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. 

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     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.

Special thanks to all the businesses that make this happen: Stallard Chassis, FTZ Engines, Accurate Machine Works , Keizer Wheels, Holthouse Farms, Xtreme Graphics, Fire Service Plus, ARS Shocks, Killer Coatings, Speedway Motors , Clayton’s Body Shop, Perry Farms, Senter and Son’s Gin, motorstands.com, Stren Flex , Intense Fabrication , Mettec Bolts, RaceBumpers.com, Ringers Gloves , ButlerBuilt Seats, Braille Batteries, Saldana Race Products, Conroy Pneu Control , Indico Pty Ltd , Raceseng Design , Indy Race Parts, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , and Aim Sports

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     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.

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     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.

     In November I got one final race weekend in at Riverside Speedway in West Memphis, AR, I managed to finish 2nd on the Friday night race and  then backed it up by winning the finale on Saturday.
Overall I consider the year a success I managed 14 wins in 33 races and that is including my successful trip I made to Australia over the winter. I won the big races at East Bay, Clarksville, and Lincoln-PA, had some good wins at I-30 leading up the rained-out 600 Nationals, and won every race I started with the Georgia Mini-Sprint group.
I have to give a big shout out to the people and businesses that help along the way. My wife and kids for allowing me to do what I do, my dad for supporting me, my crew Tommy and Pete for getting the car there and prepared. The businesses that help out Stallard Chassis, FTZ Engines, Accurate Machine Works , Keizer Wheels, Holthouse Farms, Xtreme Graphics, Fire Service Plus, ARS Shocks, Killer Coatings, Clayton’s Body Shop, Perry Farms, Senter and Son’s Gin, motorstands.com, Stren Flex, Intense Fabrication , Mettec Bolts, RaceBumpers.com, Ringers Gloves , ButlerBuilt Seats, Braille Batteries, Saldana Race Products, Conroy Pneu Control , Indico Pty Ltd , Raceseng Design , Indy Race Parts and Aim Sports

     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…

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     This story is a month in the making. On April 18th we drove to Clarksville, TN to race the annual $2,000 to win race they have there. Qualified 2nd, Won the Dash, and then 6 laps into the A-Main the rain came. They rescheduled the event for May 16th. It looked like rain may play a part in the event again, but William and his crew do a great job with the track and the surface was in fine shape.

     In the $2,000 to win feature I was on the pole so I got a good jump and had a very good car. It would pretty go where I pointed it. I didn’t just run away with the race, as there was some close competition from Joe Miller and Derek King, but we had enough in the end to seal the deal and win the race. I'm extremely proud to say that this is the 5th consecutive year that I've won this particular race. I thought winning last year for the 4th time was special, but this one is truly special considering the way others have stepped up their programs and the racing is much tougher these days. My crew and I pride ourselves on a well built and well presented race car. Its hard enough to win big races once, much less 5 time in succession. See the old articles 2008 , 2007 , 2006 , and 2005 .

      I was trying a few new items on the car this weekend. ARS Shocks had sent me some new spring bumpers to adjust on, and I had a new left rear shock bolted on which worked out very well. A few weeks back Joe Conroy of Conroy Pneu Control Bleeders called and asked if I’d be interested in trying some of his bleeders designed for micros.  I jumped at the chance, and broke out my old bleeder tools from the sprint car days. I haven’t run bleeders for a while now because  I just never liked the regular style kwik-change bleeders as I’ve had issues with those sticking in the past on the sprinter. These new bleeders however worked like a charm, and allow better control of the tire pressures. I am impressed with the quality of this product. Also Mark at Indico Pty Ltd provided us with some very cool crew shirt to wear, providing advertisment for our supporters and allowing them to look professional at the same time.

     Of course I have to thank all the companies who support us through the year. Stallard Chassis, FTZ Engines, Accurate Machine Works , Keizer Wheels, Holthouse Farms, Xtreme Graphics, Fire Service Plus, ARS Shocks, Killer Coatings, Clayton’s Body Shop, Perry Farms, Senter and Son’s Gin, motorstands.com, Stren Flex, Intense Fabrication , Mettec Bolts, RaceBumpers.com, Ringers Gloves , ButlerBuilt Seats, Braille Batteries, Saldana Race Products, Conroy Pneu Control , Indico Pty Ltd , Raceseng Design , and Indy Race Parts and Aim Sports.

