7/9/2022: Riverhead Raceway - Fireworks Spectacular!!!

It was a dark and stormy night..... wait no it wasn't... it was a hot, sunny July Saturday, no threat of bad weather in sight. Good chance for a bit of sunburn, but that's the risk you take when your pale as a ghost and spend the whole day at the track for some SHORT TRACK RACING!!! \o/ After last week's July 4th festivities were called off on account of weather, we had a super action packed day of racing and fun ahead of us! Late Models, Mini Stocks, Tour-type Modifieds, Crate Modifieds, INEX Legends, Super Pro Trucks, a truck enduro, a kid's Big Wheel Race all followed by a fireworks show! Sam's Sunscreen Application Counter: 1

While we were off last week, Ed and I took a trip up to NH to snag some spare parts. An engine, a gear, a steering shaft, and some miscellaneous bits and bobs accompanied us on the return trip. 

We were reviewing some footage from the last time out on the track to see if we could help Ed improve his race game, and we came up with a few things to work on during practice, along with a few springs to test out some adjustments. 

We got out to the track, unloaded and got ready for practice. Checked tire pressures, tightened all the lug nuts, and made sure the radio and transponder were in the car, and Ed donned his fire suit as we waited for our turn out on the track. Sam's Sunscreen Application Counter: 2

What ever Ed tried differently, it certainly seemed to work out, as he ran the first three laps in the 14.1 second range, with the fastest being on lap 1. Back in the pits, we threw the fan on the car, and guzzled some Gatorade as we waited for round 2 of practice. 

Between the rounds of practice, we decided to change the right front spring in our car to a little bit of a stiffer spring, juuuuust to see what would happen, and how it would affect the drivability of the car. The lap times weren't as fast in round two, but considering the whole field was about .1 seconds slower, our spring change wasn't a bad thing. We stayed 22nd fastest in the division, which is a good spot for us to be, and in a time trial scenario, that's above the cutoff of 24th.

Heat races were up next, but while we waited for the other divisions to run through some time trials, we topped off our fuel and got ready to face our friend Kevin in the #51 in the 3rd of 4 heat races. Top six cars in each heat qualify and everyone else has to try to get in via the consi. We were racing hard with our buddy, but unfortunately the wall decided to throw its 2 cents into the battle, and Kevin was able to get around us to make the feature. Luckily there was only a broken bolt and a loose fender on our car and we were able to fix everything in time for the consi. The car held up through the consi, but we need to go over it more thoroughly once we're back home, just in case there was something we missed. Also Sam gave up on the sunscreen at this point.

We started off the consi on the outside pole (2nd) but quickly fell back to 4th after getting loose in the turn. After a brief caution for a stalled car on the track due to another car spinning and coming up in front of them, we restarted the race. One thing led to another, and a couple of mistakes on other drivers parts that led to spins with out cautions, we finished the consi once again in 2nd place. A solid finish, but it did mean that our night was done. In the grand scheme of things we've been very lucky so far that we haven't been in any major wrecks, especially with how things have been. Hey, at least now I have a bit of the wall to take home as a souvenir! After all the racing was done there was nothing left to do but kick back and enjoy some fireworks!

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~Sam (I can be found at KazulStudios on all social media)