After a horrible race on the 15th, we decided
to seek some guidance. We took the car to JZ
Motorsports to have John help us get the setup where we
need it to be. With some borrowed components from Jeff Knight
and our shocks rebuilt at least five or six times perfecting
the dyno curves,we finished up the car about 2 a.m. Saturday
morning. The car was ready to roll out onto the track Saturday
afternoon.
We took the car out for the first practice
session of the day. The car felt great. It has never handled
that well before. Now it was up to me to gain confidence with
the new setup and push the limits. The car was just a bit
too low during the first session so we brought the car in
to the pits. With some more borrowed parts from Jeff Knight,
we went back out for the next practice session. The car felt
even better! Since we fixed the ride height adjustment,
we decided to run some laps and see how the car will handle
on a long run. The final practice session we just scuffed
in the new tires.
With the new tires on, we were ready to lay
down a fast time in qualifying to get the night going. When
it was our turn, we pulled out onto the track and got up to
speed. The car was handling pretty good till something bad
happened. Coming out of turn four the right rear upper shock
mount snapped off of the frame. Since the shock and spring
are both attached to this mount, the right rear of the car
was now just floating. The wheel well traveled down and put
a few good slices in the surface of the tire. We were able
to pull into the pits without any problem.
00 - Lang 23.004 *
28 - Neissner 23.218
12 - Moriarity 23.267
70 - Knight 23.338
11 - Holden 23.512
6 - Hall 23.657
3 - Hubbert 23.660
4 - Stordahl 23.750
26 - Prudnick 23.882
2 - Blackwood 23.944
15 - Bennett 24.112
20 - Sole 24.162
16 - Moore 28.615
When the shock mount broke, it felt like something
in the front of the car broke because the car hopped up in
the front. When the car returned to the pits, we looked over
the car trying to see what was wrong. Once the problem was
identified, we had to figure out how we were going to fix
it. The shock mount is a small ring that the adjuster rod
is threaded through. So there wasn't much material to weld
the pieces together. We welded what we could on the original
pieces, then welded on some plates to the sides as gussets,
then welded on the weld, and finally finished with some more
welds. The problem was the welder we were using isn't very
powerful and the power source wasn't either. But with the
car repaired, and now five pounds heavier, we were ready for
the main.
We had to start in last place since our qualifying
lap was cut short. We lined up in the 7th row ready for the
green flag. As we came to the start/finish line we moved to
the outside. By the exit of turn two, we had already passed
two cars. We passed another car on the back stretch. We continued
to move our way up through traffic in the opening laps. By
lap ten, we had passed eight cars and found ourselves in fifth
place. We ran the rest of the race in fifth with the 11 car
hot on our heels at the end.
This race was a great improvement over were
we were a week ago. With some fine tuning I think we will
be able to be even faster. We are looking forward to the next
3/8 race on June 5th
00 - Lang
70 - Knight * -6.299
28 - Neissner -7.169
12 - Moriarity -12.869
16 - Moore -18.519
11 - Holden -18.881
3 - Hubbert -1 Lap
6 - Hall -1 Lap
2 - Blackwood -1 Lap
4 - Stordahl -1 Lap
26 - Prudnick -1 Lap
15 - Bennett -1 Lap
20 - Sole -13 Lap
05.08.2010
Top three, three weeks in a row! Although this week was
cutting it a little bit too close.
We didn't make any big changes to the car from the previous
week before we went to the track. We did change the ride
heights a little bit but nothing too crazy. Unfortunately
this season we have not had a very good selection of practice
tires since the two tire rule was started. The reason why
is with this new rule, we only change out our right side
tires every week. The left and right tires are different
sizes so they have to be used on the respective side. This
means that this weekend was the third race weekend that
we have on our left side "race" tires. The worse
part is that our left side "practice" tires are
from last season. That pair of tires have seen two race
weekends and about four practice sessions this season. So
needless to say, we are looking forward to the 5/8 race
this weekend to replenish our left side tire supply. On
Saturday, we tried a couple of changes during the practice
sessions but the stagger of the practice tires was way off
so we didn't want to chase something that would most likely
disappear.
We didn't get a chance to scuff our new tires in before
qualifying and these new tires are not very good without
at least a heat cycle in them. We ended up qualifying fifth.
70 - Knight 17.732*
12 - Moriarity 17.774
2 - Blackwood 17.916
26 - Prudnick 18.072
16 - Moore 18.202
20 - Sole 18.267
15 - Bennett 18.517
In the heat race, we just could not seem to find any speed.
We tried running a few different lines but we just couldn't
improve.
