Welcome!  If you're new to our diary, please keep checking back.  This is where you'll find our "behind the scenes" story of what really goes on at the race shop and at the track.  Believe it or not...we don't make this stuff up!!!  Our 2002 and 2003 diaries have been moved to new pages. You can reach past seasons by clicking on the year above.

Diary written by:  Cindy Howe (unless otherwise specified)
check back often for updates!
Most current entry is at the bottom of the page. 

December 15, 2003
Monday

Welcome to our 2004 racing diary, where we share the details of our racing season no matter how good or bad they may be.  Check back often as we "try" to keep this diary updated regularly. 

We've got a lot of exciting news heading into the 2004 racing season.  First of all, we want to thank Wayne County Speedway owners for making the decision to run AMRA Modifieds regularly in 2004.  In addition to bringing us in full-time, they've also announced two Road Warrior dates.  Jay and I are extremely excited about this.  Wayne County is basically in our backyard compared to the 2 1/2+ travel time (one-way) that we've been used to over the past 4 years.  So, we're converting to a traveling from track to track every week team to focusing on one track, Wayne County Speedway. 

What else is going on???  Well, Wayne County Speedway owners John and Ilene Hess contacted us before deciding to run Modifieds in '04.  One of their primary concerns was car count.  We actually have 2 Modifieds.  A Hot Chassis, which we purchased last season and ran during '03, and a Huff, which we saved for a backup car.  We definitely want to see Modifieds having a long future at WCS, so we made the decision to become a full-time two car team. 

Besides, twice the headaches that we've previously had...Ha!...what does that mean for the Howe Extreme Racing Team?  We're in the process of hiring our friend Chris Mullinnex to race our second car.  Chris will be a rookie in the Modified division, stepping up from the mini-stock class.  Chris is a good friend, a good driver, and has helped us out quite a bit over the past year and a half.  I think we're all pretty excited over this deal. 

What else? If you've read any of our 2002 or 2003 diaries, then you know that we frequently experienced engine trouble.  Towards the middle of last summer, we dumped the engine builder, and figured some things out on our own.  Our problems definitely decreased, but we wanted to build another engine over the Winter in preparation for 2004.  We hired BadMan Racing Engines in Wakeman, Ohio, who I'm very familiar with because Mark builds the Sportsman engines for the NHRA Drag Racing Team I work for, Bullet Motorsports. 

Problem #1....Our Huff car did not have an engine or tranny. So now what?  BadMan is building the primary engine for Jay's car.  We'll be pulling the engine that we ran last year and use it as the official backup engine for both cars.  Now...we needed an engine for Chris in the Huff car.  We made several contacts with area drivers and even spoke with Mark at BadMan about building an inexpensive decent engine.  The result?  We purchased an engine from a local driver, that only had several races on it.  The price was right and the components are good, so we actually brought it home tonight.  Problem solved?  Ha...to early to tell.

In addition to our decision to run two cars in '04, we've also teamed up with our friend Roger Miller who runs an asphalt Modified.  This decision was mainly made for marketing purposes.  We take our responsibility to our sponsors very seriously.  We view sponsorship as a business transaction.  We don't ask our sponsors for money to go racing, we ask them to hire us to help sell their products and services, and market their company.  We decided we can reach more people and accomplish our goals and the goals of our sponsors by combining our efforts between the three cars and crews.  We are actively seeking sponsors for the 2004 season and beyond.  If you would like to receive one of our packets or know a company that may be interested, please email me:  extreme@howeextreme.com.

We've gained several new sponsors over the Winter, including one today, so we'd like to give a collective "Thank You" to all of our sponsors:  All State Fire Protection, All Star Designs, Ace Engineering, Autumn Computer Systems, BadMan Racing Engines, Pepsi-Cola, Performance Race Fuels, Fryman's Services, and Jan's Auto Repair. 

Jay has been working on building a tire cart for Heather and I.  Wayne County Speedway gives competitors two laps to change a flat tire in a designated area before resuming racing.  This option also exists during Road Warrior races.  With both Chris and Jay driving, that leaves tire changing to Heather and I.  Although design details came together as the cart was built, it turned out awesome!  We still need to add a handle and paint it, but other than that, it's basically finished.  Here's a couple pictures.

Over the Winter, Jay and I attended the PRI show out in Indianapolis.  We ran across a few cool things, but the most impressive was a 12v to 16v Volt Converter created by a racer / industrial physicist.  The company is called Auto-Physics.  They had a demonstration there and it really captured our attention.  We've worked out a deal with them to help them sell their products.  We ordered two units this week for our two Modifieds.  Chris and Jay installed them yesterday.  We're really excited about this product.  They retail at $395 (plus shipping).  You can order them through us for $380 (including shipping).  They weigh less than 3 pounds.  Email me if you want to order one or want us to mail you additional information.  Click here to view our flyer, or email us to request a flyer.

Today we head to Wooster for the Wayne County Speedway drivers/owners meeting.  We're pretty excited.  For the first time ever, WCS is going to use transponders on a full-time basis for Sprints, Late Models, and Modifieds.  It'll be a new experience for us, but they'll give us a lot of useful information that we can apply to our setup. 

The 2004 Wayne County Speedway schedule was released today.  Based on this schedule and the AMRA Road Warrior Tour schedule, we have released a tentative racing schedule for the Howe Extreme Racing Team. Stop by and say "hi" if we're ever at the same track.

March 7, 2004
Sunday 

Gary Dreiblebis, a local Late Model driver, has decided to sell off his operation.  We stopped over earlier in the week and picked out a few items for our team and a few items to resell.  We made plans to meet up with Gary over the weekend to complete the transaction.  Check out our “classified section” to see some of the items we have for sale. 

Saturday afternoon, we met Chris and Heather at the race shop.  The plan was to check toe-in/toe-out on the Hot car, connect the battery disconnect switch on the Huff car, and then cleanup the floor from previous oil spills.  We flew through our checklist without incident.   

Jay asked our friend Roger Miller to stop out sometime over the weekend and check out one of our carbs.  We were having problems with the needles sticking.  Roger didn’t make it over while we were there, but he did stop out Saturday evening.  Jay was greeted over the phone with “do you want the good news or do you want the bad news?”  Jay looked over at me and then said “the bad news first.”  Followed by “oh no.  Not again.”  Roger fired the engine to play with the carb.  We had a high dollar oil filter on the engine.  You guessed it….the filter blew.  The clean garage floor that we were so proud of, was no longer clean! 

