After the month long break it sure was good to be back at the track.  It was a very important night for us at the Bullring because of the double mains!  

We started out the weekend at Test n' Tune on Friday night at LVMS.  After the last race night on July 3, we knew we had to tighten the car up on exit.  We did a little bit with some spring rubbers and shock adjustments which helped tighten the car up, however it also tightened it up on entry and through the center.  It wasn't bad, but it could be much better.  Regardless, we decided to leave it alone and put new tires on for Saturday.        

Saturday began early so that we could make sure to get the tire sizes we wanted.  After getting them mounted, we hurried to make sure we didn't miss any practice sessions. Our game plan was to hit as many sessions as possible in order to get the tires to grow and only make adjustments before qualifying.  We had a total of three sessions.  Before qualifying, we made one more spring rubber change to try and loosen the car up just a little on entry and through the center.

Once again qualifying was an issue. I REALLY NEED TO WORK ON THIS!  We were two tenths slower than our practice times while everyone else was three to four-tenths faster than their practice times.  

We started in 17th place for the first main, thanks to my sub par qualifying skills. On double main nights it has always been our team's strategy to be cautious so that we can survive and be able to start the second main. We worked our way up through the field and ended up finishing 10th. The car was still tight through the center, but we were happy with another top 10 finish.

The crew really went to work between the mains to try and make the car better for number two.  Spring rubbers, sway bar adjustments, stagger adjustment, shock adjustments, and re-scaling the car were all part of the plan.  We finished just in time to head over to tech before the second main.

After scaling, we headed to line up and waited for our race.  During the wait I decided that I would rather have it be 125 degrees with low humidity, than the 95 degree heat and 80 percent humidity that I was experiencing out there.  Talk about misery!

During the second main the car seemed to be a little better, but not good enough. We started 10th and finished 9th.  We are on that edge of being almost as fast as feature winners, but not quite yet.  We are going to be working hard on our shock and spring package to prepare for the upcoming weekend.  Either we will be a little faster or a lot slower, but at least we will know which direction to head.

Jim Petrie
www.htownspeed.com

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