     I have feel like we have a good combination with engine/car and other manufacturers. I can’t wait to get my new car ready to race in a couple of weeks. Mark, Dave, Kevin and the Staff at Stallard Chassis have once again raised the bar this year. The car looks great and the build quality and parts fitting have worked out wonderful so far. Also FTZ has another bullet for me that I have to pick up next week. I have decided that I will have to skip the Race-4-Life in Sweet Springs, MO, my real job will not allow me to be gone much next week. However we are still on for the ASCS2 Speedweek as well as the PA Speedweek .

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    The final night at East Bay proved interesting. I drew a 2 in the initial draw and this put me in good position by starting on the pole of the 2nd heat. I jumped out front in the heat and won easily. They drew an invert for the feature which put me in 10th position. Given the track conditions in the feature this proved costly. I had some hard fought battles with 5th and 4th positions and this cost me time in getting to the front to give any challenge to the leader Luke Thomas. I ended up finishing 3rd in the feature. I didn’t anticipate the track changing quite as much as it did in the feature and didn’t make the necessary adjustments to get the job done.

     A good thing to come from the weekend was scoring enough points to secure my 2nd straight East Bay Raceway Winter Nationals Championship, and along with it that nice trophy. Although Luke Thomas and I both had the same finishes 1st and 3rd from the two nights. I managed to snag the tie breaker by having more heat wins. It’s always good to come down the Florida in February and get a good result in this series, because it sets the tone for your season to come. Everyone has new fresh equipment and you have to be on your game to score a good result here. Also, East Bay Raceway is a big wide race track that puts great strain your engine, thus you must have some good horsepower to give you an advantage.

     I have to thank my family for supporting me fully and letting me get away early skipping the major ice storm that came through our home state. I also have the thank my crew, Tommy and Pete, for working their tails off keeping the car clean, maintained, and fast. As-well-as keeping the trailer clean, and keeping everything in order. My Sponsors; Stallard Chassis USA , FTZ Racing Engines , Keizer Wheels , Senter Farms, Fire Service Plus, Motorstands.com , ARS Shocks , Accurate Machine Works , Xtreme Graphics , ButlerBuilt Seats , Killer Coatings , Braille Batteries , Clayton's Body Shop, Saldana Racing Products, Hoosier Tire , Intense Fabrication , AIM Sports , Indy Race Parts , Stren-Flex , Design 500.

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      After dodging the big ice storm on the way down to Tampa Florida for the 2009 East Bay Raceway Speedweeks, we were finally able to get a race in. The first night got rained out due to heavy rains. The second night started good, but a damp race track and cool temperatures made finding traction difficult. I drew a 50 out of 50 during the pill draw and this put me dead last in the 4th heat. I started 11th and worked my way through the field and managed to snag the lead away from Ralph Wren near the end of the race by running around the top of the race track avoiding the rough lower portion. Winning the 4th heat means I started 4th in the feature race. I managed to dodge a very close incident by the front row cars of Harold Matthews and Jesse Teed. I'm not really sure how I squeaked by, but it was just enoughh. On the restart, with Matthews out, I got bumped up to the outside front row and lead the first half of the race and sliced my way through heavy lap traffic. After a caution I knew running the top would leave me a setting duck, but I held out going to bottom to avoid the rough. Tim Buckwalter managed to squeak by on the inside and followed him for a few laps until a caution came out. I knew I had to get a good slingshot down the back straight in order to pass. I set it up good keeping just close enough and on the last lap ran the top in turns 1 and 2 and got enough momentum to dive under Buckwalter in turn 3 and go on to take the win. It was close, but you only have to lead one lap to make it count.

 The final race starts tonight at 7:00pm.