I had Mark, our engine builder, on the phone as Jay hung up with Roger.  Mark said he could adjust the oil pump, but prefers to replace it.  We agreed and made plans for him to stop out sometime within the next 2 weeks to change it.  Hopefully, that’ll cure our oil filter issues.  If all goes well, we’re hoping to rent the track March 20^th. 

In other racing news…Bullet Motorsports, the NHRA Drag Racing Team I work for, qualified 6^th in the Pro Stock division this weekend.  Our twenty-one-year-old driver, Dave Connolly defeated Darrell Alderman in Round 1 of Eliminations.  Dave then defeated Jim Yates in Round 2 and Larry Morgan in the Semi-finals.  Connolly was first off the line in the finals against Kurt Johnson, first at half-track, but couldn’t quite beat KJ to the finish line.   NHRA has an online audio broadcast, so you can listen to the races over the Internet.  So, even though I couldn’t be there, it was cool listening to it live. 

March 13, 2004
Saturday

Today we worked on finishing up the tire cart. The cart is capable of holding 4 tires ( 2 beadlocks, 2 standard wheels and tires), the jack, and cordless impact. Actually it was done 2 weeks ago, but the tires hit the front casters causing the cart to track straight, instead of turning if need be.

Our engine builder this year is coming out Tuesday to replace the oil pump, since it is pushing too much oil pressure, and blowing filters. Hopefully this will solve the on going problem with the oil pressure. crossing fingers....

We are ready for the 2004 season to begin. Just need a few more items to have on hand, i.e.: tires, shocks, etc....Hopefully the weather will start to go in our favor, and we can get out onto the track. Our friend Rick Walker from Portsmouth is racing this weekend. Good luck Rick.

March 29, 2004
Monday

The engine builder stopped out a couple weeks ago and changed the oil pump.  Of course, Mark figured it would be an easy project.  We'd warned him that nothing with us came easily...this was no different.  A 30-minute project turned out to be about 3 hours.  Mission completed though and the car fired with ease. Mark made a few adjustments with the carb and it sounds awesome. 

A couple "bad news" items came up over the past 2 weeks since the last update.  First:  the weather has been wet and crappy, which hasn't allowed the Wayne County Speedway staff to prepare the track for practice.  The first practice was cancelled.  It's not looking too good for practicing this week either.  And for the second piece of bad news:  there was a rumor that Cannonball Motor Speedway was not going to open for 2004.  Knowing how rumors are, I decided to give them a call and get the official scoop.  I spoke with Tammy at Cannonball and she confirmed that they were only going to run special event shows this year, nothing weekly.

Well, with both race cars ready for action, the four of us have been working on side projects during our weekends.  The guys decided to build a 5ft sheet metal break.  At first we were a little skeptical, but the break came together quite well.  We completed it this weekend and tested it out.  Works quite well.  Cool thing was, a new one would've cost between $350-$400.  Ours came in just under $50. 

April 2, 2004
Friday

Bad News/Good News.  Bad?  It's been raining...snowing....and crappy for about 4 days straight.  We want to go racing!  Where to go???  Wayne County Speedway cancels practice.  KC Raceway cancels racing.  Tyler County Speedway cancels 2 days worth of practice.  Midway Speedway, cancelled.  Mudlick Valley Raceway in Kentucky cancelled a Sunday practice.  South Buxton Raceway (in Canada) doesn't open until May 1st.  Lawrenceburg Speedway (Indiana) not open yet.  Florence Speedway in Kentucky opens April 3rd.  Hmmm.....I make the phone call. 

The girl at Florence tells me they've had rain, but aren't expecting anymore and are counting on racing Saturday.  Sweet!  Yet, Florence runs under UMP rules.  In order to get UMP legal we need to drop the spoilers and add a strip of sheet metal across the back of the car.  Not a problem.  Both cars have the pieces already made, we just need to attach them. 

More potential bad news though.  The Hot car doesn't have the Vortex Coned Mufflers that are required by Florence Speedway.  Jay calls the Speedway to see if they'll let us slide.  No such luck.  He calls Summit Racing in Akron.  They have them in stock and are open late.  However, I remember that our friend Roger Miller works South of Columbus and comes back to Ashland on Friday nights.  I figure if Summit has them then Jegs probably does too.  Jegs is located in Columbus.  Jay has also thought along the same lines...(scary).  We talk Roger into stopping at Jegs. 

Jay and I ordered the kids a pizza and headed out to the race shop to convert the cars to UMP rules.  I drop the spoilers off both cars while Jay measures tires and gets them setup.  We just finish mounting both back pieces when Chris and Heather arrive. 

Jay and Chris get the mufflers bolted in after breaking half a dozen drill bits!  Good to go.  We're home by 9:15pm. 

Now, as long as the weather holds, we're racing tomorrow!

Oh yea...I almost forgot.  More good news.  In previous diary entries we announced that we applied to a "Gear heads" reality TV show about racing.  I received an email from them today.  They want to meet us and tell us more about the show.  If we're still interested in participating, they're interested in us!  How cool is that!?!

April 4, 2004
Sunday

It took us about 3 1/2 hours to get down to Florence, Kentucky.  That even included a couple fuel stops, so we made pretty good time. 

April 10, 2004
Saturday

Thursday we met with the Producer and Assistant Producer of the Gearheads show from Beachwood Studios.  Really nice people.  The original concept was to follow a few teams around for a season.  The new idea is more compact.  Instead of a series type show that follows teams for a season, it'll be a 2-hour type show, which would follow a team for a couple weeks.  We really liked everything we heard and are pretty excited about the show. The studio plans on starting with us next weekend at Wayne County Speedway's opener.  Hopefully we'll have good weather...and good luck...although bad luck would probably make for better TV.  Hmmm...you think maybe they want to follow us because of our bad luck?

Okay, today's plans were to head to Wayne County Speedway to take part in their noon-6pm practice session.  We were the first team to arrive.  The pit gate was locked and they couldn't find the keys.  So, they did what we'd do, got out the bolt cutters and clipped the lock.  Slowly but surely, cars started rolling in.  I think we ended up with 13 Modifieds.  I thought that was pretty good for a practice session when other tracks are open and racing today.

Session 1 of Modified practice.  Jay and Chris and 2 or 3 other Mod's hit the track.  Jay's hooked and doing really well.  Chris has a push in the car, but we're not sure if it's a bad push or just because he's learning the car or a combination. 

