[Cobra 14]

First day back at work after a great night's sleep has me contemplating the experience. I was super fortunate to have 2 crew volunteers come for the ride. The conversations and laughs made the trip great fun. Watching the "pro" midget drivers on the banked small tracks is a game changer. The Friday night feature alone would have had over 100 sliders.. Every position (yes even last place) was throwing sliders.

I was caught out by the surface and burned off a new Sp2 the first night while going no where resulted in a 12th place finish. It was a frustrating ride back to the hotel and a semi sleepness night trying to figure out how "black dirt" could become so abrasive.

A trip to the parts trailer Friday saw a SP3 purchased. This investment proved its worth as it lasted the next 3 nights. While it may not have been ideal traction at times.. It was ideal for my wallet.

Travelling to different tracks and the anticipation of the new experience is very addictive. New tracks, shapes, surfaces, lighting and new teams to race against. Not knowing how the different teams race can impact a budget racers on track decisions.. Can they hold their line.. Do they "respect" the other teams or do they think its fairground bumper cars.. I can say the Powri D2 group was great.. My car was pushed into the trailer every night.

The level of competition was great.. The transponders showed multiple teams less than 1 second a lap slower than the winning "Pros".

Ironically.. Our team targeted the Kiwi, Pickens as the benchmark ( old Oz vs Kiwi rivalry). The irony is that no doubt he didn't know.. We would end up joking all weekend that we are less than 1 second slower than Pickens.. And that we only had $3k in our engine.

On that note, congrats to Pickens on winning the Speedweek title.. I experienced first hand how hard it is to come into the locals backyard and play on their turf.

In another slap to my Pennsylvanian face.. I filled up in $2.13 gasoline... Not only does Illinois have great racing action.. The cost to travel to watch is better..

Friday saw our first visit to a Casey's General Store for fuel and ice. Where possible we searched for Casey's out of respect for all they do for racing. With temperatures in the high 80s , staying hydrated with cool water was important. For those that are curious.. Read the Gatorade label.. I was unaware that it was made with genetically modified stuff until I read the label while sitting under the retractable awning.

On that subject, many thanks to Thomas Grumbine for showing a non camper how to use the awning. I have had the trailer for over a year.. And hadn't even tried.. Tom was confident.. I explained that although he might be confident pulling it out.. I needed his confidence of putting it back or he would be riding on the trailer roof holding it all the way back to PA. The much needed shade was a blessing and yes.. It went back together so Tom was able to ride in the truck.

Our Fridays racing was a little better.. But not great.. Our goal was top 10 finishes and we got off to a good start in the feature passing multiple cars only to get caught behind a car losing power coming off turn 2 resulting in contact and multiple cars passing back by us.

A 10th place finish was all we had.. But the top 10 target was accomplished.

Saturday saw me still searching for forward bite issues. After 2 nights.. I felt there was a bind somewhere in the new rear end.. The hotel parking lot saw action and some ribs on the rr birdcage that were rubbing on the heims were effectively removed.

Off to Macon we went with hopes of more forward bite. Macon is small... And I still can't believe that the All Stars are racing there this week.. Imagine Lanco work more banking.. Slightly narrower but with a wider racing surface.

Hot laps being called to the track was our first indication of a problem.. I always fire the car early to make sure of no issues.. This night I broke that rule (its now back in place) and I soon learned that I had left a fan on the previous night.. With a totally dead battery and a borrowed charger not charging quick enough. Tom suggested jumping it from the truck.. Brilliant and it worked.
We missed hotlaps and started outside front row in the heat. It was side by side for a couple until we edged into the lead. A caution wood fly and the subsequent restart would see the driver make another mistake. This time it was with the shifter and not being in the right gear.. Yes it lugged a little but with minimal laps I was running I thought I screwed up on the gearing.. After the checkers I slowed and went down through the gears... Dammit... It dropped twice...it was in 3rd not 2nd.. Now I needed to confess to the crew.. Although we placed 2nd..we knew we had more speed if we got in the right gear .

The feature came and the slick track provided too many cautions.. We had started to get the SP3 working and wham another caution.. We moved up to 7th and unfortunately they cut the race to 15 laps due to curfew.. We had just found speed as our quickest lap was lap 14.

The 7th place finish cemented our top 10 goal. The crew challenged the driver to better that in our last night.

Sunday night came too quick.. It was our last race on this portion of the #bucketlisttour.

Hot laps and we were terrible.. Way too tight on the cushion and way too lose on the slick. Another sucky pill draw saw us start the heat from the rear. We were only slightly better but we had a long time to think about it before the feature. Rougie insisted we groove what was left on the SP3 right rear.. I put a couple of turns in the car and it was feature time..

A couple of wrecks and flips caused the race to be shortened again just as our sp3 came to life.. We would pass a few on the outside as most teams started to run the bottom. The checkers came too soon but we captured 6th and yet more improvement from the previous night.

It was decided to make our way back to PA and with a couple of power naps along the way we arrived home at 2.30pm

A true test of a great of an experience is to ask, would you do it again? The simple answer.. With these two blokes by my side... Absolutely..

[Grocery Guy]

Very nice recap of your IL speed week. Many times us race fans don't realize how tough it actually is for a race team to compete just one night, let alone a week long series. Congrats on making the shows, sticking to a budget and getting home safely!

[davidm]

Thanks for the cool recount of you trip west.