June 10, 2005: Well after what seemed like forever we finally made it back. we're at Modoc tonight and just hearing the cars and smelling the track air and we're ready. We did get to the track a little late, it was pouring down rain at the house and Jim was afraid to get wet. Get over it and shake it off is what I say. Anyway we get to line up scratch in the second heat. It takes Jim a whole 1/2 lap for him to realize he missed something in the setup. So he nurses the car to a 7th place finish without being hit or hitting anything. He gets it to the pit and starts checking and realizes he didn't take any air out of the tires, so what did he expect on the handling side of things. Oh well, feature time will be here soon enough.
For the feature Jim gets to line up 14th. Now thats fairly deep in the field and tell him to take it easy and bring back in one oiece. after all he did correct the tire and air problem. Well here comes the green and he's off. He passes a few cars early and dodges a few track obsticales (cars), and at 1 time he was going to pull up besides Travis Greene Jr to let him know what tire was flat (nice guy he is) well ole Jr gases up about that time and here goes Jim heading for the mud to escape Jr. Whew, they miss. Green again and one more yellow and Jim has moved into 7th place. with 1 lap to go Jim takes it low into turn 1 and another competitor went even lower, gets into the mud gases and tries using Jim as a buffer. Jim gets loose of the other car but is in the real slick stuff and goes around without much effort. He looks towards turn 1 with about half the field coming and very wisely pulls in the pits. Oh well last place running is better the last place on the hook.
Well as we leave tonight the top 3 are in the tech area waiting for a track teardown (protest). We figure we might pick one or spots but Jim is bushed and we decide to tow on home and find out later where he finished.
we're not done folks. Saturday morning we find out the FIRST 10 cars were either DQ'd or refused tear down and the 11th place car got the win( no it wasn;t us, but if we would have finished in the 7th spot, we probally would have garned our first win). We're also not done yet. Monday the official results were posted on the track's web site and Jim was credited with 2ND PLACE ! We'll take it that's for sure. The other things is it puts him 14th in points since ot the 22 cars showing previous finishes and points, only 1 recieved any points for Friday night and that was the winner. So we will clean up the car, check it all out and get ready for next week. See ay then and remember, "Have a Scobby Doo Day!!".
June 17, 2005: Well tonight started out REALLY different. First of all we brought the car over to a good friend's house this week and put the car on scales. We moved a few things around, took off some weight and changed a couple of other things. Now we're feeling more confident about the car too. Well Jim was getting ready to load the car, so he started it up to warm it up and just after he starts it we hear a 'POP' and the motor goes a missin'. Upon further checking, Jim finds the Cam Pulley Bolt is stripped. He also finds the #3 cylinder has basically no compression. Now that really stinks cause there ain't no way Jim's gonna try and race it tonight. So after pulling the head Jim finds the #3 cylinder intake valve has bent, how??, dunno. But there is a good side. If the valve hadn't bent, Jim would have raced and the Cam Pully Bolt most likely would have left the premise and much more motor damage could have occured. So Monday it's off the machine shop and we'll be ready next week. See ya and have a "Scooby Doo Day"!
June 24, 2005; Well helloooo again. Tonight started out without a any problems. Jim gets us to the track in time to draw and pulls a '16', not bad. Because of a big race for the Stock 4's e;sewhere, we're a little short tonight as only 12 cars sign in and with that low number we drew puts us 4th in the 1st heat. On the start (Jim's gotta work on his starts) he slips into 5th and gets behind a boy who ahs a loose coindition any dosn't really give any room to pass, after a couple tries Jim sees an opening on the last lap in turn 2 with the other car getting real loose and going low, starts coming back up and has Jim's attention with Jim going as high in the track as he can. All of a sudden there's a car stopped on the top coming out of 2, Jim is in the mud now tries turning, nope, then just stands on the brake. With a little contact, backs up and drives around for 4th. No real damage though, just cosmetic, feature next.
With our 4th place finish in the heat we get to line up 4th row inside. Not to bad except loose boy is in front of us. But during the time between heat and feature Jim went over and helped him some on his handling, hope it worked. Green flag time and everyone gets a good start. A little shuffling and Jim slips to 10th early on but he said he could feel a bunch of bite in the car and starts to work on moving up. Midway in the race there were several cautions. It seemed everytime one came out Jim was passing the 61 car and had to go behind him for the restarts. Finally he gets passed him and coming for the checker, somebody wheel hops him coming out of turn 4. Jim said he turned the wheel a little stood on the gas and comes in 5th. Not so bad. Afterward Jim and I have a debreifing session and Jim is really happy with how the car is handling and says he feels he is much more competitive and with a little more tweaking in the handling we'll be where we need to be. So we head to the house to get the car ready for next week, The Dirt Track at Lowe's, you really need to be there, outside of me, there should be around 60 or so Stock 4's, maybe 40 or so IMCA Open Wheel Modifieds something called Crash Cars(where they encourage contact when racing) and one fantastic Fireworks display. So remember, Sunday night July 3rd The Drit Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway. It's $10 if you buy in advance and $15 at the gate for adults and reduced admission $5 for kids and a whale of a show. So until then, Have a Scooby Do Day.
July 4, 2005; The date is correct, we got rained out Sunday night and Monday was the rain date so lets get started. We arrive early Sunday afternoon and have a little tailgating cookout to start things off. Ol' Duck (last years crew) and Jimmy Patrick ( another 4 cyl driver who got his FIRST Win at I-77 Speedway Saturday night, Go Jimmy), Jim's son Chris Came down from Greensboro, NC, his friend Bubba, wives and girlfriends. They all munched down some ribes and threw all the bones away. Sometimes I just get NO respect.
OK, we get the car and everyone else in the pits and we start having what Jim calls, Big Show Gremlins. While checking over bolts and nuts, they find the RR shock needs some snuggung and a couple of washers. When they put the car down off the jack, the left rear decindes to sit on the tire, no clearance. Now they say "that's not good" and of course I say"rut row". So the search is on to find the culprit and they figure out (in human ways) that the spring has just unsprung itself somehow. So off they go looking for springs.
( We have run outa room here, please go to page 3 )