Session 2 of Modified practice.  Jay's still hooked.  Corner entries and exits are awesome.  Chris still has a push and plays around in different areas of the track looking for a comfortable groove.  Towards the end of the session Jay catches up with Chris and decides to go for a pass.  I'm not entirely sure what happened at this point.  "I think" Jay went for the outside pass and surprised Chris.  Chris was drifting up the track towards the outside lane to setup his entry into the turn.  Well...Jay was there.  Jay thinks they touched, Chris didn't feel them touch.  Either way...Jay took a ride into the front stretch wall just before turn 1.  Jay continued around the turns and exited the track.  The rest of the cars came off too because they ended the session after the wreck.

I'm thinking it can't be too bad because he's still driving on it right?  Heather and I round the car to see a mess.  The rim is bent beyond repair.  The upper control arm is destroyed, shearing off both rods and breaking the pieces off the little center section that fits on the ball joint.  The ball joint is toast, totally bent.  The shock, destroyed.  The tie-rod bar...what tie-rod bar?  The circular part of the heim was all that remained of the tie-rod bar.  The rest must be on the track somewhere.  Fluid all over the tire indicating a brake line problem.  The brake line actually broke off at the brake. Like I said, a mess.  Okay, now my theory on packing the trailer is:  "If you pack it, you won't need it.  If you leave it at home in the shop, you'll need it."  We had.....a shock.  Everything else?  Yep, at the shop.  Well, we had spare tires and rims too.

This is the first year for Modifieds at Wayne County.  Of course, the parts trailers don't carry suspension parts for a Modified because they don't know what we might need.  Let me tell ya, that guy was taking notes.  He had a lengthy "things to get list" after we left the trailer. 

Lucky for us, Scott Stiffler and his crew from Wizard Chassis were there and had everything we needed.  Somewhere in the ballpark of $50 later, we have enough parts to rebuild the right front of the car.  We missed one session of practice laps, then the track took a break to water the track.  I don't think we missed any more practice laps before we got everything ready to rock. 

We'd like to thank the Stiffler's, Danny Dean, Rocky Kugel, and all the other racers at WCS that let us borrow tools or parts or whatever to help get us back together.  I don't know about the Late Model teams or other classes, but Modified teams really seem to go out of there way to help out when someone has a problem. 

Back on track...the track really dried out and blacked over as the day progressed.  Our car seemed to handle pretty well through both the early mud and the later-in-the-day dry slick.  Chris still struggled with turning. 

Our friend Roger Miller wandered in around 3:30-4pm.  He practiced over at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway in his Modified earlier, and stopped through to see how things were going.  Roger made a small wedge adjustment in our car and we made a last minute panhard bar adjustment on Chris'.  Chris went out for a final session to see if the panhard change helped, but he ended up having a right front tire issue that cut his laps to 3 or 4 instead of a full session.  The right front somehow got cut and was basically rolling itself over the rim when he hit the turns.  (He probably ran over our missing tie rod bar!)

We don't have a whole lot to do on the cars this week.  Wash them down, general maintenance, scale them both, and check our caster/camber on the right front.  Hopefully that'll do it and we'll be ready for next weekend!

Here's a few pictures from our Wayne County Practice. 

April 11, 2004
Sunday

Happy Easter!  We took it easy today, for the most part.  Headed to Mansfield to catch The Rock's & Johnny Knoxville's new movie "Walking Tall".  Jay and I liked it, kids thought "it was okay". 

I uploaded new track profiles and pictures for Florence Speedway and West Virginia Motor Speedway today. 

Jay and I did wander out to the race shop for a couple hours today.  We unloaded and washed the car, made our "to do" lists for the week, tightened the wheel studs, fixed the left rear jack bolt, and drained the oil.  We were excited to see the oil is "oil colored" instead of our milky colored oil that we often experienced last season. 

While washing down the car, Jay noticed our pull-bar is rubbing against the frame.  Of course, the pull-bar isn't even suppose to be on the Hot car, so I asked Jay why he switched them.  He had an explanation, but I'm thinking he was really just bored one day and switched them.  So, this week, we're putting the pull-bar back on the Huff and bringing the biscuit rod back over to the Hot. 

April 13, 2004
Tuesday

We met Chris and Heather at the race shop last night.  The biscuit rod and pull-bar are back on the correct cars.  We replaced the battery switch on the Hot car, checked and adjusted valves on both engines, fixed the Hot car's oil pan leak (we think), tightened bolts, and made a few other minor adjustments.

We scaled the Huff car. I wish we would've scaled it after our practice...before we made a spring change, a panhard bar adjustment, and put the pull bar back on.  And then scale it again after the changes.  We have the paperwork when we scaled it before Florence, but it would've been cool to see what the results were from the conclusion of Wayne County practice.  Oh well, maybe we'll think about it next time. 

When we did scale it last night, we had to make some serious adjustments to loosen up the car and get the percentages to work out. 

We'll finish up the cars tomorrow or Thursday and should be ready for the weekend. 

April 17, 2004
Saturday

Opening day at Wayne County Speedway has finally arrived.  The weather is beautiful even though they are calling for a chance of showers later in the evening.  We're all psyched up and ready to go.  It's also our first official day with Beachwood Studios.  We planned on meeting at the shop with Beachwood around noon, but we're so pumped that we're at the shop around 9:45.

Chris and Heather arrive around 11 and the Beachwood Studios crew arrive just before noon.  Krista from Beachwood filmed us loading the cars and trailers.  We were a little nervous about it while we loaded and didn't say a whole lot.  It got a lot easier as the day progressed though.

It was a little windy at the track so we figured it was going to dry out and go slick.  There wasn't a whole lot to video since the cars were basically setup.  The crew mounted two on-board cameras to our car.  One faced Jay and the other was behind Jay and faced forward.  We can't wait to see the footage off these cameras!

There's a Road Warrior Race at KC Raceway tonight and double features down at Midway Speedway, so we're expecting a low car count tonight.  It turned out we were correct.  Only 13 Modifieds signed in.  We went out in the same set of hotlaps as Chris.  Jay managed to turn it sideways coming out of turn 3 and luckily the two cars following him (one being Chris) checked up and avoided the collision.  We were all thinking "oh no, not again".

Jay drew a low number, putting him first out on the qualifying run.  Jay loves to qualify, but has never had much success with it.  His first lap was awesome, 20.044.  The second lap was a little slower, but was still a smooth run.  The track started developing a bad hole down low coming off of turn 4.  Several Modifieds spun out during their qualifying runs.  Chris came out and made two nice runs.  However, his transponder was malfunctioning and it didn't record his times.  Chris volunteered to take the tail of the heat and feature since he's still learning, so the track didn't have to try and time him with an alternate method.  Larry Kugel time trialed after Chris.  He was flying'.  We were pretty sure he took over the top spot, but ended up being about .004 slower, leaving Jay as top qualifier!  Maybe...just maybe...our luck is beginning to change for the better.

