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Old News
Heat #1 Finish: 3rd
Heat #2 Finish: 2nd
Feature Start: 3rd
Feature Finish: 2nd
Number Of Karts: 5
Practice recap:
Michael Metzger and crew did not arrive to BIMP in time for practice.
Heat recap:
Starting in third place for the first heat, Michael was never a factor battling a loose kart. "The kart had no start power, then was real loose throughout, so I settled into third and road it out from there," said Michael.
The second heat had Michael starting second and quickly fell back to second and finished there. "Again a loose kart got me, I kept driving my normal line and that kart didn't respond like most of the other karts," said Michael after the race.
Feature recap:
For today's heats and features, the light drivers were grouped with the heavy drivers. Eric Zwirlein, starting from the pole, proposed letting the light drivers get a head start so each division could race amongst themselves instead of fighting each other. Everyone stuck with the plan except for the kart leading the pack, driven by Adam Baker. Adam did not go immediatly which bunched the back up and lead to a three wide battle going into corner number one. Michael Metzger, following Eric on the inside quickly fell into third place behind Eric and Adam. As the karts roared into turn five, contact was made between Michael and Adam. Both drivers collected it back up and raced towards the start/finish line, Adam came within inches of Michael's front bumper. "It would have sucked to crash on the first lap, but I think it would have been a good education experience for that light guy (Adam) because he's gotta learn to know where other karts," quipped Michael during post race interviews. On lap three, Steve West (light), Joe Milazzo (heavy), and Dave Lyons (heavy) all freighttrained Freighttrain. "Yeah, I was trying to let Steve go to catch that other guy in his division (Adam) and hurt myself," said Michael. From there it was a front three of Adam, Eric and Steve in that order, with Joe, Dave, Michael and Matt Brehm (heavy) racing at the back. Michael moved past Dave and set his sights on Joe, and slowly was gaining on him. On the last lap the race would change dramatically for second place. Approaching the lap car of Matt, Michael and Joe had to pick where to go. Going into turn one Matt left the inside open, Joe was not close enough to capitalize, but did gain much ground on him, with Michael inches behind. Into turn two Matt drove the normal line and Joe followed close with Michael right behind. Going into turn three is where the chaos ensued, Matt slowed down fast than Joe expect, this caused Michael to ram into Joe, with that momentum putting Joe wide into the turn. Matt, thinking Joe was right behind him, went high to let him by, this forced Joe into the grass and he spun, while Michael ducked to the inside and drove it home in second. After the karts were parked, Michael approached Joe, "I told him quite a race out there? Then he said something I couldn't understand at the time and I kept walking," Michael said right afterwards. "He (Michael) clobbered me in three and spun me out, took me out of the race," an visibly angry Joe said. As Joe kept complaining Michael took the high road and walked away. "I finally put it together what he (Joe) was saying, that me bumping him going into three ruined the race for him, no, his lack of talent caused him to wreck. He could have gotten the lap car in corner one, instead he chose to ride behind him and under estimated that he's going slower. He's a lap car for crying out loud, he's gonna be slower, I didn't expect him (Joe) to slow as much as he did, so I bumped him, which didn't cause him to spin. From there it was between those two (Matt and Joe) I just tried to get out of the way," responsed Michael. "He hit a lot of people out there tonight, there's no place for it," Joe fired back. "What makes me angry about this is a few races ago he chopped me every corner, gets out of the kart and calls that a great race, then when something like that happens it's suddenly the worst thing ever. Get real, get a life, he's a real piece of s*** in my book. I have no problem racing clean with Eric, Dave or Matt, for some reason that guy (Joe) thinks he's king of the road and we should bow to him," retorted an angry Michael, who then stormed off.