I was pleasantly surprised to get an email from Larry Jenne on June 21st, 2010 asking me if I was interested in racing the Clay Cup in Deming, WA . In fact up to this point I had never heard of Larry Jenne, so I replied back inquiring about what he had in mind. He was offering me a ride in his car at the $7500 to win Clay Cup Nationals. My first initial thought was to decline, but upon giving it some extra thought I felt that if someone could put blind trust in myself to drive their car without ever having met me, then there should be no possible reason for me to decline. So I booked a flight for myself and my crew guy. I managed a few details from Mr. Jenne, like directions, type of car (PMP ), type of engine (FTZ ), and some photos to see what we would be dealing with. I also took some time to do a little research and see what the track was like, asI always do, google earth-measuring, youtube videos , photos, message boards, called Jake Hagopian, etc.
We flew in met Mr. Jenne and his wife Barbara, they welcomed us into their home, two strangers from half a country away showing up at their doorstep at 1:30am in the morning shows just how special these people are. The next day we go the raceshop and meet up with Brad Davison and his wife, along with George Shufelt and his wife. Brad races the 1200 and he lets Larry Jenne use his shop. George is the setup guy and shop foreman at Brad’s workplace (A-1 Welding). We go over the car and shorten up the pedals, move the seat forward, get it all ready. Also we take a trip out to the track and check things out. Very beautiful scenery and super nice weather, can you believe I spent 6 days at a racetrack in the sunshine and didn’t even break a sweat!
Once at the track things get down to business, I believe there were right around 50 cars in attendance. I drew a high number on night 1 for qualifying, went out and turned a 10.7 second lap, fast time was 10.44 so I ended up 21st. With a 4 car inversion in the heat I got to start the heat from the pole and won pretty easily. In the feature the field is inverted according to qualifying if you make the top 3 in your heat. Being a high qualifier got me a 4th place starting position, I raced my way to 3rd and while passing for 2nd, I got stuffed into the inside retaining wall, one of those racing deals. I probably should have been a little more patient given this happened on about lap 3 of a 30 lap event. Oh well we fixed the car and now ready for night 2.
Fridays race had a good vibe going for it, I drew a low number (12), so I went out 4th in qualifying, and laid down a 10.589 lap time, this was good enough for quick-time on the night. In the heat I had to start 4th (inversion), all I had to manage was a 3rd, but you kn ow me, I used the cushion to make the pass for the lead and go on to win the heat. In the feature, we missed the setup, car was too loose to run the bottom comfortably, and the top wasn’t quite good enough to advance positions easily. All this trying to come from the back (inverted feature), where I started 18th and end ended up 17th, not very good by my standards, but the car survived.
Saturday finale, I just knew we were locked into the feature, but I checked the points the next morning and I was 15th in points, top 14 directly to the A, so this meant a B-Main pole position, which is slightly disappointing because anything can happen so its safer and easier on the crew to be locked in. I win the B-Main very handily, and get the opportunity to start the main from 15th spot. I lose a few positions on the start from being bogged down on the inside line, but I make them up soon and find myself in the top 10, a few cautions/wreck/black flags later, I find myself in 8th and that's where I ended up. I think I had a good enough car, that given a better starting spot we could have been in the top 3. The PMP car was quite different from what I was accustomed to and possibly that was a factor in my comfort level in the first 2 nights, by Saturday I was able to drive it pretty hard. I still feel like we could have done better with a bit more track time. That wreck on Thursday nights race sort of set the tone for the weekend and made us play catch-up from there.
More important than racing I got meet some very good people and travel to a part of the country I’ve never been to. I have to thank Larry Jenne and his wife Barbara for putting this deal together and giving us a play to stay, providing meals, and transportation, could not have done it without them. Brad Davison and his wife for providing an excellent place to work on the cars, and all the tools needed to get the job done. George Sufelt and Brad’s father Don for working hard at the track and providing the setups on the car. Bob, Nigel, Elton, and every one else who provided extra hands at the track to make sure the car stayed clean and ready for each event. I have to thank Larry’s Sponsors also for helping him provide such a good race car: A1 Welding and Northwest Roller Systems , Nymo Signs, ANL Racing , and FTZ Engines . Of course you have to applaud the the Lemley Family for putting together an outstanding purse at such an event, its very hard to make a race like this work and they must be commended for that. As for some of the off track fights and black flag dramas of the weekend, my take on that is your going to have issue at all races, so its hard to please everyone. I even say my incident on Thursday night was unfortunate, yes I got hit, but I did force it and I’m man enough to admit it was a racing deal. Should the driver who hit me have gotten black flagged (he didn’t), absolutely not. Things happen, we move on. I think that since I’ve had children and more responsibilities in life I’ve mellowed in my approach to on track incidents, sure I want to win at all costs and I will drive to the absolute edge of my abilities, I just think there are more important things to worry about these days.