Krista, Brandon, and Warren split up while the guys were on the track.  Krista followed Heather and I for our reactions while Jay and Chris were on the track.  Brandon and Warren filmed the crowd and the racing action.  Jay now has a nickname. Fellow Modified driver, Scott Stiffler, has nicknamed Jay, "Hollywood Howe". 

We were shocked to learn they inverted our heat lineup.  We've never seen that done before.  After Jay's heat lined up in the pit, the track reversed their inversion decision and reorganized the heats.  That moved Jay back onto the pole of his heat instead of 6th.  They flipped Chris to the tail of the second heat instead of the tail of the first heat.

Jay pulled away from the pack at the drop of the green.  He lead a few laps before hitting a few craters, throwing his car out of whack, someone got around.  He stayed strong and was having a great race, but he went into turn 3 too hard and looped it with about four laps to go.  When the light went green again, Jay got around two of the cars in front of him and tried to track down the other 3.  There wasn't enough laps left though and he took 4th in the heat.

Chris is still getting the hang of the Modified, and is doing quite well.  His entries and exits are definitely improving.  You can tell by his driving that he's getting more confident.  I'm not sure if Chris went into turn 1 too hard or too low, but he got turned around and went into the infield backwards.  Luckily he avoided the big tire and hit the dirt mound!  He made it out of the infield without damage...just a little dirtier.  One Modified ended up coming off the track and another lost a drive shaft forcing his track exit.  Chris had a 4th place finish.  Ut Oh....that would put him beside Jay in the Feature!

We made no changes to either car.  The clouds started getting darker and I hooked up the laptop for a weather report.  Potentially bad news.  A storm cell stretched from west of Mansfield to Canton. It could hit us...it could miss us.  After we shut the computer off, we felt a few drops of rain.

The rain drops steadily increased speed and it wasn't long before a wickedly cool lightning storm was in full force.  We were on a holding pattern while the storm continued to develop. We loaded the Hot Modified into the trailer and tarped the Huff.  The lightning flashed across the entire sky while we stood around the pit talking to other drivers and the Beachwood crew. 

The rain finally stopped, but the lightning continued to flash across the sky near the track.  The Pure Stocks and Mini Stocks completed their Features and the Modifieds were released for their Feature.  Jay wasn't part of the inversion and began in the 7th spot.  Chris was suppose to start 8th, but opted for the tail.  The green flag dropped and so did Jay's oil pressure.  He dropped down low when he saw bingo oil pressure and the red light.  But then as he entered turn one the oil pressure kicked back up.  Who knows what happened, but Jay re-engaged in the fight.  

The car and engine seemed hooked and strong.  Jay was flying and Chris was hanging quite well when the rain started falling again.  The race stayed green until Danny Dean exited down the entrance ramp off of turn 4, which brought out the yellow.  I'm not sure if it was the rain or car problems that turned Danny off the track, but he continued on down to his pit.  The cars lined back up and went green.  A lap or two later the officials sent the Modifieds off the track and back to the pit while the rain increased in intensity.  We loaded both cars in a total downpour. 

After we were loaded we helped the Beachwood crew remove the on-board cameras.  When Jay and Chris walked up to get paid, they learned the race had only recorded 5 laps and was not over.  So, I guess we're into double features next week.  That'll be cool though.

April 18, 2004
Sunday

We got home shortly after midnight last night.  We're thankful for the short drive from Wayne County Speedway.  We agreed to meet Chris and Heather Sunday to begin going over the cars and getting them cleaned up.  Even though we were both wiped out from Saturday's events, we were up and on the way to the race shop an hour and a half earlier than anticipated.  We pressure washed the Bullet Motorsports Dually, Racecar Trailer, floor of the race shop, and had nearly finished the Hot Modified when Chris and Heather rolled in.  I love our pressure washer.  The hot water really gets rid of the grease and junk that accumulates along the frame and body. 

We got everything unloaded, washed both cars and made the weekly "to do" checklist for the cars.  Jay and Chris fought with Jay's rear bumper.  Let me tell ya, the bumper was beating Jay for quite awhile, but he finally won.  Chris got a new transponder last night.  So, we replaced that and his tach.  We thought we had an 8000 or 9000 rev limiter chip in Chris' MSD box...well, we learned there wasn't a chip in it after all!  We dropped one in though.  I think, we basically have to scale the cars and double check the wheel bases to complete this week's list.  Not bad.  Somewhere around 3:30, we called it a day.

April 24, 2004
Saturday

After a week full of cool days and rain, we were pleasantly surprised by sunny clear skies on Saturday.  Jay had to work until 12:30pm, but we headed out to the shop to load up right after that.  Chris and Heather were already at the shop when we arrived.  They had the tires aired up, fuel loaded, and pretty much everything ready to go to the point of loading the cars.

We pulled into the Wayne County Speedway at 1:45pm and heard the announcement that Modified tech would begin at 2pm.  We were happy to hear that though.  The fact that there was no inspection the previous week caused quite a bit of controversy.  We unloaded the cars rather quickly and Chris and I climbed in the cars and headed up for tech.  The president of AMRA, Bill Hayes, was the tech inspector for the day.  He was checking the cars over really well.  I noticed several Modifieds had to return for inspection over minor infractions. 

After Chris and I passed our inspections, we all cruised around the pit to see who was there.  Some of the guys that run the Road Warrior Tour (Ken Riddle & Larry Holbrook) came up to do some testing for the upcoming RWT races. 

Jay was first out for Qualifying.  The track had already blacked over and developed holes down low.  Most likely due to the mini stocks and pure stocks running earlier in the day, plus the Late Model qualifying.  I told Jay to pick 2 different lines in his qualifying laps...one low and one high.  Did he listen?  Of course not.  He recorded two laps in the 21's, which could mean track conditions didn't allow us to run the times we ran last week or our setup was off.  After hearing the times of the other cars, we decided it was track conditions.  I never saw the actual qualifying order posted, but it looked like we were in the middle of the pack somewhere. 

Chris still struggled with his transponder.  During the hotlaps session I asked the track officials to check Chris to see if it was picking up a signal.  Nothing.  So, before Chris went out for his qualifying laps, we moved the transponder from the engine plate to the frame just off the engine plate.  The track owner and one of the officials oversaw the transponder operation and approved of the location.  There was absolutely nothing over there to get in the way unless the fuel line dropped down and went under the thing.

