LCS 8/28/09 and GCS 8/29/09

The 28th was the Season Championship race at the Lafayette County Speedway and it proved to be pretty anti-climactic. I came into the night leading the points and 7 points ahead of second place. In the heat race I lost 2 points to the 2nd place driver leaving me just 5 points ahead going into the feature. Then the storms start brewing in the distance, and we only got 2 lap in of the feature before it was stopped from all the rain. The track decided to just award us our pay based on the points standings, so I picked up a nice pay check and wrapped up the second track championship of the year. Every member of the Stagman Racing team worked really hard towards this, and I mentioned that this was our goal at the start of the year and we managed to succeed. Then the next night we went into my home town tracks fair race with no pressure on us. I think the lack of pressure might have caused me to get a little too comfortable though. I was up front at the start of the feature but got tangled with a driver in front and got sent to the back for causing the caution, and on the way back through the pack I got collected in another wreck that pushed the fan into the radiator and broke the frame. We've already starting tearing the car down, and we're hoping for even bigger and better things next year here at Stagman Racing. Thanks to everyone for all of your support and we'll see you out there next year!

Grant County Speedway 8/15/09

Tonight was the season championship night at the Grant County Speedway and I came in to it 3 points behind Brandon Wilson. It has been a great year racing with Brandon, we have a lot of respect for each other on the track, and that makes racing that much more fun. In order to win the championship I had to gain 4 points on Brandon because he would win a tie-breaker with more feature wins. In the heat race I jumped out to the lead quick and never looked back, and Brandon finished 3rd which meant I gained 2 points on him and we went into the feature with only 1 point separating us. The feature lined up according to points with Brandon starting on the pole and me outside of him. In the introductions I went and shook his hand and said "May the best man win." Brandon and I ran 1 and 2 most of the race until a late restart. On the backstretch after the restart Brandon's car started cutting out, which let me get by him, but I knew I had to beat him by 2 spots to win the championship, but I couldn't be worrying about that now. I just kept pushing and managed to win the race, and during the victory lane interview the announce informed me that not only had I won the feature, but also the track championship. I was ecstatic, but the main thing is to keep focused because we are still leading the points at the other track we race at. This takes a little pressure off us though, and hopefully we can bring home 2 track championships this year.

Lafayette County Speedway 8/14/09

I think I made racing history last night with the first ever tie in a race. I started the feature in 8th, and worked my way up to about 4th by the midway point of the race. The car was missing just like it had been the week before. The 2nd and 3rd place cars got together giving one a flat which would bring out the caution. So on the restart I was lined up outside of the 2nd row with the leader out front and I got a good jump and beat the other driver back to the line to get the white flag, but I bobbled a bit in turns 1 and 2 which let him get back around me, then in turns 3 and 4 I got a good run and got alongside of him but I couldn't complete the pass. But another racer spun on that lap and they threw the caution before we got to the finishline. So going by the rules when a caution comes out they go back to the lap before which I lead, so they awarded me the win, but I had no idea I just figured Travis won because he had beat me to the line on that last lap. So we talked it over in victory lane and I said "Why don't we just take the top two payouts and split them and call it a tie?" Travis agreed and the officials talked it over and decided it was a good idea. The announcer said this was the first time in his 35 years of watching racing that he has ever seen a tie. So it was a good night because I got my first win at the Lafayette County Speedway, and also my first ever tie.

Grant County Speedway 8/8/09

We came into the race 5 points behind the championship leader with only 2 races left this year, so I knew I needed to make some ground up and things were looking promising. In the heat race I finished 3rd earning the last possible point, while the points leader finished behind me so I closed the gap to 4 going into tonights feature. In the feature I jumped out to the lead, and was having a good little battle with the #80 of Rick Runde when the panhard bar broke free from the rearend, it kept running though, and I managed to stay in the lead for another lap, then coming out of turn 4 the driveshaft finally put too much strain on the transmission and it let go which left the car with no forward drive. Unfortunately the points leader #43 Brandon Wilson was following close behind me and wasn't expecting me to have problems, and when the car broke he was forced to try and dodge me and ended up hitting a tire and breaking a spindle. When all was said and done I was scored one position ahead of Brandon, which closes the points lead down to 3 going into the final race next week. Here is the link to the video on youtube:
Heat Race- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azJ7wMHH6_A
Feature Race- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irxvz7g7Dt8

Grant County Speedway 8/1/09

Tonights feature was the best race I have had in my B-mod career to date. The feature saw me and Brandon Wilson running nose to tail the entire race. There were a few times coming off the turn I though I was going to hook his bumper I was that close to him. With two laps to go I dove inside of him in turn 1 and we raced side by side down the backstretch together, but he got the lead back, so for the last lap I just followed him through turns 1 and 2 to try and gain some ground then I made my move coming in to turn 3. I dove underneath him, and tried to slide up a little to get him to either get off the gas or just second guess his next move which would give me enough momentum to beat him to the line. I was just ahead of him, but we were both fighting for position and our front tires touched causing his car to jump a head up the track. I was worried he was going for the wall, but I heard him get back on the gas, so I did the same and we had a drag race coming out of turn 4 to the checkered flag. It was a photo finish, and Brandon just edged me out at the line, but he ran a perfect race and deserved the win. I was more than happy with a 2nd place finish that night, the car still had the miss in it from the night before, so once we get that fixed we should be pretty tough to beat.

Lafayette County Speedway 7/31/09

In the heat race tonight the car just didn't want to do what I wanted it to do, and I could only work my way up to third. The feature was pretty eventful. I started 10th and had worked my way up to about 5th, and the carb was plugging up causing the car to run really rough. On lap 4 a large piece of mud knocked my window net down, and another car spun causing a caution, so I pulled into the pits to tell my dad the car was running rough, and to have him put the window net back up. So we went back out there, and I had to start from the back because I had pitted, so on the restart I was in 11th, and I worked my way back up to 6th before the next caution. On the restart, some cars got tangled up again which moved me a little further. For the last restart I found myself in 3rd place with 2 strong racers in front of me. They got into a little tangle coming out of turn 2, but the 2nd place driver took off from their little run in, so I found myself in 2nd, but couldn't close the gap to the leader. So I finished a solid 2nd place after a pretty hectic race. The videos should be uploaded so youtube soon, we tried a little different view this time.

Grant County Speedway 7/26/09

The night before we got a bunch of hail and rain, so we weren't sure we were even going to race today, but they managed to get the track in shape. I went out for hot laps and the car seemed to be running good, but when we went to go out for our heat race the car wouldn't go into gear. So my dad crawled under the car and started adjusting the clutch trying to figure out what the problem was but even after the adjustments it still wouldn't engage. So for the feature we had to push the car back and I just started it in gear to get it going and we just planned on running a lap or two to get some points. After I started it in gear the car started shifting fine, so I realized we might have a chance. I had to start last because I didn't make it out for my heat race, but I managed to make it up to 3rd, and at the end of the race when I pulled in to scale the clutch was pretty well done for. Were pretty sure it's just the throwout bearing, but once we tear it apart later today we will know. Thanks for stopping by.