July 18, 2009.  Madera Speedway.  LOP Race #13.

First practice: 7^th.  Second practice: 6^th.  Qualifying: 6^th.

Heat race: 3^rd.  Main event:  3^rd.

Notes:  In the past, Madera had been my worst track, but my dad made great adjustments all day to get my car to be very competitive.  I also learned a lot about how to drive the track by following some of the more experienced drivers.  In the main event, I started third, and drove my way to first fairly quickly.  Two cars got by me, but I hung close with them and ended up third.

July 25, 2009.  Ukiah Speedway.  King of the Hill Challenge series.

First practice: 1^st.  Second practice: 1^st.  Qualifying: 1^st.

Heat race: 2^nd.  Trophy dash: 2^nd.  Main event: 2^nd, but really 1^st (see notes below).

Notes:  In my heat race, I started last, but found myself in second with three laps to go.  The leader was protecting the inside, so on the last lap, I drove the car hard into turn three and got alongside him.  At the line, the margin was about one wheel.  In the dash, I started last again, and quickly found my way to second.  On the last lap, I had a run down the back straight, but the leader blocked and I couldn’t get alongside to challenge for the win.  In the main, I started eighth, and by lap 12 of the thirty lap race, I had made a pass for the lead.  I was pulling away from second place and the car was handling great.  There was a caution with four laps to go so I lined up with the second place car side-by-side.  We raced like this for one lap, and then, with three laps to go, a car spun out and got nailed by another car.  The red light came on, signaling the field to stop.  I slowed down and almost stopped, but then the yellow light came back on.  When I came back around to the start/finish line, the flagman was throwing the checkers.  There should have been a restart with three to go, but someone in the tower or the flagman made a big mistake and threw the checkers with three to go.

August 1, 2009.  All American Speedway.  LOP Race #14.

First practice: 5^th.  Second practice: 4^th.  Qualifying: 7^th.

Heat race: 1^st.  Main event: 5^th.

Notes:  I started eighth in the feature after a 14-car invert.  By lap eight, I was up to fourth, but I lost some spots and dropped back to eighth again.  I took my time and passed some more cars, getting up to fifth.  One car passed me, so I ended up in sixth.  After the race, the fifth place car did not want to go through tech, so we were bumped up to fifth after he was DQ’d.

August 8, 2009.  Stockton 99 Speedway.  LOP Race #15.

First practice: 20^th.  Second practice: 8^th.  Qualifying: 6^th.

Heat race: 2^nd.  Main Event: 2^nd.

Notes:  This race was the best performance of my rookie season racing Legends cars.  In first practice, I did not run any laps because my brakes were not working.  For the second practice, the brakes were working, but now they were too good.  The brakes felt like either they were not grabbing enough, or they were locking up.  In qualifying, our braking problem still had not been fixed.  My dad made a few good changes for the heat race, in which I started third and finished second.  In the main, I started eighth and was leading by lap twelve.  Jeremy Wood, a former super late model driver, and I battled side-by-side for a few laps.  Eventually, he got the lead, but I hung with him.  I was hoping that lap traffic would help me catch up, but I couldn’t get close enough to challenge for the win.

August 15, 2009.  Madera Speedway.  LOP Race #16.

First Practice: 6^th.  Second Practice: 6^th.  Qualifying: 8^th.

Heat race: 1^st.  Main event: 6^th.

Notes:  At this race, we were still having problems with the brakes locking up.  In the first practice, the brake pedal would go to the floor, and in the second session, I was locking the brakes up.  Qualifying was even worse, but I managed to get a decent lap in.  In the heat race, I started first and led the whole race.  I lined up fifth in the feature, but early in the race, I got stuck behind a slower car on the outside and was freight trained.  This put me back in ninth.  I drove my way to fifth place by lap 22 of the 35 lap race. Then, while racing side by side with a car for position, we made contact and I spun, putting me in 15^th for a restart with 12 laps to go.  By the end of the race, I got to sixth, but there a few cars in front of me that I could have gotten by.

Date: June 12 & 13, 2009

Event: Bullring Week #7 racing

Track: The Bullring at LVMS

Day 1

Practice: The first practice session was the second time I had been at this track, but not since February of this year.  Out of thirteen cars, I was fifth.  In the second practice, some of the faster cars were happy with their cars and did not participate.  I was second out of ten cars, and my lap times had improved by a quarter of a second.

Qualifying: From the practices, the car loosened up and became very twitchy, especially off the corners.  This put me in eighth from the fifteen cars.

Main Event: In the feature race, there was no inversion, so I would have started eighth.  One car that qualified in front of me started in the back (I don’t know why).  Quickly, I hung with the lead pack early in the race, but over-drove the car a couple times trying to go faster.  In the end, it was just a follow-the-leader race that was pretty boring.  I finished eighth out of fifteen cars.

