The Keeppers

We believe a spark plug wire caused the car to lose power during the heat. We replaced it and had the same problem during the feature. We’ll look at the car this week and take it to Springfield Raceway Wednesday for practice. That will give us the ability to see if we have or can work out the bug.

We made some car changes during hot laps which were not good. We quickly got back to our original set up and raced the Heat well. I had never raced this track but won the heat by about a straight away. During Feature (45) R Bryant and I started on the front row. Going into corner 1/2 on the first lap hit me in the side thought I felt I gave him plenty of room, I kind of felt pushed out of the way. I lost control of my car and was fortunate to not get hit so was now in the middle of the field. My front left tire was going down due to the hit and my car was not liking the slick track so I ended up spinning around on my own (first time all year). Now starting in the back out of 24 cars I just couldn’t do anything…slickest track I ever raced. I really don’t think I’ll be back until I have a car set up which works on such a slick track. Also, the car turn out was greater than usual since Springfield Rained out. Good crowd and car turn out. Lucas Oil Speedway is a $7 million dollar facility and there is little doubt that this is great place to race, if you can race there which may take me a while.

The car was good and I finished the heat with a good lead. Drew a 2 after the heat so that meant that the first two rows invert which put (20) Ratterree in 2nd and me in 4th. A sprint car driver decided for either the first or second time to drive factory stock (11) Todd and he hit me in the first corner when I gave him plenty of space and my left rear tire went flat immediately. I understand that they black flagged the number 11 so when I got back out on the track after lap 9 he was in front of me. He was up and down the track, worst I’ve ever seen a factory stock race, I finally got around him on the last lap and he still managed to hit me again. Rediculous. I spoke to the 11 crew after the race and they were clueless (basically that he was a top Sprint car driver) so I spoke to the track owner and he said they black flagged the number 11 after he hit me (probably they had their eye on him after seeing how bad he was during the heat…caused Sundance to turn sideways) and they said they would talk to him if he planned on racing again this coming week.

During the Heat I had my back up motor in and it ran great. Started 5th and made it to 1st rather quickly. During the feature I was behind the leader (26) Camaro (D. Miller) and he would slide his car sideways down low just enough for me to get under him. Got beside him on one lap but he cut me off on the next corner and so I kept trying to work him on the inside. One time I came off the corner at a different angle them him with some good momentum but had to put on the brakes to avoid hitting him which caused (02) to hit my left rear tire breaking my shock and the shock mount. A pile up resulted with Dylan (75) and Ratterree(20) getting the worst of the damage. I should have pulled off the track because I knew that something was wrong with my car. I ended up turning sidways on my own and had to restart at the back of the field. On the restart a few cars got together and it left an opening down the middle which I went through…though the openning was there the cars on each side sandwiched me which tore up the front of the car. I was now officially done for the night. The frame was bent in the front so we’ll call it a weekend, get the frame straightened this coming week and get the car put together for hopefully better luck next weekend.

Isaac suggested I refreshen the engine last week but due to all of the cosmetic work that was necessary after last week’s crash at Monett I suggested we wait until this coming week. Famous last words. After taking almost a straight away lead from the reast of the cars in the heat race my engine went up in smoke. The engine was definately blown. We’ll put in my back up engine this coming week which is fresh and ready to race. I was leading the points at Springfield by 11 but that will probably change after tonight. Sundance had a chance at winning until his right rear tire went flat. You can never predict a win but I believe that my car was really good based on the track. I think a win was definately in the cards had my engine not failed.

Dylan started on my outside on the front row of the heat. The track was slick so I did some slidding around but managed to put a good distance on the rest of the field and pull off a win. Sundance finished 2nd in his heat but they called it as 3rd. Since Rattree (20) won the heat and won last race I should have started on the front row of the feature with Sundance but instead ende up with 3D. I quickly lead the feature, they raced us towards the end of the night so the track was as slick as slick gets and I was doing everything possible to keep the car as low to the bottom of the track as possible. I made a couple mistakes going into the corner too hard and Blue Camaro (37) Todd Cook managed to get inside me with only a few laps to go. I ran on his outside for a couple laps but I knew I was done for so pulled in behind him and finished 2nd. Todd has won many races there including the largest race of the season there (5k to win) so he’s a bit of a veteran racer so losing to him is not so bad. My brother-in-laws finished 3rd and 5th…Sundance and Dylan respectively.

It took 3 restarts to get the race started but I was especially proud that I beat J Tillman all 3 times off the green to the flag stand (he started on my inside). So even though I won the heat I was not able to start on the front row of the feature but rather 8th place (I won the last two feature races there and each time you win they put you back farther in the starting spot). I made it from 8th to 4th when I started losing the edge on my tire (tire was shredded at end of race) and to top it off on the last lap my gas pedal came disconnected from the carborator sending several cars to crash into me. Most of the car damage appears to be exerior which can be fixed or replaced. I can’t believe it. I should have had at least 4th but instead ended up with my 2nd DNF of the weekend and extensive car damage.

The car was not driving rite all night.

During the Heat I started on the pole with Bryant (45) on my inside, he beat me off the green so I had to race in 2nd, though I was right on his bumper the entire time but couldn’t get around him. During the feature Bryant had engine problems so pulled off and it was then just J Tillman in front of me as we lead the entire race considerably out in front of everyone else. It was slick and I tried to keep it on the inside copying what Tillman was doing. I knew I had little chance at beating him so was content with 2nd.

My 583 gear broke prior to the heat so we put in the 600 which turned out out to my advantage. K Jackson (65) has won at Bolivar 3 times and he started on my inside. I beat him off the start since I had a higher gear and on each corner I kept gaining more and more until I had about a straight away ahead of him. He said afterwards that it was the best he ever ran at that track and couldn’t figure out how I kept pulling away from him and I told him that I was running the wrong gear which just to my luck ended up being the better gear based on the track conditions. During the feature it was more slick so I had less of an advantage but kept ahead of the rest of the pack until my clutch went out on lap 11. The win was in the bag until that happenned…but that’s racing.