February 5, 2008

Barberville, FL

Florida DirtCar Nationals…Day Two

Tonight’s update is a short one…the day consisted of five practice laps and five laps in the heat race before a big wreck ended Josh’s night.  The start of the heat race was going well as Josh picked up a spot from his 6th place starting position and was sitting in 5th, right with the leaders, as the caution flew.  On the restart, the 6th place car jumped the start and went to the inside of Josh.  Josh beat him down the front straight and got a good run on the fourth place car going into turn one…Josh got a little loose between turns one and two, then was bumped from behind and went around.  As he slid down the track he was hit by a number of competitors…Josh was fine, but the car was done for the night. 

We are working hard to get it together for Thursday night…but there is heavy rain in the forecast.  We feel like we are running better so we want to get the car back together and get back on the track.  Accidents like tonight’s remind us (as if we need reminded) that this is an expensive sport and that we could not do this without the support of our sponsors…a HUGE thank you to everyone who is supporting, or has supported Josh.

Let’s hope Thursday is better…check back for updates.

February 4, 2008
Barberville, FL

Florida DirtCar Nationals…Day One

We heard a lot about the DirtCar Nationals before we arrived at Volusia County Speedway to run our first race.  We heard it was fast, that the field would be huge and that the best of the best show up...we found out quickly that all of those things were true.  A field of 72 modifieds were on hand, with drivers from all over the country…including most (if not all) of the 2007 UMP modified top 25 and two NASCAR veterans. 

With still less than 10 dirt races under his belt, we knew that it would take a little time for Josh to learn Volusia County Speedway and we went into night one with two goals: first, keep the car in one piece so we could continue to learn throughout the week…and second, end the night running better than we started.  We are happy to say that the car is in one piece (with some sheet metal damage) and Josh got consistently faster as the night went on. 

Practice was tough as the car didn’t want to turn for Josh and he was learning the track, as well as shaking off the cobwebs of not being on dirt since September.  In the heat race Josh started 7th (14 cars) and after a pile up in front of him at the start he shuffled back to 12th.  Over the next eight laps Josh really started looking good and began passing cars as he moved his way back up to 7th, where he would finish.  We were now within about 8 tenths of a second off of the leaders…a long way still to go…but we were gaining on it.

After some changes (via phone by Crew Chief Blake Harris) Josh lined up 7th (20 started) for the “B” main.  It was an uneventful race in the beginning (the way we like them) until Josh drove hard into turn 3 on the top of the track and jumped the cushion.  He did a nice job of keeping it out of the wall, but lost a number of spots and could only manage a 10th place finish. 

So the night ended there on day one.  We were tired and dirty as we headed home…but tomorrow is day two and so we forget about tonight and see if we can improve. 

Check back for more updates all week…