Day Two

Practice: Practice was divided into two groups: developmental and fast.  I was in the fast group, and ran fourth fast.  Then, to get more practice laps, I ran in the developmental group.  I easily was the fastest in that group.  For second practice, my dad changed the camber angle of the tire, and the car picked up another tenth of a second.

Qualifying: For this session, some fast people that did not run in practice joined in.  I was eighth and ran a lap good enough for eighth fast.

Main Event: This race was extremely disappointing.  I started on the pole after an eight car invert.  I got an even start, but the car starting in third got under me entering turn one (the backup motor we were running does not have as much power as the competition).  I gave him the low line, but a driver behind him drove his car in too deep and spun me out in front of the whole field.  One car could not avoid me and ran into me.  On the website that shows timing and scoring for the race, my total race time was shown at 3.378 seconds.

Date: June 6, 2009

Event: LOP Race #10

Track: All American Speedway

Practice: In the first practice, I was fairly happy with the car and still figuring out the track.  I was ninth out of twenty-three cars.  In the second practice, I picked up three-tenths and rose up to seventh on the charts.

Qualifying: The car was just a touch loose, but we still ended up eighth on the speed chart.

Heat race: I started on the pole for the heat race.  For the first lap and a half, I ran side-by-side with the car on the outside, but we made contact from hard racing.  We both drifted up the track, allowing the other cars to pass us.  After that, the car wasn’t handling as well and I finished eighth.

Main event: In the feature race for Legends car, I started third after a ten car invert.  I got freight trained early and was back in seventh.  I passed one car for sixth, but then was passed by another car and fell to seventh again.  Nearing the end of the race, there was a caution, and a driver in front of me had his engine go south.  That dumped a bunch of oil on the track and brought out the red flag.  The clean-up crew did the best they could, but the track was still very slick and did not have much grip.  Still, I hung with the leaders on the following restart and ended up sixth, a result I was very happy with.

Date: May 30, 2009           

Event: LOP Race #9

Track: Stockton 99 Speedway

Practice: This race would mark the second time that I drove at this track, including the one practice I had earlier this year at the track.  In the first practice, I had to re-learn how to drive this place.  I was seventh on the charts in first practice out of the thirty cars.  In the second session, I sped up my lap times, but dropped a few spots on the charts to tenth.  I was still figuring out turns three and four, trying to get the car to rotate through the center of the turn better.

Qualifying: In qualifying, the car got a little looser, causing my car to be right against the wall coming out of turn two.  I ended up with a slower time, dropping me to fourteenth on the speed chart.

Heat race: I was in heat three out of four.  I started third in the race and was just barely faster than the leaders.  I couldn’t pass them, but stayed right with them and finished third.

Main event: During warm-ups for the main event, the engine would quit in the middle of the straightaway.  I brought the car to the infield, where we couldn’t diagnose the problem.  Not wanting to blow our second engine of this early 2009 season, I brought the car to the pits and couldn’t race.  The Osterlund Motorsports team has still not diagnosed the problem.

Date: May 23 & 24, 2009

Event: LOP Races 7 & 8, National Qualifier

Track: Lakeport Speedway

Day 1

Practice: First practice went well, with the car only a little off on handling.  On the lap charts, the #42 was fourth fast out of sixteen cars.  We were running older tires for the first practice, and we switched to newer (but not new) tires for the second session.  The tires completely changed the car’s handling, make it extremely loose.  My dad guessed a setup for qualifying and hoped it worked.

Qualifying: The car was still too loose for qualifying.  I pushed the car very hard, and coming off every corner, I was sawing the steering wheel back and forth a lot to keep control of the car.  I wish I had an in-car cam.  Oh well, I ended up tenth out of twenty-one cars.

Heat race: For the heat race, I started fourth.  I kept my position in fourth and caught up to the third place car.  He was very loose and had to use the whole track to be fast.  For the main event, the top ten are locked in position, while everyone else is racing for position.  He was not locked in and was racing hard, so I let him go.  The car was definitely better.  I ended up fifth out of seven cars.

Main event: I was lined up on the inside on the second row for the main event.  I took the green flag, and entering turn one on the second lap, I lost control of the car.  I spun in front of the field and got nailed driver side first by another car.  At that point, I was extremely mad at myself for wrecking some good cars (read Day 2 to see what happened).  I drove the car to the pits, and it had surprisingly little damage that would stop me from running (mostly bodywork damage).  The car was fixed, and I was back on track.  The first couple laps after the restart, I passed a few cars, but someone spun in front of me.  I almost got the car stopped and barely hit a stopped car, but a piece that was bent from the previous wreck broke.  Now I was done and watched the rest of the race from the infield…

Day 2

Practice and Notes: In the first practice, the car had picked up a bad push.  The car also had oil over the engine, but we couldn’t diagnose the point.  We were seventh out of sixteen cars.  In the second practice, I was seventh out of eighteen, but the car still had the same bad push, even after adjustments.  The #42 had an oil leak for a while, but not as bad as it was now.  It seemed as though it was getting worse.  Finally, we found that the oil cooler had a leak.  Since the fan was directly behind the broken cooler, oil was spraying all over the compartment.  There was even a considerable amount on the tire, which probably caused me to spin the previous day, because I had driven the car into the turn normally.