12 - Moriarity*
70 - Knight
2 - Blackwood
20 - Sole
16 - Moore
15 - Bennett
78 - Zaretzke
26 - Prudnick
We started on the outside pole for the main race. We needed
to fix the way the car was entering the corner before we
had any hopes of making the car faster anywhere else on
the track. We decided to change a few things in the front
end to see if that would make any difference. Unfortunately,
they didn't help much. As we came to the green, we were
right with the 20 but the car washed up in turn one and
we slipped back to second. We were racing with the 2 car
coming out of four when I decided to adjust the rear brake
bias. The lever that spins the adjuster is next to the switch
panel. When I flipped the handle around, my sleeve caught
the ignition switch and killed the motor. The 70 was running
right behind us and had no where to go. Once I realized
what happened, I flipped the switch back on and took off.
Didn't affect us much but it sure did bunch up the pack.
For the next half of the race we slipped back to sixth place.
In the closing laps we were able to move up to fifth place.
On the last lap two cars tangled coming out of turn four
and we were able to pass them coming to the finish line.
78 - Zaretzke
20 - Sole
16 - Moore
2 - Blackwood
70 - Knight*
12 - Moriarity
15 - Bennett
26 - Prudnick
04.26.2010
Getting closer! Saturday's race was one crazy
night. There were lots of cautions, a couple reds and a few
tore up race cars.
I was able to make it back Thursday night to get the car prepared
for the second race of the season. I spent most of the day
Friday doing the weekly preparations and organizing. When
we arrived at the track Saturday afternoon we were ready to
roll the car out and practice. During the first practice,
the spring change we made was working well despite the old
tires we were running. We decided that since the stagger wasn't
right that we would scuff in the new right side tires and
wait for qualifying.
We qualified third fastest with a time of 18.354 on the second
lap. On the first lap I got into turn three a little hot which
threw off the exit of turn four which hurt our second lap's
time.
We needed to find some speed from somewhere
if we were going to have any chance of doing well in the main.
The solution we came up with was to throw away the bump stops
and take 50 pounds out of the car. We turned some rounds in
across the front to help keep the car off the track. When
we headed out to the heat race, we were not convinced that
the car wouldn't bottom out getting into the corners. We lined
up for the start and I drove it in turn one. Surprisingly,
the car didn't bottom out! We ran the whole heat race in third
place and that is where we finished. It took some adjusting
on my part to get a feel for the car without bump stops.
12 - Moriarity
70 - Knight *
16 - Moore
6 - Hall
20 - Sole
26 - Prudnick
2 - Blackwood
15 - Bennett
The main race was a long one. We couldn't
manage to have a run longer than 10 laps. Unfortunately our
car didn't come alive until about seven laps into a run. We
started on the outside of the front row. Exiting turn two
we pulled out into the lead and cleared the 6 car by the finish
line. We created a small lead until the first caution came
out. On the restart, we were on the pole with the 6 car outside.
We pulled back into the lead until another caution came out.
Another restart and we cleared the outside car by turn one.
There was a big pile up behind us and then another caution.
The next restart was single file, for some reason, with the
70 behind us. We maintained the lead on the restart and broke
out to a three car lead. We were able to get a few laps on
the board then one of the cars leaked a bunch of rear end
oil all around the track. The officials decided to red flag
the race while they spread absorbent around the whole track.
Once they cleaned the track we lined up for a restart. There
was speedy-dry everywhere on the restart yet we found some
bite and got a good start. But the officials were not impressed
so we had a restart. The 20 car worked his way by us on the
next segment of the race. We began reeling him in and the
caution came out. We chose to start on the outside and we
got back into the lead within a couple laps. We lead another
segment until the caution came out again followed a red. We
didn't have any time to scrub the tires before the next restart
and the 12 car got around the outside. We ran the remaining
laps in second with the 70 looking for an opportunity. He
was able to get his nose outside coming to the white flag.
We ran side by side to the checkers where we crossed .011
seconds ahead. It was a flat out drag race coming out of turn
four. I think with a few minor changes we will be able to
get the car handling better. It was amazing how the car performed
with the radical call we made with the bump stops. We are
looking forward to the next race in a couple weeks. See ya
there!
12 - Moriarity
16 - Moore
70 - Knight *
20 - Sole
26 - Prudnick
15 - Bennett
2 -Blackwood
6 - Hall
It was a night of thirds for us at the first
race of the 2010 season at Evergreen Speedway. Throughout
the night the car stayed more consistent than we ever have
in in the past. The problem is that we were consistently one
to two tenths off of the pace.
When we arrived to the track we were more
prepared than we have been for most opening nights. Usually
we are still putting weight in the car or attaching body panels.
