8/24/2022: Riverhead Raceway - Back to School/Monster Truck Night & 8/27/2022: Riverhead Raceway - School Bus Demolition Derby
What's this? It's not a Saturday! It's Wednesday night racing, as one final hoorah before all the kiddos get shipped back to school! As expected, mid-week racing was a bit chaotic, with Ed taking a half day at work to go load up the trailer and head to the track, while I left a few hours early from work to head straight to the track myself. Being the middle of the work week, we were already planning on making it a short night, just because both Ed and I get up pretty early for work. Before we got down to racing, Ed had a message for all his bowling buddies, since Tuesday was most likely his last night of bowling ever. "F*ck you guys, I'm a racecar driver now!" 🤣
Pit gates opened at 4pm, with practice starting a 5pm. Practice started pretty quickly and within an hour we had run both rounds of practice. Ed was consistent out on the track, even compared to last week running in the 14.1 to 14.3 second range, when he had a clear track. The next major step is for Ed to get enough seat time on the track to nail down his corner entrances, which will help him shave a few more tenths off his laptimes. We had a brief pause while the trucks went through tech before their time trials, and then we'll be kicking things off from the pole in the first heat. 😅
Well the start of the heat went about as well as I was expecting, with Ed quickly getting passed on both sides as all the faster cars cleanly maneuvered their way around him. We ended up finishing 8th after another spirited race with our friend in the #82 and made our way to the consi. We rolled off 4th in the consi and for the first few laps, Ed was really loose, but not losing much time. We found out after the fact that the car starting on the pole was leaking oil 😑 and once again, we were the ones to find it.🤦♀️ The consi was pretty uneventful until we got caught behind a few lapped cars, which killed our momentum, but both Ed and I were happy with the 3rd place finish. The car survived another week, and we changed our focus to look ahead to the Saturday race.
Once again, I'm almost relieved we did not actually make the feature, due to the amount of carnage that happened. I'd swear it was a full moon with all the craziness that happened.
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Saturday started out looking like a nice day for racing. Not too hot, no threat of weather, but enough clouds to block the sun here and there. Pits opened at 1:30pm and practice was slated to begin at 3pm. Ed made a slight air pressure adjustment this week just to try something, and we'll see how it goes!
First round of practice was pretty uneventful, and we ran constantly compared to previous weeks. Back in the pits, Ed made a spring adjustment and got ready to it out in round 2. Solid practice and the times were pretty consistent still. Ed just needs to figure out his corner entry. Luckily we had a surprise 3rd round of practice this week! With a small air pressure adjustment, Ed hit the track again and ran even faster, finally hitting another 14.0 second lap! Then it was time to refuel ourselves with a quick bite to eat before it was time for qualifying. Just like on Wednesday, we're starting on the pole in the first heat, and I'm just hoping we can at least make it past turn 1 still in the lead. 😅
Heat race time! We started in 1st and were able to get a great launch, but the guys behind were just that much faster. We were able to stay up with the front pack for a little bit, but eventually fell back to 6th, where we were able to stay for the rest of the race, securing us a spot in the feature! Through some chaos and confusion in the consi, our buddy #51 also made it into the feature. We're set to roll off 21st, and the goal is to bring the car home in one piece.
We survived the feature! Started 21st, finished 21st and stayed on the lead lap! We stayed out of all of the chaos, and we're heading home in one piece.
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