The Keeppers

In only a week Isaac was able to get my car put back together with a new body and other misc fixes here and there. There wasn’t time to paint the car but it still looked very nice. The Heat race proved that the car was still the car that I had before the body got tore up. I started 4th and was in the lead by the 2nd lap. I pulled away from the rest of the cars and won by a significant margin. Tillman (85) started on the pole during the Feature with me on his outside. On the green Tillman took off while I ended up spinning my tires. The heat that this caused must have caused my tires to glaze over as I went sideways in the first corner and got T-boned in the door. With a flat tire I pulled off and called it a night. The only damage appears to be the door which can easily be replaced, which is good happened before prior to the car being repainted this coming week.

It was the second night of the two day I-44 Fall Shootout. I started 7th out of 22 cars with T. Brown (1) on my outside. Upon the green I moved quickly to 5th and then there was a caution. Upon the restart I passed Flood (24) and Jackson (65) and then there was another caution. Restarting in 3rd I moved on Reeves (18) for 2nd but my transmission popped out of 3rd gear…causing me to fall back to 3rd position upon getting it back into gear. I soon had another nice run and passed Reeves on the high side of corner 3/4 for 2nd. I put a few car lengths between Reeves and myself and next thing I know Reeves hit me in the side of the door on corner 1/2. Looking back at the tape later I can see that his car just pushed up the track having gone into the corner with too much momentum. Reeves ended up turning me sideways and then clipped my front. I had a flat so with the caution that resulted I got a changed tire and made it out on the track just seconds before they ended up going green. I tried to keep the car out of the way and held my line waiting for them to throw the caution but they were too late…C. Smith (25) Camaro ended up side swiping me taking the entire left side off my car. I immediately pulled off the track and called it a night. You can see the picture gallery for pictures of the car. So it was a disappointing night having moved to 2nd with 5 laps to go. I just might have had another win.

I-44 had their last race of the season, also the MARS points finale which they call the Fall Shootout. With 3 Factory Heats I started in the 3rd position of the 3rd Heat with K. Jackson (65) in front of me and T. Brown (1) behind me…both very fast cars. I tried just about every groove and was unable to get around Jackson though I got close…ended up getting into his rear bumper a couple times. At the same time Brown was beating on my back corner. Something didn’t seem quite right with my car and I found out later that one of the spark plug wires was not connected resulting in me racing with 7 cylinders instead of 8. Since this is a two night race event the Feature race will not be until tomorrow.

Monett had their last race of the year with a Factory and Show-Me Series special. During the Heat my car was not hooking up as it usually does so I was not able to pass any cars and finished 4th. Prior to the Feature we discovered a bad shock and replaced it figuring that is what the problem was. 3 cars got disqualified due to trailing arms being too low so that allowed me some free passing points giving me a 6 place starting position out of 20 cars. A caution due to Flood (24) and (1) getting into each other moved me from 5th to 3rd. I eventually passed the 2nd place Camaro (44) and the 1st place Camaro (26) for the lead. The car was fast but a caution put Lebow (26-Track Champ last year) and Tillman (85-Track Champ year before) on my bumper. I had a good restart and neither seemed to be a threat and victory was in my sights. Enough laps went by that the three of us had a remarkable lead on the 4th place car on back. With only 2 laps to go the belts for the fan and power steering broke and I lost control of my car. I struggled to finish but because of the lead we had on the rest of the pack I still managed to finish 3rd. Tillman took the victory. I had the win in my pocket but things outside of one’s control happens and that’s racing.

It was my first time back to Springfield Raceway since they put down some new clay a few weeks ago. One of the best Factory Stock racers, Tillman (85), started in front of me during the Heat so I figured my best possible finish would be 2nd which it was. During the Feature I started behind Tillman again. The track was slick and the high side appeared to have the advantage but I was starting on the inside. Immediately Tillman took off and the two cars on the high side did as well and so I found myself quickly in 4th place. I was trying to figure out what was better, go high or go low and as I experimented a couple more cars got by me putting me in 6th. The track was so dry slick and the high side had an incredible ridge but the ridge was so high that if you hit it wrong it would catch your rear tire turningh your car up the track losing valuable ground. There were cars on the bottom and cars on the top so I felt my best option was to race in the middle. It worked as 06 (S. Symmonds) and 83 (B. Tillman) both got caught by that ridge and and it allowed me to get around them both. After several cautions, mostly restarting 5th, I eventually worked my way back up to 3rd right behind 7 (A. Thompson). Tillman was dedicated to the high side and was one of the few to run it very well resulting in a pretty good margin win. I really struggled on the track and so was pleased with a 3rd place finish. (Update: I found out I was racing with a broken left rear shock).