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     Winning the Australian Oval Express Series title for the 2nd time in two tries is quite an honor. To race this far from home, using resources your not used to, makes it that much harder. Last time I came to Australia in 2006/2007 I had limited resources, an unfamiliar car, an untested engine, and hardly any spare parts. I attribute us winning the championship that year to just sheer willpower. We made a car go around the track the best we could using the resources we had. I had a great crew My Dad, Peter and Greg Wickham, Jon Fitzpatrick, Tim and Shane Hicks, and we worked our tails off. Once we got finished that season there I knew we had to return, and I made numerous notes on what to expect the next time around. I also have a better understanding of currency issues, parts supply issues, tire supply, etc. Using all this information I embarked on a plan to return to Australia and with the help of Steve Caunt this became a reality. I shipped my car much earlier this time (June), I had a fresh engine installed, I shipped a spare engine in September, and with each box I sent down I threw as many spare parts in as I could. Just knowing you have parts available allows you to push a little bit harder when racing because your not terrified of wrecking and being unable to get back on track.

      The Oval Express series takes place around South Australia, and Victoria. The trip was around 2800km or 1,739 miles in total from Sydney to all the races and then back to Sydney. There were 6 races at this years Oval Express Series, Murray Bridge, Mt. Gambier, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Laang, and Laang. The point system is super tough, every heat race, every feature rewards points to accumulate for the series title. Just dealing with this is stressfull enough, know that one little slip in a heat race will cost you dearly in the championship. That along with the final round at Laang a smallish 1/6 mile racetrack is a super round double points situation. You must finish every race in order to win the series. Last time I raced the series I had one problem the whole time and that was at the first round, this time I made a decision to finish every race. Luckily it paid off in the end. There were around 45 cars at each round, from all over Australia and with Mike Dicely and Derek King here from the USA competition was quite tough. 

Final Points Standings

Race Results and Lap Times

Flickr Images of the Trip

    I have to give a huge thanks to my family for supporting me through my career. My wife for being understanding and allowing me to travel to Australia during Christmas and be away for so long. Being away makes me realize how special our relationship really is and I'm ready to get back home. My Dad, Step-Mom, and Brother who have been following me the entire time have to get major praise for giving me support. Of course all my friend and other family members who have emailed each and every day wishing me the best, it's always good to know someone cares for you back home.

     "There is no way I could have done this again without Steve Caunt and his family for their hospitality and full support." 

     Also giving support was my long time friend and new crew member Robert Longo (motorstands.com). He came along to help and probably wasn't sure what he was getting into. I think he's ready to go back to work at home so he can relax. I worked him pretty hard each night, because of the tire issues he must have mounted 10 or more tires each night. I also had my previous crew members with me this year in Peter and Greg Wickham. They added much valued experience last time, and were one of the main ingredients in our last championship. This time was a bit more relaxed, but their support will be forever appreciated. I have made life long friends in the Wickham family and I give my ultimate thanks for their help.

     Also in the crew was Anthony Gittos, Chris Rodda, Geoff Murphy, and Matt Brown , they mainly worked on Steve's car but of course would lend assistance whenever we needed a big hand. I can't thank them enough for the help.

     Sponsor wise I want to foremost thank Fire Service Plus for providing the majority of the support to get the job done. Along with Stallard Chassis AU , Stallard Chassis USA , FTZ Racing Engines , Keizer Wheels , Senter Farms, Motorstands.com , ARS Shocks , Wickham Smash Repair, AG Wings, Accurate Machine Works , Xtreme Graphics , ButlerBuilt Seats , Killer Coatings , Braille Batteries , Clayton's Body Shop, Saldana Racing Products , Max Dumesny Motorsports , Hoosier Tire , Intense Fabrication , AIM Sports , Indy Race Parts , Stren-Flex , Design 500 , Oval Express Magazine , Warrnambool International Hotel , and the Tailem Bend Hotel.

     I would like to thank Oval Express Magazine for sponsoring the series, and the Victorian F500 Association for organizing the series, Ken and Cheryl Wilsher for all they do, as well as all the stewards and volunteers that make it happen.

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