But the car was ready to roll out of the trailer and onto
the track on Saturday. We went out for the first practice
session with tires that have one race weekend and three practices
on them, needless to say, they were worn out. The car was
okay, but with the old rubber, we were not expecting much.
We made some slight adjustments for the second practice and
went out to see if they made any improvement. The class before
us spilled some fluids on the track so they brought us back
in to the pits so they could clean up the track. We took this
time to put the sticker tires on so that we could scuff them
before qualifying. The car handled well once we got the green
for the second practice. We got some heat in the tires then
parked it till qualifying.
On our initial qualifying run, our hard wired
transponder was not registering with the track's computer
timing system. We were brought in and we put on one of their
transponders on the car. They held us till the tires cooled
off and sent us out for another try. We ended up with a time
of 17.820 which was good enough for third place.
Qualifying
70-Knight 17.725*
12-Moriarity 17.728
16-Moore 17.820
26-Prudnick 18.188
2-Blackwood 18.213
20-Sole 18.254
15-Bennett 18.644
The heat race starting order was straight
up by qualifying times which placed us on the inside of the
second row. When we came down to the green, the 70 and I got
a good jump on the pack, but the officials didn't approve
so we bunched back up for another attempt. On the second start,
we got through the first few laps and found ourselves running
in fourth. That is where we stayed for the majority of the
laps until the final lap when we passed the 20 car for third
place.
Heat
12-Moriarity
70-Knight*
16-Moore
20-Sole
15-Bennett
26-Prudnick
6-Hall
2-Blackwood
For the main race, there was a four car invert.
That meant that the 26 was on the pole with us starting on
the outside. We had no choice but to get around the outside
of the 26 otherwise we could have easily fallen to fourth
or fifth place. When we came to the green, we had a good start
and we were able to clear the 26 by the backstretch. We quickly
broke out to a small lead of a few car lengths. By about lap
four or five, the 70 car caught us and was waiting for an
opportunity to get by us. I drove it in a little too hard
and the nose bounced up out of the groove and let the 70 get
his nose in under us. He got by us and started to break away.
We fended off the 12 car for the next segment of laps up to
the only caution. We had the choice on the restart whether
to choose the inside or outside for the double file restart.
We talked about it, and decided that with the way the car
was performing, the only real chance we had to fend off the
12 was to make him start on the outside of the 70 hoping that
the 70 would out run him and we could follow the 70. Yet the
12 was able to get around the 70 on the outside. At this point
we were running in third place. The remainder of the race
consisted of us fending off the 6 car and watching the 12
and 70 drive away. Once again, we were a third place car all
night, a couple of tenths off of the leaders.
Main
12-Moriarity
70-Knight*
16-Moore
6-Hall
26-Prudnick
15-Bennett
20-Sole
2-Blackwood
(...* identifies fastest lap)
So what changes do we make for the next race?
We were losing our competitors in a few crucial portions of
the track. This 2010 season has a few new rules compared to
last season. While I hate to say it, but the first two finishers
were running about 150 pounds lighter than our car per the
2010 rules. While there are advantages to the setup we are
running, it seems as if they are not enough to keep up with
the lighter cars. We were also having some issues with our
rear tires forming some irregularities on the tread surface.
We are not sure if this setup is too hard on these tires since
we are heavier than last season. We could also try running
without the bump stops which will allow us to bring the margin
of weight to only 100 pounds. Or we can choose to adopt the
new shock package since it seems to be faster that the previous
shock packages, in Saturday's case, about a quarter of a second
a lap. The weight break was meant to equalize the disadvantage
of the new shocks, but it seems as if it has gone beyond that.
Chances are that the rules will remain the same since it is
beneficial for the track to supervise the building of the
shocks. The last option is to keep after it with our current
setup and risk watching the points slip out of our fingers
till we strike it right.
04-12-2010
04-08-2010
Only two more weeks till our first race of the season!
We spent this last weekend making some changes to the chassis
and preparing the car for paint. Dan and Dexx will be taking
the car up to A&B Custom Collision for paint. Deyoung Inc
has supplied us with a great rendering of what the car will
look like with all of the graphics. Look for another entry
later this week!
03-29-2010
With only a few weeks to the first race, we are excited and busy getting everything ready for this 2010 season. MMS would like to announce Work'n More's commitment to another year with our team. Our first practice session was held last Saturday on the 3/8s at Monroe. We were able to get the car our and run a few laps. The car wasn't very pretty to look at but it will be looking great with a new paint job and graphics. Stay tuned for what I hope will be weekly blog entries.
03-24-2010
To see blog postings from the 2009 season click here.