Trophy Dash: For the second week in a row, I made a trophy dash.  This one was a Semi-Pro division dash.  I had a poor handling car in qualifying, but still qualified third among Semi-Pros.  I started second, but the outside lane would not work for me.  I ran the whole four laps on the outside, but the inside was just barely faster.  My lap times were almost identical to the winner’s lap times.  I finished fourth.

Heat Race: In the heat race, I got to start on the pole.  I easily pulled away while the rest of the field sorted out.  There was a caution on lap six of ten, and by that point, the second fastest car pulled up to second place.  I once again easily pulled away in the last four laps and won by 1.66 seconds over second place.

Main Event: The fast time qualifier drew a ten car invert for the main event.  That made me start on the pole.  I led the first four laps, but got high up the track and was passed.  Eventually, the fast cars got by, and I was running in fifth, very good for a rookie.  On a restart about three-quarters through the race, I was hit going into turn one.  The contact would have spun me out in front of the whole field again, but instead, I hit the 17 car that was in front of me.  This stopped me from spinning, but also bumped the 17 out of the way.  On the outside, the car that bumped me (11) passed both me and the 17.  I knew that James Gilliland (17) was an extremely aggressive driver, and I had to distance myself from him or else he would wreck me.  The problem was, the 11 car was in my way.  He was just fast enough that I couldn’t pass him, but held me up.  So the last lap came around and I entered turn three normally and WHAM.  The 17 car must have not even let of the gas pedal.  We both went into the outside wall and did not finish the race.  I was extremely angry with him, but didn’t step out of line and cause any trouble.  I hate drivers that are over their head...

Date: May 16, 2009

Event: King of the Hill Challenge Series

Track: Ukiah Speedway

Notes: Because our motor failed the previous week at Madera Speedway, we had to put in our backup motor in the car.  We needed to test the motor and make sure it ran alright before we raced another LOP race, so the Osterlund Motorsports team drove to Ukiah for one of their King of the Hill races…

Practice: In the first practice, I had to learn how to drive the track.  I laid down a time that was good enough for fifth out of the eight cars.  In the second practice, the #42 car picked up the pace, running first out of the now twelve cars.  From the first to the second practice, I picked up almost four-tenths of a second.

Qualifying: For the King of the Hill Challenge Series, Legends cars have their qualifying order set by practice.  Although I was fastest in the second practice, I qualified second because the 0 of David Winchel outran me in the first practice.

Heat race: In the heat race, I started fifth and got up to second and was closing in on the leader when the car got sideways out of turn four.  I dropped a spot to third, and that is where I stayed, finishing less than half a second off the leader.

Trophy Dash: I qualified for my first trophy dash in only my seventh Legends start.  I started third, but was boxed in by a slower car that started first.  That car was blocking aggressively, and it seemed as though he was mirror driving.  I could not get around him, and ended up finishing fourth out of the four cars.

Main event: I got to start in sixth in the main.  After a few quick cautions, I was up to second, and started on the outside on a restart.  I overdrove the entrance to turn one, spinning the car in front of the whole field.  I was lucky that I was not hit, but I had to start in the rear.  I once again drove up through the pack, using the inside and the outside to pass other cars.  I drove up to second and caught up to the leader.  The leader was the same one that had blocked me in the trophy dash, and now he was really mirror driving.  I got a run on him and got to his door, but he turned down on my and drove my car all the way to the infield grass.  I was not especially happy, but I was passed by only one car, regaining control of the #42, which was handling quite well.  Once again, I caught up to the top two cars.  The car in second peeked on the high side of the mirror driving car (MDC), but the MDC shut the door.  At the same time, coming out of turn four, I drove under the MDC, who quickly turned left to block me.  He turned too sharp, spinning his car directly in front of me.  I had no where to go, and he hit me on the front of the car.  The caution was not displayed, but the leader was in front of me by a lot.  The next lap, I drove my car normally into turn one, but the handling had changed dramatically.  I spun again, not getting hit.  I started in the rear, but the car was not handling very well, so it took a while to drive to second.  There was a restart with only a few laps to go, but I had nothing for the 17 car at that point and only stayed even with him until the checkers.  Overall, I had a great time running up front.  I even posted the fastest lap of the race, but that was when my car was not damaged.