Chris hit the track for his qualifying run.  It wouldn't record.  They think the fuel line got in the way!  Jay and Chris strapped the fuel line down with more wire tires to insure it wasn't going anywhere.  The track strapped on a battery operated temporary transponder beside the mounted one.  Maybe between the two...one will work.  Bad thing is, they couldn't get a green light on the temporary one!  Unbelievable.  Chris got back in line and finally recorded two laps.  The original transponder kicked in and started working!  The announcer never broadcast the lap times, but at least it was working.

We started 8th in our makeup Feature from last week.  We had 13 cars last week, but only 11 returned for the makeup.  Chris started 10th.  The track was still really dry even though they continued to water it throughout the night.  It was incredibly dusty.  Jay made it up to fifth and was doing quite well, but hit a rut between 1&2 and turned it sideways.  There were several cars immediately behind Jay and they had a 4 or 5 car pileup.  Jay came out of it in good shape.  He fired up the car and continued on.  Danny Dean was one of the cars that hit Jay and then Danny got hit by another car.  Danny's car was pretty bad off.  He got back into the pit and was finished for the night.  Chris was lucky enough to miss the whole thing.  Jay went to the tail and made it back up to 8th when the checkered flag dropped.  Not how we had hoped things would go, but we made out pretty good considering.  Chris finished 10th.

I don't understand why Wayne County inverts the top 4 in each heat, but they do.  This put Jay on the pole of the first heat race.  They watered the track before the Modifieds hit the track.  Jay's heat took two laps to help run in the track.  They threw the yellow out, which we figured was to lineup the cars.  Guess what?  Jay's brand new left rear tire is flat!  Un-freakin-belivable.  You have 2 courtesy laps to change a flat on a Feature event, but you're outta luck if it's not the Feature.  Jay parks the car and we measure and change tires.  We bought 10 Hoosiers a couple months ago.  Three of the new tires have pinholes in the sidewalls.  Apparently this one did too.  The Hoosier rep told me we had to circle the holes and give the tires back to the place we bought them for an exchange.  Great.  Another trip to West Virginia.

Chris is really getting the hang of the car.  He stayed tight with the cars in his heat.  He was stuck in the middle of a three-wide pack.  The outside car squeezed down too low and ran over Chris' right front causing the outside car to spin.  He ended up with quite  a bit of damage and was pulled off the track.  I noticed that Chris' right front tire didn't look right.  Apparently the track officials noticed too because they stopped Chris on the front stretch and checked it out.  They let him continue.  The 185 Miller car lost a drive shaft and came back to the pit as well.  This left 4 cars in the Heat when the checker came out.  Chris finished 4th.  We had to replace the tie rod when Chris returned to the pit.  It was bashed up pretty good.  Realigned, made some tire changes and was ready to go for the Feature.

Well, since Jay never took the green in the heat due to the flat tire, we ended up on the tail of the Feature.  Chris started 12th.  He decided to go ahead and take his starting position instead of opting for the tail.  The race went green and Chris was hooked up.  The car looked great and he was holding his own.  Jay's car was hooked as well and he began advancing through the cars.  Chris took a hit off of turn 1 and spun.  Car didn't look too bad.  Left rear quarter panel was folded under the car a bit, but didn't appear to be in the tire.  The wind was blowing towards us and the grandstands.  The dirt was blowing so bad it was to the point of being dangerous.  As a spectator it was bad, but we weren't the only ones that couldn't see...neither could the drivers.  Somehow Jay was still moving up through the pack.  He made some terrific passes and stayed strong.  The handling in Chris' car seemed to be going away though.  He turned it off of turn 4 and backed it into one of the large tires in the infield.  It was a pretty heavy impact.  The car fired up though and he continued.  The right rear quarter panel was ALL messed up. 

A couple laps later a caution came out.  We weren't involved by Chris exited the track and pulled up to where we're permitted to change flat tires.  I ran around one side of the car and didn't see anything.  The tires on the right side was fine too.  The sheet metal was into the right rear though and one of our friends kicked in the quarter panel enough to get past the tire.  Chris took off and rejoined the lineup on the tail.  Several laps later, Jay ended with a 7th place finish and Chris finished 15th. 

When the guys returned to the pit we looked over the cars.  Jay's looked pretty good.  Chris...well....we've got some sheet metal work on our hands.  Chris said he thought he had a right front flat when he came off the track.  Upon further inspection, he found one of the upper A-arm bolts had either sheered off or came apart.  Either way...it was gone.  That's what caused his steering to go away.  We figure it must've happened in the first hit in the last Feature.  That's when he noticed the steering going away.

We had one on-board camera on Jay's car tonight and the Beachwood Studio's crew filmed the heats and Features.  We had a little more "working on the car" action for them this week...but not as much as we have in previous years.

Also, congratulations to our friend Roger Miller who won his asphalt Modified Feature at Mansfield Motorsports Speedway!

April 25, 2004
Sunday

We met at the race shop around noon today and worked until 5pm before calling it a day.  We got everything washed and unloaded and started our weekly checklist/to do list.  Chris' car was damaged a lot more than we originally thought.  I was concerned that something had shifted when I noticed rubber from the tire on the right rear shock.  That's not a good sign.  It turned out that one of the frame bars collapsed when Chris hit the infield tire.  He also bent one of the rear suspension bars and heim. 

We already knew the right rear quarter panel was going to get replaced, so we pulled it off.  Jay and Chris made pieces to replace the frame bars and welded them back into place. The rear bumper piece that curves around behind the rear quarter panel was crushed.  We got it pulled out, but it still needs to be replaced.  Chris replaced the bent suspension bar.  We still have a few bars in the trailer, but I called Roger and placed an order for extra suspension bars and tie-rod bars to cover both cars. 

Chris noticed that the right front is bottoming out and is hitting the tie-rod bar.  I found a taller front spring in the trailer and switched it out hoping to eliminate that issue.  I fixed the upper A-arm while I had it apart.  Last night we put a small bodied shock on Chris' right front.  I've wanted to put small bodied shocks on the cars for the past 2 years.  The larger bodied shocks just get too damaged on a modified.  There isn't much clearance with our cars, so they just get slammed, dented and destroyed.  I finally won the battle.  We had two small body Bilstein shocks and mounted them both on Chris' car.  I'm ordering more tomorrow for the Hot car and extra for backups. 

We got a lot done today, but still have quite a bit to go before we're ready for next weekend.

