Race Recap: 04/29 - Hickory Motor Speedway
It was a weekend full of ups and downs for us at our home track of Hickory Motor Speedway. All season long we have been chasing victory lane and been close to getting there on multiple occasions. All the way up until we took the green flag, I though last Saturday might be the night we finally get it.
The day started off as most have this season with a morning practice session that showed some promising lap times, but nothing extraordinary. We made some small adjustments to the car during that session, but nothing really seemed to make a huge difference on how the car handled. In Practice One, with our set of race tires on the car, things felt a lot better. We were able to cut some good times and finished the session P.3. In Practice Two our adjustments seemed to pay off a bit better and after only 3 laps we were sitting in P.1.
Before long it was time to qualify. I drew the first qualifying spot, which meant that I would go out first to cut my best time. I put down a 15.596 and I knew that the lap felt great. Sitting P.1 all I had to do was wait. By the end of the session we still had the fastest time on the board and were able to claim the Pole Award in our class!
I was feeling confident about our chances to find victory lane for the first time this season, as the green flag dropped I felt like we had a good start but as I got to the end of the front stretch the RPM's climbed unnaturally as if the clutch was slipping and I knew I had a problem. In the car I wasn’t sure what exactly was wrong, but after rolling around on a few caution laps caused by a wreck on the first lap, I had to retire the car in the pits.
After inspecting the car in the garage, it looks like the teeth on a clutch disk were sheered off somehow, causing the clutch to slip continuously. Luckily, the parts are already in and all that’s left to do is reassemble the car and we will be ready to go racing again this Saturday night (5/6)!
Thank you to everyone who came out to support us this past weekend. We’re still hunting that trophy at the end of the night!
Thank you for supporting grassroots racing! See you at the track!