It was the last night of points racing at Midway so the Heat placement didn’t matter…the Feature line up would be based on points. Since I didn’t race Midway the entire season I was 8th in points and so 8th was my starting postion. I wanted to make sure that my brother-in-law Dylan won the points championship and based on his lead he needed to beat Rattree by 5 positions. Dylan started on the pole so I had a ways to catch him and once I did I planned to keep behind him to ensure that I wasn’t the car which cost him one of those key winning positions. Moving up the track I eventually got a good run to catch up to Dylan but I was going faster in the corners than Dylan…we were both running the high side…and so I had to put on the brakes hard to avoid hitting Dylan by that’s exactly what happenned when I slammed on the brakes and my brakes locked up. It was like ice as my car slid right into Dylan just hard enough to turn him around, at least Rattree had to avoid him so they both had to go to the back…including me. So here I was trying to make sure Dylan made the championship and I end up turning him around, not exactly part of the plan. So now at the back of the pack with Dylan and Ratree I maintained a safe distance behind Dylan and to play it a little safer I made sure that only as he passed a car then I would as well. The good news is that only a couple cars were between Ratree and Dylan at the end of the race and Dylan made it back up to 5th place…and won the championship. So it all worked out anyways and my other brother-in-law Sundance won the race…his first win at Midway.

It was a special MLRA race night at Lucas Oil Speedway and 40 factory stocks showed up. I drew a good number so was able to start on the pole of the 3rd Heat out of 4 Heat Races. After a good start I quickly took a sizable lead on the rest of the field. About half way into the race a caution came out. I could tell something was wrong with my car and the race track officials pointed out that my left rear tire was almost off so I was towed off the track. We learned that the 1/2″ spacer we put on the tire didn’t allow for enough lug nut room and so all but one of the lugs on the tire had come off. We took the spacer off and switched from a 3” offset wheel with spacer to a 2” offset wheel without spacer…thereby eliminating that problem. The new problem was that I now had reverse stagger, meaning that the right tire was smaller than the left tire. So we took a smaller tire and put it on the right rear. The risk was that it didn’t have a bead lock and so it was possible that the tire could pop off the rim due to the enormous pressure from my cars bite of the track. Regardless, I took the risk and went out for my first B Feature race. Only the first two cars of each of the two B Features will make it to the Main Feature. I started 6th out of 10 cars. On the second lap I was attempting to pass the front two cars on the inside and sure enough…my right rear tire popped. I stopped on the track to get the yellow out and then took off to get a tire change. They have an area just off the track to change tires and they give 2 laps to get it done. Successfully I was back on the track without losing any laps…though I now had to restart in last place. Upon the green I tore to the front, it only took a few laps to get out front and then I left the rest of the field behind. I had now qualified for the Main event. During intermission they worked the track a bit which made it less rough and added some grip so even though I had to start 21st out of 26 cars I was optomistic. One by one I picked cars off. Some of my best passes were on cautions which did not help because they go back a lap and so I would have to pass the cars again which I just got around. Regardless, the car was fast and I managed to stay out of trouble. Upon the 14th lap they threw the white flag which surprised me because they were going to race 20 laps and I can see now that they changed their mind and decided to race only 15. Probably due to it being so late they were probably trying to keep things moving. It was already around midnight and they still had two more classes to race. I was not ready for the race to be over since I was working on the two cars in front of me and was quite sure I could have achieved that with a few more laps which would have put me in the top 5…but will settle for 7th. Had I not lost almost lost my tire during the Heat I would have started 3rd during the Feature and would have had a very good chance at the win. Several told me that my car was the fastest in the field all night long. But considering the obsticles I went through I can’t complain with 7th…which during the Feature was about 1 car pass per lap. Starting 3rd would have been great but the challenge of moving through the field like that from the back was a blast.

Monett had their 4 state championship race for MARS/MLRA so there was a good 22 car turn out with some fast cars. I was looking forward to a good race even though I drew a 62 putting me in the back of the pack. Since I won last week I knew that the best I could start the feature would be 6th. After about 2 laps into the Heat race the 17c turned sideways on his own right in front of me and I had no where to go. I put on my brakes and managed to miss him, however, the car behind me (31d) hit me right in the rear. His car locked up and he lost control trying to miss me but instead hit me in the back left quarter panel resulting in my rearend housing getting bent. Quick night, but had fun watching everyone else race. Brown (69) became the first one to win 4 races at Monett this season. Until tonight I had won 3 races as had Brown and Holloway.

I-44 had their 5th annual Larry Phillips Memorial race. During the heat I was supposed to start 4th but the 2nd place car had problems discovered during hot laps so I was able to move up putting me on the outside of the front row and I won with little effort. My other big competitor was Reeves (18) and the exact same thing happened to him in the first heat (though he ended up finishing 2nd). Holloway and Jackson weren’t there so it wasn’t as competitive as it could have been so Reeves was the guy I knew I had to look out for. Since he wasn’t starting on my outside, and I had the pole, I was confident that I’d get a good lead…for one reason or another it took 3 restarts…each time I put a good distance on a Red Metric Car (67). Reeves eventually made it around a couple cars to the 2nd spot but I was already gone. By the time the caution came out the 3rd place car (Henderson – 76) was almost ½ lap behind. So the caution put Reeves right on my bumper but a good restart put a good distance between us and a few good laps kept him back far enough that he wasn’t a threat. I took the checkered which I was thrilled with since it was the Larry Phillips Memorial race of all races and the trophy was “Humongous” as described by the track announcer. It was also the first time I’ve won a race at I-44. Prior to tonight I had only finished 1 of 4 races at I-44 Speedway so it was good to finally have things go my way.