Well after a LONG week of pounding body dents, replacing cut tires, bent ball joints, bumper repair and pulling and replacing the clutch and tranny, with big help from Tom Clarkson from the #79 team, it was back to the track and give 'er hell again. I do have to thank Brain Heiman for finishing up a couple repairs that I did not get a chance to do myself. Today was the end of the year softball tournament for out church league team. We sucked, but still had fun. Unfortunately that meant that I was at the softball field all day and I had to have Brian come load up the car for me and get it ready to go to the track. After he loaded up the car, he apparently took it to his house and put it on scales and played with the setup a bit. He claims he made some changes that will really make a difference...giving it a lot more forward bite coming out of the corners. I'm a bit nervous, but I trust him. He hasn't killed me yet!!!

After we got to the track we got to talking about the left front rotor and how it had bent studs. That wasn't the case, but to make a long story short, that was another thing I was going to fix and forgot about, so Tom jumped right in and changed out the rotor while I attended the driver's meeting. P.S. The Hobby drivers got scolded for the mayhem that was had by all last week at the meeting. Yes, I have taken credit for some of the chaos, but others had their share of blame also.

Anyway, I start heat #2 on the inside of row 3. At the drop of the green, I got a good jump and dove to the inside of John Fischer, #7f and headed into turn one. Yellow flag. Someone jumped the start or something. I didn't see the naughty flag pointed at anyone, so I don't know who got blamed for that restart. Let's try it again. Green! Basically, things started off the same way as start number one. I dove to the inside and got what I could off of turn 2. It didn't work too well. I came back up to about the same spot I left. From here on, nothing really dramatic happened. I picked off one or two cars for the first couple laps and then settled into my normal spot in the heat races...second! I followed the #47 of Brandon Tingle for the last 2 or 3 laps trying to get around him, but the track was still a bit too wet to be able to get by him, so I finished second...again! According to the transponder results, I had the fastest lap of everyone in that heat on lap 6, but it wasn't enough.

On to the feature. As I was getting lined up, I somehow managed to remember that we had not taken off the plastic covering the grill that I use during hot laps and the heat races. I pulled out of line and drove over to the work area and had my guys pull that off for me. It's a good thing, because if I hadn't, I would have overheated for sure and not been able to finish the race. Tonight, I get to start 12th. This is getting tough trying to win from back here! That is a long way to go in only 12 laps. At least I get to start on the outside, which I like much better. Right next to me on the inside is Tim Waltner, whom I have been battling back and forth in points for the last several weeks. We always seem to end up running together and finishing together nearly every night. Green, Green, Green!!! At the start I got around a couple cars on the outside and then after the first lap, I got stuck behind the #5 and I believe the #12 for a couple laps as they were battling side by side and I was stuck. The first caution came out on lap 3 if I am counting right. This is kind of good, since this will break up the two cars in front of me and give me some room to make something happen. I think I restarted 8th and drove to the outside of Brandon Ferguson and worked on him for a lap before I was able to get by him and another car. Next! Ah, another caution. This time I restart 6th. Same thing. I drove around another car on the outside and the car is working great! Thanks Brian! It seems to be very fast through the middle and off of the corners. Just what Brian told me it would be. Another caution. Now I get to restart 4th. Getting closer, but running out of time. By now, I think there are only 3 laps to go. The last couple laps, I have been trying to get around the 7F on the high side where my car likes to be. On the restart, John went high and I decided to go low to get around him. As soon as I did that, Travis Schreurs drove around me like a rocket and eventually on to the win. I tried to get under John before the checkers, but couldn't get it done. I was side by side with him at the finish, but ended up 4th for the night.

All in all, it was another good night. Points wise, I pulled ahead in points on Waltner, gained a few on Pater, but lost points to Schreurs. I am still 3rd in points, 26 ahead of Waltner, 55 behind Pater and 90 behind Schreurs. We have next week off due to the Knoxville Nationals and then 4 more weeks and then it's all over. I am looking forward to the next race. I think the car is handling as good as its gonna get, now I just have to find some more testicular fortitude and try again in two weeks.