Last week was rained out again! This rain is getting ridiculous! Tonight is week number 6 on the schedule, but only week number 2 for actual racing.

Well, over the last two weeks, I asked a lot of questions of different people trying to figure out what is going on with my motor and why it won't run. Consensus seems to be that the jets in this carb are way too big...drop down to smaller jets again. So I played with the carb for a couple hours and changed jets several times to see if I could get the motor to run right. After dropping the jets down as far as 75, the car seems to be running now...at least in the garage. I was a bit nervous having jets that small considering that the guy that built this carb told me not to go below an 82. My motor traditionally likes smaller jets than most so I decided to put a set of 80s in and head for the track to see what happens.

Brian, along with my son Brandon and Brian's friend Mark all headed to the track. Wow, it's kind of nice having a real pit crew! I have never had this many people with me at a race. I kind of like it! We unloaded the car and after waiting out about a 20 minute rain event, we set tire pressures, oiled 'er up and headed for the fun job of packing the track. So far so good. It is running right, at least putting around the track. During hot laps, when I got up to speed, the motor started stumbling a bit on the top end, but not nearly as bad as it did last week. Back into the pits, after a plug check, I pulled the carb apart and dropped the jets down two more sizes to 78. On to the heat race.

I started on the outside of row 1. Good place to start! Green flag!!! For the first lap and a half, the car seemed to run fine, then it started gurgling a bit at the top end of the RPMs. The car was handling pretty well, but not quite running right. Much better than it had been, though. During the race, the number 5 of Brandon Ferguson dove down on the inside of me going into turn 1 and basically used me all the way through turn 2 and half way down the back straight to get his car to turn! Nice. He did complete the pass, but the yellow came out and I was given back the lead for the restart. I did pull up beside him on the caution and give him the finger wagging...not the middle finger...yet! On the second lap of the restart, Brandon did the same thing to me and I will admit that going down the back straight, I turned in to him and tried to take him out, but apparently I am not very good at it because he just kept going. During the remaining laps, with the car still not running perfectly, I ended up losing one more spot and finished 3rd. At least I transferred directly to the "A" tonight.

In the pits, pull the carb apart and drop the jets down again. This time to 76s! I am getting a bit nervous having jets that small, but the plugs are telling me that it is still running pretty rich. I hope this does the trick. The motor was close to running perfectly in the heat, but still a bit of a stumble at speed.

Tonight I get to start on the inside of row 2. Boogity, Boogity, Boogity!!! God, I am sick of hearing that! Why did I write that?!?! After one lap, it felt like the motor was finally running right! Not stumbling a bit...Time to race! The two cars in front of me were side by side, as was I in the second row. No passing yet. The first caution came out pretty quickly and I restarted 4th. Going into turn one, I tried to get on the outside of #67, Dan Carsrud, and nearly went off the top of the track because I couldn't see where the corner was until it was too late. After I collected the car, I settled back into 5th and ran there for about a lap and then another caution. Restarting 5th this time, I was planning on going around on the outside of the car in front of me going into turn one, but I saw him aiming high, so I dove to the bottom to see what I could do there. I almost over drove the corner for being that low, go it way loose but hung on and pulled back into 5th going down the back straight. After about another half lap, the front 3 cars lined up three wide and I was on the outside behind them with another car under me and we raced like that for about 3 laps before the three in front played bumper cars and finally opened the door for something to happen. I moved up to 4th and stayed there for another lap or so until Tim Waltner, #79 pulled off into the pits and called it a night. After a couple more cautions we ran the last half of the race under green and I was trying everything I could to get around the 67. I was just a little bit faster, but not fast enough to complete the pass. Finally on the last corner of the last lap, I got a good run on Dan and thought I might be able to get him by the finish line, but just as I got to his rear bumper, he pulled down right in front of me and I nailed him in the left rear corner and he nearly spun out, but held on. I had to settle for 4th. I guess I shouldn't say "settled" for 4th. Considering all the problems I was having, I was just glad the car was finally running right and was able to put together a good finish.

After the race, the tech official told me to go to my pit and pull my carb. Oh good! I haven't had enough practice pulling my damn carb off, so why not do it one more time! Come to find out, I was going to have my intake manifold inspected. It wasn't even a carburetor tech! That's OK. I have nothing to hide anyway.

This week was a big learning experience. I have never really done good spark plug checks and played around with the jetting of my carb before. Now I feel much more comfortable adjusting the carb.

Well, it's back home and time to work on repairing my front fender supports, maybe drop the jets one more time and a couple other little maintenance things and try it again next week...if it doesn't rain!