Maybe next year the opportunity to come back to the Clay Cup will be presented, and I can take some of the knowledge I gained this past weekend and put in a better result.
Lastly, say a little prayer of speedy recovery to my buddies Wayne Johnson and Travis Rilat, they were injured in separate incidents near the Seattle area this past weekend. Also my thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Tyson Perez who lost his life.
Couple of quick race updates from the month of May.I raced at Haubstadt Indiana on May 8th (my birthday), it was a POWRi show. I had a good run in the heat race and started outside the front row, but could never gain any edge on the leader during the race and finished 2nd. Slightly disappointing, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Two weeks later we venture off to home turf and race at I-30 Speedway for a local show there, mainly just to try some of the new things I've learned this season on a familiar surface. I made quick work in the heat winning handily, and after starting on the pole I lead every lap en route to my first win of 2010.
Next up was the big Race-4-Life held in conjunction with a POWRi show at Belle-Claire Speedway in Belleville, IL. There were 67 cars in attendance and it was a 2 heat race (one heads up, one inverted) passing point system. In the first heat I started 7thand finished 4th, in the second heat I started 2nd and finished 1st. This put me 14th in points for the event. Only the top 4 were locked in so I had to run a semi the following day. I started that in position 5 and finished 3rd. This gave me 10th starting spot in the 30 lap feature. I picked my way through the field and ended up 4th, just didn't quite have the stuff to get the lead, but was a decent finish on a track I can't say favors my style too much. We had fun and it was for a good cause. Wade at Keizer Wheels did a great job putting it on, and the POWRi crew do an awesome job running a top rate program. Congrats to Felker for taking the victory.
Up next is the big POWRi money week which starts at one of my favorite tracks, Granite City, on June 11th. I hope to have my new car ready in time to tackle that big track. Stay tuned.
It’s late Early May and the racing season is still very young. Our first race of the season was good at the Tulsa Shootout, and I had high expectations going forward.
The East Bay Winternationals didn’t go quite as planned, while we ran reasonably well in the heats, but the car just wouldn’t perform in the feature races. I can now look back and attribute it to a lack of attention to detail on my part and a few other things beyond my control. The opening night I won my heat, and started 3rd in the feature, after running 2nd most of the night I lost position on the last few laps to come in 3rd. The second night again winning the heat, but a total misread in the feature resulted in a 5th place finish. The final night I raced to 2nd in the heat and then had a semi-decent car in the feature I only could muster a 2nd place finish. This gave me 2nd place overall in the Winternational Speedweek Championship. Luke Thomas was clearly the class of the field winning all three nights. One good thing about the trip to Florida was getting to meet Blake Fuller of Braille Battery and his family. He owns the company that makes my batteries , and has some very innovative products. One of the highlights was getting him to drive my spare car for the final 2 nights. He did well the first night making the feature, but falling just short the second night. I think he enjoyed himself immensely and did quite well for his first time ever in one of these cars.
Next up was the I-30 600 Nationals make up race on March 11th and 12th. I had a good run on the opening night heat race coming from 6th to 1st, then backing it up in the qualifier going from 9th to 2nd. The feature that night was postponed due to rain which was unfortunate because the track would have really been racy. The following night we made that feature up with me starting 3rd, and I faded slightly on the start to 4th, but once the track took rubber and I managed to get the tires hot I started moving forward, advancing to 3rd and finally catching the leaders just as the checkered flag came out. No worry though the top 4 places was the goal so I could lock myself into the A-Main for the Saturday finale. Saturday comes and in the dash I drew 6th starting spot and raced my way to 4th, in the feature I was expecting the track to be slick early and then take rubber late. I guessed wrong, it was too fast around the top and my gearing limited me in that regard, I was expecting to be around the bottom and wanted that extra pull when the rubber came in. I had some good battles with Dicely for 4th, but about half way through I had an ignition failure and had to pull in, ending my streak of top 2 finishes at the 600 Nationals. It was disappointing, but I did run well and the car handled good, just had some bad luck.
