98' season
review
If I had to use one word to sum up our first full season
of running the 'A' main it would be "AWESOME".
Finding myself finishing 7th in points and with 2 feature wins I
am very proud of our accomplishments. Although my team was not large in
numbers - Maureen my wife did tires, fuel and kept records, and most important
she gave me moral support ( you know the kind of support you need when
your running 6 or 7 night old left side tires and you know you should not
try to get 3 nights out of the rights, she would say "we'll get some new
tire's for next week and that flag man really wasn't that scared he just
jumped back for nothing.") Our other team member was Bob Ellis who helped
Maureen with everything else that was required. We also enlisted the help
of Sean Monahan and his crew Jerry and Terry when the car was out to lunch,
Sean being a very good late model runner could usually get me out of trouble
with his advice. Thanks to everyone that helped out this racing is not
as easy as it looks.
The season was good as far as DNF's go,
3 only come to mind a flat left rear, one with body metal rubbing a tire
that would of blown, and one with 2 burned plug wires ( there may of been
more I'm not sure ).
My fast qualifying time was 13.70
One of my goals for the 98' season was to make the dash and the 5th fastest
was my best, I hope to make it in 99'
The 2 feature wins were great one 25 lap
regular night and one 30 lap special at the end of the season.
Transit Windsor, where I'm the known as
the "tire man from hell" had a night out to the races, a bunch of bus mechanics
I work with took a city of Windsor bus with wives and kids on autograph
night. That was neat, I started on the pole and finished 5th in the feature,
good thing it was only 25 laps not 50. I told them that if I hit the wall
and rolled the car on the roof---- it was only to impress them, so a 5th
place was a decent finish. Thanks also to track promoter Scott Schultz
and my sponsor Sterling Printing for help with tickets, I think they all
enjoyed the races some wanted to go back for the school bus race (I wonder
why).
I didn't qualify for rookie in 98 due to
finishing 20th in season points in 97, that season I was bouncing in and
out of the A main. The eventual winner Jeff Carnacci and I were close the
entire season with Jeff finishing 8th in points and capturing Rookie of
the year honors in street stocks (Congratulations Jeff- a job
well done) it was nice racing against you and all the street stocks
this season.