Results from Opening Night (Sprints)

[PKRWUD]

Greetings,
I have received a few private emails asking how opening night was, so I thought I'd just share it with everyone. It was mixed. Our car was great, but our results were so-so. In a field of 19 cars, we finished 5th. I think we got screwed, but I am biased. Let me explain:

The way it normally works is like this: Every driver picks a "pill" at random when they enter the pits first thing. A "pill" is a bead that has a number from 1 to 100 on it. All the drivers in each class are then placed into groups of 6 or 7 for the heat races, based on their pill number. The lowest number gets the best position. The heat races are 10 laps, and the finishing order helps determine the starting position for the main event. It's basically a form of qualifying. Well, we had the best pill pick, and went on to easily win our heat race. This should have given us the pole position for the main event. Instead, they decided to do something different this year. Just prior to the main event, scheduled for 20 laps, they had Jim (my driver) pick another pill. He drew #8. This meant that the line-up that should have started on the pole got moved back to 8th place. The seven worst drivers in the heat races were in front of us. This made moving up difficult because several of these drivers were rookies, and drove all over the track. During the main, we discovered that being behind the worst driver was a real handicap. Every time Jim got ready to pass high, the guy in front went high, and every time Jim tried to pass low, the guy in front of him went low. He wasn't intentionally blocking us, he was just inexperienced. Jim finally got around him on lap 10, and started moving up pretty quickly. After passing 2 other cars, they threw out the white flag, signaling one lap to go. The problem was it was only lap 14. They ended the race after 15 laps, in what was supposed to be a 20 lap main event. Their excuse was the fear that time was running out, and there were still 3 other main events that had to be run before the 11:00pm curfew. I say BS. Jim was within a half lap of the eventual winner, and could have easily passed him had the race gone the full 20 laps. We filed a protest, but it won't change things. The good news was that I was clearly able to tell that we had the fastest car on the track. There was only one or two other cars that I see as giving us a challenge this year. Now we just have to figure out how they're going to screw with the starting position, and plan for it, I guess. I'll post some action pics once the track photographer get's them ready. There were a couple spectacular red flag crashes during the night. Below are a couple pics from my camera that night (last Saturday).



The Crew on Opening Night. From left: Dave Hulce, Driver/Owner Jim Porter, Chris Bower (me).


A quick picture of the sunset that night, from the pits.

Our next race is a week from this Saturday (it will be March 23rd).

Take care,
-Chris