Well, that was chilly

It was a really nice day for racing. The sun was out for a change, the humidity had gone south, and it wasn’t to hot. The long sleeves that had felt good in the morning weren’t needed when everyone was arriving at the track.

Taco Dave’s 16s car is in the Modified division, which is usually the last in the line up for the day. All summer long all of the heat races have been completed in the daylight. And now for some reason, it’s dark before the Mod’s even get on the track. I am still having a hard time getting used to that.

Dave started at the end of the line up, in the first Modified heat race.

It didn’t take too many laps for him to work his way up to third place. Noah Schepp in the 89s car had a little different vision for the outcome of the race, and even though it was a pretty tight race for second place, Noah stayed ahead for the second place finish. Mike Schmuhl in the 14j car was first, and Dave finished third.

I’m pretty sure I may never completely how the starting positions for the A-Main Feature are determined. The top four (first four) places in each of the heat races qualify for the “invert”, which give them a little better start in the feature race. That is, except for blahblahblah…. Everyone in the first few rows thinks it’s a wonderful system. And when they are in the last few rows the wonder “what just happened?”.

The A-Main Feature started 20 cars for 20 laps of racing. I am told that if you are lucky, and with wind’s just right, you can sit in your back yard in town and hear the races. I also know that just doesn’t compare with actually being at the track hearing, feeling, and seeing the cars race on the track. And watching a buncha lead-foots maneuver the cars they built themselves, with 500+ horse power, is way more fun in person.

Taco Dave in the 16s car drew a 12th place starting position. So, outside of the 6th row. Our pit neighbors had a little bit better luck in the line up. Noah Schepp in the 89s car was on the outside of the 4th row, and Jimmy Berkevich in the 19B car was on the outside of the front row.

As the cars come around turn 4, and the green flag is in the air, it’s always a mad house until everyone can get up to speed. Every once in a while, I get caught up in watching the race I kind of forget to take notes which lap had a caution and where the cars are in the line up. And, that happened with this race for a while. There was a caution somewhere around laps 8-10 that got Dave set up for a good re-start. On the re-start Dave saw an opportunity, took it, and came out low in turn 2 after passing 5 or 6 cars. What a nice move that was!

On lap 16 there was another caution, and by that time Dave had worked his way up to

3rd. And this time I remembered to take some notes. After the track was clear and the cars were bunched up for the re-start, Dave found another opportunity, and took it, coming out of the turn in first place. And as that happened, the caution flag was in the air for a mishap in the back of the lineup.

After that was cleaned up, and the cars were bunched up ready for the re-start, Berkevich in the 19B car and Schepp in the 89S car had learned, and didn’t let that hole happen again. From there on out it was a petty tight race for the first 3 cars.  Jimmy Berkevich in the 19B won the A-Main Feature, Noah Shepp in the 89S was 2nd, and Dave in the 16S was 3rd, Mike Schmuhl in the 14J was 4th, and Matt Recheck in the R5 car was 5th.  And by then, the wind felt like it was coming off of the north pole. I was glad I had brought my jacket along. It was chilly, but a great race to watch!