the way of adjustment, but it was solid...a good learning car.  The car came with a small block Chevy motor.  The motor didn't have any high dollar parts in it, but we were still very competitive.  Towards the end of our first season, we found out that AMRA champion, Jerry Farmer, was selling his backup cars.  We decided to buy one of his Huff leaf spring backup cars (without motor) and keep our Cobra as a backup for 2001.  We also talked about putting together a backup motor for 2001.

We make arrangements and buy Farmers' extra car.  Towards the end of the 2000 season we grenade our motor at Muskingum Raceway.  It's completely destroyed, nothing on it to save.  We tear off the sheet metal on the Cobra so we can paint the chassis and inspect it for cracks and bends.  We'd had a rough season.  Too many times of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  98% of our accidents were not our fault.  Yet, our car took a beating.  We discovered that the chassis was bent pretty bad and that there were a lot of cracks in it.  We opted to cut it up and take it to the scrap yard rather than try to fix it for a backup.  Now we have NO backup car and NO motor. 

We hear through the grapevine that one of our late model friend's has his small block Chevy motor for sale.  It came out of his late model and is in excellent shape.  We buy it over the winter and drop it into our new car. 

Our first car had a blue chassis and black sheet metal.  Farmers' car had only been raced several times.  The chassis on the Huff is black and was spotless.  The red and yellow sheet metal wasn't ev