I took a few weeks off to regroup and get ready for the Clarksville, TN $2,000 to win show. I’ve won this race for the past 5 years so I really enjoy racing at this track. We get there and qualifying doesn’t go well I time in 13th quick, the late draw didn’t help, but I chose the wrong line and this cost me. My times were 13.000 and 13.004 so it wasn’t lack of consistency just lack of finding the right line. I made a few small adjustments before the heat and lined up 3rd, I quickly disposed of 2nd and raced around the outside of the leader to take the win in the heat. Things are looking good now, the car felt great. In the feature I started 7th and quickly made my way to the top 5, and then got clipped by a spinning car sending me hurling into the fence, tore a lot of stuff and ended my streak. Once back at the shop at 3:00am I decided to tear the car down to the frame so I could take it to the chassis shop early Monday for a few repairs and changes I wanted to make. I can’t look back on this race as a failure because the wreck was beyond my control, there wasn’t any way to miss it, and in hindsight I can’t say I would do anything differently. The car was a rocket after I figured out the problem from qualifying.
Looking forward I have a few big races scheduled, but we will try and hit some of the local shows to get a handle on the changes I’ve made to the car since January. I will say that I’ve learned more technical things about chassis geometry in the past 6 months than I had in the previous 6 years. Some of the things I’ve taken for granted over the years I decided to address in an effort to move forward and gain more knowledge. Having the shock dyno in my shop is a godsend, along with following up on the years of documentation that I made but hadn’t really organized properly. I found small clips of notes from the past 10 years of racing in the form of weights, lengths, heights, etc. I finally took my time and organized all that information so I could read and understand it. I’ve also been reading some very technical documents trying to understand better the geometry of the car. I also can’t trade for a minute the conversations I’ve had with Sammy Swindell while traveling down the road with him while crewing on his sprint car team. That man has forgotten twice as much as I’ll know about sprint cars. The trouble I have is actually finding credible documentation about the type of cars we race and conditions we race in. Going through my notes was great because I was able to reflect on how the car actually felt to me. Every driver needs different things and a different feel. I look back and wish I would have stuck a tape recorder in front of my mouth after every race to document exactly what I felt and what I should have done to fix it. I wrote it down, but it was usually in a hurry going down the road and lacked enough detail. I’ve also had many different variations of cars over the years and I truly wish I would have documented the characteristics of the cars better. Luckily I have 3 cars in my shop, one from each major Stallard variation, 2002, 2007, and the current 2010, but small things elude me.
Its been several years since I last ran the Tulsa Shootout , 9 years to be exact. The last few years I have been going to Australia and racing during the holidays. So I decided maybe it was time to go again and try my hand at getting a "driller". I don't get many opportunities to run smaller tracks, and its no secret of my dislike for them. I never really liked all the crashing and bumping associated with them, my idea of racing is not rooting someone out of the way, its about finding a line and taking advantage of your opponents weakness. The last several races I attended at the Tulsa Shootout were one lane rubber down affairs, combine that with the silly NMMA rules that they enforced made me cringe at the thought of going. The last few years the Shootout crew have really stepped up to the plate and put on a good track, they now separate the event into 3 days to give them plenty of time to get the track in great shape. Also with the advent of the ASCS2 Organization the rules are very relaxed from years past and my cars are able to meet all of them with minimum hassle.
I prepared my Outlaw 600 car for the shootout pretty well, decided to run a smaller engine instead of my big horsepower motor. FTZ has a great 1mm engine and I like the way the power range is more spread out. I also got a few new items from Stallard to try along with the earlier updates I added for the last few races of the season. The Jacob's ladder mod and radius rod changes really have helped the car in certain situations and I now have a car that can work on a greater range of tracks without committing myself one way or the other. This lets me get a lot done with just minor air pressure changes, wing changes, and shock changes. The car runs very well on more stagger than usual which really helps running smaller tracks. ARS also sent over some of their new valving shocks to run and they work wonders. As a last minute addition I decided about 2 days before we left to run the A-Class (stock engine), so I took my earlier 2009 car and put on a stock 2005 R6, with FTZ Carbs and FTZ Headers. I had to remove all my adjustable shocks, even built me a special LR shock using my new shock dyno. I quickly put on the new Stallard updates on the car and got it ready to rip, I had to order a 10sq top wing (which reminded me of the Australia car), to finish off the package.
