We were feeling good at the beginning of the heat on the 17th but it was short lived. We knew what RPM the car was capable of running and it wasn't happening. We quickly realized the car wasn't sticking and wouldn't hook up out of the corners. After the engine had died on the backstretch we figured all hope was lost. A glimmer returned when Cracker found a line that seemed to suffice around lap 10. There just weren't enough laps left to pull a sixth place finish but we'll take what we can get. Seventh is better than eighth. Now it's back to the garage to configure a new setup.

The first night of our first Winchester 200 kind of left us wondering what all the fuss was about.  When only 18 4 cylinders showed up to qualify on Friday evening, we were left scratching our heads wondering where everyone was; a lot of the regulars were missing ( Keister, Moreland, Sturtz, Hoffman, Gageby, etc.,etc.).  We ended up finishing sixth in the heat, earning an eleventh place starting position.  We had no way of knowing that Saturday night's A-main would hand us just about all the excitement we could handle.  Coming out of turn two on the first lap, we were collected in a five car pile up that ripped open the right hand side of the car, flattened a tire and sheared the hub off the steering wheel.  Thanks to a quick tire change by Keith Bass and the crew and a borrowed steering wheel, we were able to return to the race.  A few laps later we got tangled up with the 15M to bring out the fifth caution.  The caution landed us in the back of the pack, which now consisted of only 8 cars due mostly to attrition.  By lap 25, we climbed to sixth for our best finish of the season, dragging sheet metal the whole way.  We've got a lot of work ahead of us to get ready for the Virginia Nationals; our brand new bumper got sheared off at the welds, there are a lot of dents to pound out and a lot of rivets to replace, but we're hopeful.   The 46and2 race team extends a big THANK YOU to Keith Bass and the number 6 "Shady Grove Barn Burners" pure stock team.

We ran into some bad luck this weekend.  It started when we unloaded the car at the track on Friday and broke a wheel stud.  I ran it in warm ups and the heat without any problems.  In the feature I was able to pass some cars on the start, but on lap 5 or so the car had a terrible vibration, so I figured it was the wheel that only had 3 lugs on it.  Pulled into the pits and everything looked fine; the wheel was still tight.  I started to go back out on the track and everything felt fine in first gear, but when I put in it second gear the vibration came back, this time with a bad grinding sound.  All Saturday was spent swapping transmissions and working on all the little unforeseen things that come up: broken clutch cable, swapping mounts, swapping bell housings, etc.  We were ready to load the car at 7:15pm, but figured 4cyls would be first in the heat and feature since we were last on Friday.  Winchester Speedway should post the feature order before the race, or have it available on the track phone message.  Ah well, we should be ready for next week.

First the bad news: we didn't finish the first lap of the first feature, broke the front bumper (2"x2" steel tube), broke the radiator, the bottom radiator mounts, and didn't even get to start the second feature.

The good news: well... i guess the video is kinda cool.

The pic below is from the in car video after I hit the 88.  I think I bounced the right side of the car off the 33 and went on 2 wheels for a bit.  I thought for sure I was going to go onto my side.