April 30, 2004
Friday

We worked on the cars Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and finished up Friday night.  We worked at an easy pace though and didn't have to slam to get them ready.  So, that was a cool thing.  Jay even had time to start making a little shock rack for the trailer.  We had one several years ago when we had the open-trailer, but we sold it with the trailer and never got another one.  They're really handy for storing shocks.  We're always up for something like that.  And, of course, Jay's been on a roll with "side projects"....the pit cart, the 5ft sheet metal break, the stand for the 3ft break...etc.  Anyway, the cars are basically ready.  We didn't take time to scale the Hot, but the weather is looking pretty crappy for Saturday, so we're doubtful of getting the race in.  In fact, I didn't even bring the Bullet Motorsports dually home this weekend based on the weather forecast. 

Even though we really didn't work on the car Thursday, we were still at the race shop.  Warren from Beachwood Studios came down Thursday to do some one-on-one interviews with Jay and I.  That process took about 4 hours or so.  It was fun though.  Jay and I compared notes from our interviews after we got home.  Sometimes you don't remember some of the stuff we've been through until you're asked and sit back and think about it.  Warren told us before the interview that it was mainly for background and filler information.  Most of it wouldn't make the show, but it gave them stuff to work with.  I kind of hope they use the story about Jay and I arguing one morning and catching the car on fire in the shop!  I finally won the argument after that incident though!

Minor problem...we must've blown a fuse in the Tahoe because the lights aren't working right.  Chris and Heather have to follow us home. 

May 1, 2004
Saturday

As we suspected, Wayne County Speedway has cancelled racing for tonight.  I was on my way to Mansfield to exchange the Tahoe for the Dually when Jay called the track.  Even though it's still bright and sunny, there's still quite a few clouds and they're still calling for rain.  I turned around and headed back to Ashland as we made alternate plans. 

Racing is pretty much out for this weekend.  We're not even considering going to Muskingum and anything else is just too far away at this point. 

I guess we'll head to dinner with Chris and Heather and see what kind of "side projects" we can get into this week.  At least we'll have time to scale the Hot before we race again.  Maybe we'll get the sheet metal out this week and make some spare body parts for the cars...just in case we need them this summer!

May 3, 2004
Monday

We met Chris and Heather at the shop tonight to scale the Hot.  A few minor adjustments were required, but it was pretty close to where it should be. 

Since our checklist was basically complete, we mounted our homemade shock frame and installed new brackets (that Jay made) to hang our toe in/toe out gauge and our stagger gauge.  click for pictures.

Jay and I kicked around the idea of racing at Jackson County Speedway on May 14th instead of heading down to Midway Speedway.  Of course, there's pluses and minuses to each.  If we go to Midway, we'll get AMRA points.  However, we're more likely to get torn up at Midway, and we're more likely to have a very high car count.  Even though Jackson isn't an AMRA track, the rules are comparable and we wouldn't have to make any changes to the car.  We tossed the idea at Chris and Heather tonight.  They were open to either track, so we made the call to go to Jackson.  We haven't been to Jackson since 2002, so we're pretty excited.  Chris has never been there, but we've had some good races there....too bad we won't get points for it though.

Our friend, and sponsor, Rick Maffett, Jr. (aka Ricky Ticky) of Ace Engineering called while we were at the race shop.  He asked us to swing by his house on the way home to check out his new Harley.  Cool!  We stopped...and...well...it's not "exactly" a Harley, but still way cool....check it out.

May 9, 2004
Sunday

First of all, we want to thank all the drivers, crews, fans, and Wayne County personnel that helped us out after Saturday's events.  All of your help and support is and was greatly appreciated.

Now...for the story...we had a nice 16 field of Modifieds yesterday afternoon at Wayne County Speedway.  The weather was beautiful and our car was hooked up.  Jay qualified 3rd and took 2nd in his heat.  Chris' car was completely out to lunch.  He was real tight and couldn't turn.  We made several major adjustments and sent him out for the Feature not having any idea of how the car was going to act. 

Chris started 11th, Jay started on the outside pole after the #94 Modified scratched for the Feature.  Chris went from WAY tight to pretty loose.  Jay fell back a little but held a solid 3rd place through most of the race.  Chris brushed the front stretch guard rail after he and another driver made contact.  The car slid into the guardrail rather strange and somehow managed to rip the entire spoiler off the car and wedge itself into the guardrail.  It was quite comical because the support wings remained intact on the car itself.  That...and the officials couldn't seem to get the spoiler to release from the wedged position. 

Lap 17 is where the REAL trouble happened though.  Danny Dean, Larry Kugel, and Jay were all passing lapped traffic.  Jay was coming up on Chris going into turn 3.  Next thing we see is Jay's car screaming full blast into the guard rail, flying up in the air, and slamming down on the roof.  The race immediately went red.  I couldn't believe what I had just seen.  The official wouldn't let me on the track, but I watched Jay crawl out of the wreckage and walk to the wall.  He was being tended to by the medical staff and I made a break for it when the WCS official looked the other way.  When I got there, Jay was shaken up, but was telling me he was okay.  The car?  Forget about it.  It's done. 

Against Jay's wishes, I drove us home.  It was the first time I've pulled the trailer.  Jay's confidence in me?  Well, I quote "No Honey, I don't want to be in another wreck tonight."  But, we made it to the shop without incident.  With the help of my boss, Mike, and Chris and Heather, we convinced Jay to go to the hospital. 

Somewhere around 4:15am, we left the hospital.  Jay's right foot is broken in 3 places, his ribs are bruised, and his left knee tendon or ligament is either severely stretched or torn.  They want to do an MRI on him later this week.  He's got a wooden flip/flop type shoe for his foot and a brace for his left knee.  We're truly lucky it wasn't worse though.  Hey, racecars, they can be replaced.

It's WAY past my bedtime, but I promised some friends I'd get these pictures up.  Check back in a day or two for more updates, and larger pictures.

Oh yea...and don't count us out.  We'll be making a return quicker than you may think!  More on that later also! 

Thanks again everyone!

May 14, 2004
Friday

Here's the latest and greatest in the Howe Extreme Racing complex.  Chris, Heather, Roger Miller, and I spent Sunday tearing apart the wrecked car.  We made Jay relax and "supervise" our progress.  It was sad to think that it took us 6 months to put the car together from scratch and only took 6 hours to cut the entire thing apart into pieces small enough to hall away in a small pickup truck.

