SOPHIA, NC :: Not exactly sure what Langley Austin was thinking by asking me to write a drivers diary but he’s probably going to get more realism than even Corey Latham can fathom. Our weekend was doomed from the start. Why? Because Myrtle Beach Speedway decided to postpone the Myrtle Beach 400 for six months. We decided to get an older car we had re-clipped by PerformanCenter Racing Warehouse and put it together last minute because we didn’t want to ruin all the work we had done on our primary car qualifying for the Myrtle Beach 400. So we left it on jack stands patiently waiting to run it at the beach and ventured out with the backup car. This is where a lack of proper preparation and lack of testing really came into play.
Friday’s test session started out with no brakes and, when you can’t slow the car down, it’s hard to make it through the corners. We did manage to get the brakes working somewhat better and, on Sunday afternoon, made a sticker run and laid down some good lap times and we began to make some productive changes on the chassis. However, its guesswork on the changes when its hitting the track for the first time in years with a new clip.
Next up was qualifying. The car was a little tight and we ended up fourth out of 14, only four one hundreths off the pole, so not too bad given the level of competition there. Hell, we out qualified the National Champ and I’m complaining, go figure. After qualifying, we decided to make a sway bar change that worked so good when they dropped the green flag we led the first 5 laps before falling to ninth before lap 10. Obviously not a good call but when you are dealing with a car you have never raced or practiced it comes with the territory.
So for the next 90 laps, I got to listen to my spotter say “car low” as I was being passed repeatedly by kids who don’t even have their driver’s license… pretty demoralizing by a guy who is used to being a contender for the win week in and week out at Caraway. While we didn’t have the finish we wanted, we did learn some things about the car and will not be bringing that car back out until it sees some more testing before it enters another race.
Our primary car will run both nights (March 22nd and 23rd) at Myrtle Beach and then we will put it back into action at Caraway for the rest of the year and hopefully get her back in Victory Lane and celebrate with the great and loyal fans we have at Caraway. So if you are in Myrtle Beach next Friday and Saturday come on by and see us and be ready for the next installment of this Drivers Diary after the Myrtle Beach 400!