Well it’s been quite some time since I last updated, but I’ve had quite a f ull plate lately. I’ll start with a quick update from the California trip. I have to first and foremost thank the Hagopian family for inviting myself and my crew guy Tommy out to race their spare car. They welcomed us into their home, and gave us all the tools necessary to get the job done. Unfortunately bad luck was on our side from the beginning. I had chain issues the first night, and this put us behind in points, the second night I won the heat and had a decent top five run going and jumped the cushion and looped the car, just plain driver error. The final night I had to come from the B-Main and managed to squeak my way into the A-Main, and from there it was just charge as far forward as you could. I managed to dodge a few crashes and pass a few cars and ended up finishing 10th. I had some good battles, and met some great racers so I enjoyed myself while I was there. On a side note I was terribly sick with Allergies while I was there so I feel bad for the Hagopians that I couldn’t quite give 100%, but I tried.
Next up was the Gold Crown race at Granite City, IL, however the day before the race the POWRi guys decided to cancel, due to all the rain. After that was our crown jewel race, the I- 30 600 Nationals. I had the car ready and loaded and Mark Stallard flew in from Delaware, and just as we were about to leave they decided to cancel the race, due to all the rain we had. In the end it was a good call, I believe the state of Arkansas received nearly 8 inches of rain that week. Mark had to rearrange a flight home, and I was pretty bummed out about it. So the entire months of September and October were pretty much washed out.
I did manage to break the frustration by crewing for Sammy Swindell during the big end of the year 360 races he went to. I helped him at the Devil’s Bowl on for the ASCS race, and then I helped him just 2 weeks later at I-30 for the Short Track Nationals where he almost won if not for a stuck bleeder valve.
So what’s next? Well you’ll be surprised to know I have entered for the Tulsa Shootout to take place on New Year’s Eve and the 2nd of January. I haven’t been in five years, and haven’t raced there since 2001. I look forward to the challenge and seeing some old faces. After that we will venture down the Florida for the East Bay Winter Nationals, then its back to I-30 Speedway for the postponed 600 Nationals on March 10th. I may or may not make the trek to Cowtown for the ASCS2 race on February 12th and 13th, just depends on what all is going on.
I also want to express my sadness upon hearing of the death of Jeff Hicks, Shane and Tim Hicks’ father. They are the guys who allowed me to race their car on my first trip to Australia, and their father opened his home to us strangers. We had a great time with him and had some good laughs. My dad especially had a memorable late night ride home with him from Adelaide to Murray Bridge, completely lost and nearly out of fuel. I last saw him at the presentation night during this year’s Oval Express and I knew he had cancer, and he almost didn’t know how to tell me goodbye, I could sense that he knew it might be the last time I’d ever see him. He will be missed…
Its been quite some time since I have reported any news from the Senter Racing team.This summer h as been filled with rain outs, I can't even count the number of events I had planned on attending and then getting rained out. Most were cancelled well in advance, even our biggest race of the year, the 600 Nationals was a wash out. It was a shame too, I had all my ducks in a row for that one. The car was working perfectly and I won the two races prior to the big event in dominating fashion. The race has now been postponed until March 10th, 2010. Nobody know whats in stores for us at that date, if I recall correctly on March, 1 2009 I had about 2 feet of snow in my yard. Hopefully the weather will cooperate this time.
I will board a flight in the morning headed for California to race at the Super 600 Nationals at Plaza Park (Oct. 1st-3rd). I'm looking forward to an exciting challenge out there, and spending some time with the Hagopian family. They kindly allowed me to use their spare car and I shipped on of my FTZ engines over to keep my comfort level high. I haven't really ran on a small track since Laang in Australia (Jan. 3rd-4th, 2009), so I may be a bit rusty. However the goal is the same finish the race and try to be up front.
Once were back from California, its just 3 short days and we will be back on the road heading to St. Louis for the Gold Crown race at Granite City, IL. I really enjoy that track and I'm very pleased the the promoters have allowed micros to run at that race. It will be a great crowd, and I'm sure we will have a good result.
After that I'm not sure whats on the agenda, I'm sure we will run at East Bay this year (if we are on the schedule), and of course March 10 will be I-30.
Our complete video section, with updated videos from week to week. Including the ever popular In-Car Cam, as-well-as Highlight Reels, and the view from the Stands. 
A showcase of all our sponsors. To be featured on our Race Cars, Website, or Videos there is information inside to help you out. 