We hired fellow Modified driver Larry Kugel and his wife Cheryl to pick up a Rolling Hot Modified from our friend Jim Long in North Carolina.  We're fortunate enough to have good friends to help us out when things get rough.  Larry and his wife left Tuesday morning and rolled back into Ashland Wednesday before lunch.  They made awesome time.  Larry & Cheryl:  thank you again for all your help!

Our Beachwood Studio's crew stopped by the shop Wednesday to get some footage of the new car and to film some of our work progress.  The new chassis is "Carolina Blue" and arrived with an orange interior body.  We had already made plans to pull off the orange and design a black body.  Now Jay will be black and blue...in more ways than one.

Wednesday, Jay and Heather started working on redesigning the body while Chris and I mounted the fuel cell and made some rear end suspension adjustments.  Thursday, we switched gears.  I worked on the front suspension while Chris mounted the electrical components and gauges. There were several bolts that were sheared off in the block during the crash.  Jay extracted the bolts and looked over the engine for problems. 

I shipped the carb back to Rupert's Performance Products to be checked out.  He freshened it and shipped it back a day or two later.  Hopefully we've ordered all the parts that we'll need to complete the new car. 

Jay seems to think he'll physically be ready to climb back in the car next Saturday.  We've got a ways to go on the car.  We've got some late nights ahead of us, but we'll be ready if he's ready!

Written by Jay:

What a ride I took! It appears as though the throttle pedal had a bind in it, and over time, it managed to become slightly askew, causing it to stick (this is our theory).

I personally would like to say thanks to the following people for their help and concerns: my wife who is my best friend, Chris and Heather, The Kugel Family (Larry, Rocky, Ziggy, Cheryl), Tom King, Matt Blanchard, Wayne County speedway safety personnel, Ernie Coffman (WCS owner), and so many more people that stopped and helped out. I really appreciate your help. I know I forgot some people, and I am sorry, I didn't mean to.

Currently here's our progress, body panels on the new car are off. Our old rearend is in the new car, our old front end pieces my wife is putting on the new car, Chris is working on wiring ( I don't do electrical), I am working on engine, mounting the battery box, and making body pieces as we go. Hope to mount seat tomorrow, maybe the seat belts, brake pedals, other misc. stuff.

Physically speaking.........I am 100% ready in my mind to get back into that cockpit. I am already counting the days. I have the need for speed, my body on the other hand, might have something to say about that.

May 15, 2004
Saturday

We met Chris and Heather at the shop earlier today to work on the new car.  Tom King and Matt Blanchard dropped by so we could help them scale Tom's car and get it setup for next weekend. It didn't take long to scale the car, but Matt and Tom were nice enough to stick around and help the rest of the afternoon.  Roger Miller stopped out to check things out and give us a hand too. 

Our goal is to be back on track...literally...next weekend.  We've definitely got a ways to go though.  Check out our latest pictures.  

May 19, 2004
Wednesday

After a solid week of working on the car, we're making pretty good progress.  Our goal is still to hit the track this Saturday...three days away.  We dropped the engine, transmission, and radiator back in tonight.  Several of the body panels are attached, several more are made, but awaiting the arrival of the new decals.  We can't fire the engine until we get the headers back.  I'm a bit concerned about the engine, but I seem to be the only one.   

Jay is doing better.  He's still pretty sore, but I left him unattended Sunday and he snuck out to the shop in the Explorer.  The wooden flip flop shoe was getting to him too.  He upgraded to his normal shoe today.  His foot is back to normal size and color (for the most part).  His ribs are still a bit sore and so is his knee.  He's still convinced he'll be ready Saturday...so we'll see how the next 3 days go.

Here's a few more pictures that we took tonight.

May 20, 2004
Thursday

What a day.  Jay and I met the TV crew at the race shop around 6:30pm.  Things instantly started off bad.  We hoped to have the headers back today so we could attach them and fire the engine.  No such luck, they're not ready.  I'm nervous about the engine and the sooner we get it running, the better I'll feel (I hope). 

We couldn't find the right length and grade of bolts for the motor mounts last night, so Jay picked up 2 new ones today.  They didn't fit.  In fact, they're the same size as the ones we tried last night. 

Next, I decide to attach the throttle rod while Jay measures and cuts the new Carb stud.  The throttle rod is WAY short.  I have to take everything apart and extend the heims.  I reattached it, but the pedal rides pretty high.  I'm not happy with it.  We'll probably have to reposition the pedal tomorrow.  Jay has success with the carb stud.

Jay moves along to the shifter rods.  More trouble.  They're both long.  Even though the chassis is built the same as the other one was, we have apparently dropped in the pedal and shifter rods into different areas.  Jay decides to measure and cut the rods (and his finger).  He's finally satisfied with the rods and re-taps them.  Now he realizes he's lost the little spacer that goes in the heim.  Great.  He has to make new ones.  After getting everything lined up and going on several "hide and seek" missions (he laid parts down somewhere and couldn't find them again) he secured the shifter rods to the transmission. 

Meanwhile, I attached several body panels and the spoiler.  Things actually went pretty smoothly on that project. 

Jay decides we'll attach the drive shaft and call it a night.  I had to search for nuts for the one u-joint since they were no longer with the others.  It doesn't take long for us to realize the transmission is either stuck in gear or is broken.  I try to slam the shifter into a different position, but it won't budge.  Jay crawls out from under the car and gets it to move.  That's good though because the shaft rotates now, so the transmission appears okay.  However, the shifter rods are going to need to be readjusted because what we thought was "neutral" wasn't.

Our friend Larry Kugel called tonight too.  He crashed his car pretty bad last weekend.  He's okay, but he has to replace his rearend, fuel cell, and quite a bit more.  Larry is confident he'll be ready to race this weekend too, but he's still slamming to get ready.  Even if we do hit our goal of racing, Jay's planning on laying back and getting some shakedown laps and staying out of trouble.  His body still isn't 100% and the car probably won't be that far either.  We'll see how things go...

May 22, 2004
Saturday

Friday was rather depressing.  We started off by holding the new headers up to the engine and quickly learning....they're the wrong ones.  Apparently Hot Chassis has made some adjustments in how they're building their newer cars.  The headers they told Jay to order are never going to fit in this car!  So, I called Summit Racing because I knew they would be open until 9pm.  I figured Heather and I could fly up there and get new headers if they had them or maybe Warren from Beachwood Studios could pick them up since he lives up there.  Well, Simon from Summit kept me on hold for 20 minutes and never came back to the phone, so I hung up.  Obviously, I should've called Jeg's.  I've never had a problem with Jeg's.

