Race Recap: 6/10 - Hickory Motor Speedway

After a very challenging day at the race track we were able to stack up another solid podium finish and another solid night in the Limited Late Model points championship!

We started the day off with high hopes. We made some changes in the week since our last race and were ready to come out and compete for victory lane. Unfortunately the chaos began almost right away. Before morning practice we put on a freshly-inspected carburetor and discovered a leak on the fuel pump. Luckily we found a pump to borrow, but soon found out that one was bad too. After a trip to the parts store and a bunch of thrashing under the hood, we had everything put back together. The fuel issue had been solved, but our missing RPM’s from the previous week were still a mystery. Without any time left for further investigation and tinkering, we had to jump almost straight into qualifying with very few practice laps on the car.

In qualifying we were able to secure P.3, which was a huge relief with all the difficulty we’d been having up to that point. 3rd would put us in a good spot to start the race, even if the top two cars had .2 seconds on us!

After our qualifying session we got back to work trying to find the power we’ve lost. Luckily my dad, the person who inspired my own love for racing, found an ignition wire that had started working its way loose. A quick fix and we were pushing our car onto the starting grid fingers crossed.

Our race went a full 35 laps without a single caution. We settled into 3rd place pretty quickly and the leaders were able to create a sizeable gap. We were fighting some mid-corner tight handling, which eventually led being loose at the end of the race and the 4th place car was coming for us; he came from 8 car lengths behind us to less than 2. With 5 laps left on the board we came up on lap traffic and I knew that would be our saving grace to land on the podium. I weaved my way through traffic efficiently and used my experience to slow the hard-charging Canipe and finish in P.3.

It’s always a great feeling to be on the podium, but we are hungry for a win. Exactly halfway through the season, we are ready to continue learning and grinding to find ourselves in victory lane and make a bid for the championship!

Thank you for supporting grassroots racing and we will see you at the track!