I did get a call from my ex-engine builder who had a set of used headers for sale.  He described them to me over the phone and they sounded like they might work, so Heather and I ran over there to pick them up.  They're very close, but need some slight modification to work.  I contacted my friend Don Stuart who does custom work on this line. He agreed to do the work.  When we originally talked to Don, we thought it would have to be done from scratch.  Now we're thinking it'll be a somewhat easy job if he can modify these headers.  So that's cool at least. 

Even though we were all bummed out, we worked on the car until 11pm or so before heading home.  We weren't in much of a hurry Saturday morning either knowing that we weren't going to be able to race.  Jay and I got to the race shop around 10:30am and began working on the car.  We had severe storms Friday that blew through the area and had tried calling Wayne County Speedway to make sure they were still racing.  The line was busy for hours.  Other racers were calling us trying to find out what was going on.  The website didn't indicate a cancellation, so we were prepared to load Chris up and go.

THEN....a call came in from Cheryl Kugel.  She had found someone that had headers that should fit our car!  We instantly went into thrash mode.  Jay and I were putting body panels on the car and hurrying to get ready.  We were going to load Chris up and send him to the track and continue to work until we could leave.  We still had the door panels from the green car that I was just going to rivet on to get us through the evening.  Meanwhile our phones constantly rang from other racers and Wayne County phones were still busy. 

Chris and Heather arrived and we loaded the Huff car.  Chris and Heather helped us work on the new Hot as it neared time for them to head out.  Tom King called and said he heard from a driver that said Wayne County doesn't have power and has cancelled.  Tom called fellow Modified driver Danny Dean to confirm.  Danny hadn't heard anything, but called the track owner's son and got the confirmation.  Racing was cancelled.

Chris was depressed because he was ready to race.  Jay and I breathed easier though because we wouldn't have to push so hard and weren't going to lose out on points or anything.  We continued working and a normal pace until 10:30pm, only taking a time out for dinner at bw3's. 

We'll finish up the body panels tonight and then take the car to Don for header work Monday evening.  There's a "dash for cash" invitation only race at Wayne County on Wednesday.  With any luck, we'll be able to be there.  It'll be a good chance to shake down the car before Saturday's race.  Weather isn't looking good though.

Here's the latest pictures.

May 31, 2004
Monday

Sorry for the lack of diary updates last week.  Something happened to our phone lines with all the storms last week.  Bad phone lines combined with a full week of long nights working on the race car prohibited any updates.  Here's the latest though...

Thank you Don Stuart for doing an incredible job (as usual) on making our custom headers.  We should've gone to Don to begin with! He had the headers completed and back to us Thursday.  We painted the headers Thursday night and waited until Friday to bolt them on and fire the engine.  As you may recall, that was the part I was most concerned about...the engine.

Our camera crew was hoping to be there Friday for the engine test, but couldn't make it.  So, I filmed 125 Megs worth of footage through the digital camera.  Unbelievably it fired up without much incident.  Chris predicted we'd have a lot of smoke at first, but there wasn't any.  Much to my relief, it roared!  We all breathed a little easier after that and our mood brightened.  Finally!

Jay gets better as each day passes.  This extra week was really good for him.  He's still not 100%, but he can at least climb in and out of the car and get around pretty good.

We still had a dozen things we needed to complete before hitting the racetrack Saturday.  We hate to be rushed because that's when mistakes happen.  So, we tried to be thorough, yet still push hard to get ready.  The camera crew got to the shop around 12:30 and filmed a little bit.  Chris and Heather rolled in around 12:45-1pm and helped us wrap things up.  We loaded and headed to the track. 

There were still two small things to do to the car once we reached the track.  Chris and I knocked those two things out pretty quickly though.  I knew that there were 3 Road Warrior Races scheduled for this weekend.  Friday at Skyline, Saturday at Midway, and Sunday at Tyler County Speedway.  I was doubting that we'd have many Modifieds.  So, I was quite surprised to see 19 of them roll in!  That's the largest car count this year.  Several cars that showed up mentioned they were there to prepare for next weekend's Road Warrior Race at Wayne County. 

Jay was a bit nervous.  He's still "gun shy" as he puts it.  His plan was to take a few laps and shake the car down.  He planned on taking a couple laps in the Feature so he'd stay up in points. Well...as usual, nothing goes the way we plan.

Hot laps were fine.  Car seemed to handle pretty good.  Jay didn't give it all he could for time trials.  The engine sounded great, but the car seemed a bit loose going into turn one unless Jay was just shaking it out.  I couldn't hear the times for qualifying and they weren't posted, but I think Jay was middle of the pack for qualifying. 

Chris was first out for qualifying.  I missed his laps because I was getting Jay ready to get lined up.  Heather came back shaking her head though.  Chris looped it somewhere off of turn 2 and couldn't get re-fired.  He said his second lap was like 2 minutes!

Our friend Larry Kugel went for a wild ride on time trials too.  He went into the wall and had A LOT of damage.  He's got a good crew though and they slammed on things and got it back together for the heat.  The rear of the chassis is very bent though. 

Jay was suppose to start 5th in his heat, but opted for the tail (as planned).  Chris was also starting on the tail.  Ut Oh.  Chris had joked all morning that he would get to put the first mark on Jay's new car since he helped put it together.  I told him, he might get his wish!

The heat goes green.  Jay seems to be doing fine.  He's just getting some laps...as planned.  THEN...cars scatter all over the track on both ends of the track.  All but 3 cars (one being Jay) were involved in some sort of cluster.   Wayne County has a "no stop" rule.  That means if you stop, you go to the tail.  All the cars start lining back up.  Jay wants the tail, so he waves everyone by.  The flagman stops the cars on the front stretch and bring Jay back up to third and line everyone else up behind him.  GREAT!  There goes "the plan".

Now that Jay's up here, he has two choices.  He holds back and drifts to the back and hopes no body slams him...or he goes for it.  Now, it's not likely he'll get out of this clean if he eases up and drifts back, so yea, he goes for it.  The green flag drops and off they went.  The top 3 cars just pull away from the pack.  Jay and #86 Dave Liles have a great battle for second.  Jay has it for awhile then Dave takes it back.  Chris detours through the infield and through a mud puddle to bring out a caution.  In 5 years of racing, I've never seen one of our racecars "that" muddy!  The battle for 2nd was intense the whole time.  Dave finally secured the spot in the end though.

Jay was pumped.  He's got steering problems though.  It's binding and when he goes into the turn, it doesn't want to come back.  We've had this problem in the past.  I think we went t