We returned to race at Cajon Speedway on April 20th looking for good performance from the car, based on some of my best times yet at this track in a mid-week test session.   The help from Sam Baugues of SO-CAL Cycles and his tuning expertise is much appreciated, and paid off well for us during this race.  It was far from a stellar perfomance on my part, as I was trying too hard for a good lap in qualifying with a car that was pushing, and hit the wall on my second lap.  My first lap was good enough for 10th, but we had a lot of work to do to make the show.  We had just enough time to get the car race ready, still beating out kinks as we were being called for race lineup.  It was a good race, the car handled well enough to stay with the pack and in contention.  A few mid-race incidents ahead of us during the race kept us close, and we finished 9th for the evening.  It also was good enough for our first Semi-Pro class win ever, not pretty, but a great effort by everyone involved that helped get the car ready and not giving up.

The race on May 18th at Cajon Speedway was intense, and the most fun I've had in a race yet.  We qualified 17th, with the push in qualifying still plaguing the car.   The main event was as competitive as ever, with three wide passing in the corners to move forward in the pack, and some great driving by all to put on a spectacular show for the fans.  Their was only one minor incident and a few more yellow flag laps when Kevin 'Leadfoot' Leffler lost an engine to slow down the race pace.  As the final laps of the race commenced, us in the 12th position, we stayed in a tight pack until the finish but were not able to move past Gary Scheuerell for 11th.

On May 28, we visited Orange Show Speedway for the first time.  It's a fun place to race, but the quarter-mile track surface is pretty worn out, which keeps you up on the wheel at all times.  At Orange Show, we are able to split the field into two groups, Pro/Masters and Semi-Pro/Young Lions.  I was able to qualify 5th out of 11 cars for our race, which seemed decent for our first go at the place.  This track is your typical short track 'Bullring', with all the action you would expect from a venue of this type.  It didn't take long for things to start happening once the race started, as J.D. Hendley (# 17) got into the back of me and spun our car going through the first turn of the race to bring out the yellow.  The track flagman then decided that we both should go to the back of the field, which didn't make sense to me, but you just have to go with the flow sometimes.  The thought of moving through a pack of Young Lions made things real interesting for me as the race started up again, but we moved forward, with some real good racing going on all around.  Towards the end of the race, Steve Twillingear (# 360) was still holding off the pack, with us in fourth at this time chasing the rest of the front runners as hard as we could.  A late race caution brought the field together one last time for a green, white, checkered finish for Steve's win and us in the forth spot.

It was back to the Cajon Speedway on June 15th for race 4 of the NERDBOY 7500 ten race track championship.  This turned out to be a tough night for many racers, including us.  The car was running good and feeling right in practice, but  even after some changes to the way I was setting the car up, again it was pushing during qualifying.   We would be starting in the 14th position for the night.  The heat race that night gave me some feedback I could use, and I adjusted the car some more to free it up coming off the corners.  It was time to line up for our main event, and I can tell you that's when most of all you appreciate how well you qualified.  Starting deep in the field of cars that are so even, you just bang your head thinking 'how am I going to get through these guys'.  The race started alright, with no one giving any ground and the whole pack staying in side-by-side formation at speed for about 5 laps.  Now you know this isn't going to last, and sure enough coming off turn 2 Bill Everett (# 420) got turned sideways running up front, which started a chain reaction through the pack. The # 09 car of Donnie Akers was collected and as he bounced off the wall, I was not able to get through cleanly and got hit in the rear tire.  Donnie's night got worse as Gary Scheuerell (# 13) hit him broad side without slowing much trying to get through the mess.   The race was red flagged, and everyone was able to walk away, but the # 09 and # 13 cars were destroyed. 

The race resumed after the cleanup, with Bill Everett able to return with a wounded car.  As the race started again, I new right away that we were in some trouble too, as the car suddenly was very loose.  This was due to the light impact with the # 09 car, knocking our rear end back just a little, which is an especially sensitive adjustment on these cars.  The car now handling poorly and loosing the front pack, I was caught by J.D. Hendly (# 17). I tried my best to hold him off and figure out where I could run the fastest with the car trying to spin out in the corners.  During this time we were catching the # 420 car of Bill Everett, and going through turns 3 and 4 J.D. got a run on the inside of me with Bill coming up fast on the outside.  I could tell J.D. was tight on my inside trying to use Bill as a pick, but I held the middle groove causing us to go three wide in the middle of the straitaway.  Just as I was clearing Bill by about a half a car, J.D. was clearing me by about the same, and made a move to squeeze me up the track into Bill.  This in turn sent me over the front tire of Bill's car on the outside, J.D.'s rear tire on the inside, up in the air about three feet rotating towards the wall and rolling over all at the same time (going about 70mph).  At about this time I was thinking how glad I was that I had prayed before the race, asking GOD to bring me through safely, and He answered my prayers again.  The car landed on all fours and spun into the infield, along with Bill's car close behind, ending both our nights. 

Now you would think that things would settle down a little after all this wrecking going on, but that just wasn't the case. During the next restart, Dana Moore (# 51) running in third got a jump on a slow starting Tom Landreth (# 30) and Art Nevill (# 15) running in second.  By turn 2 Tom had caught Dana, they got together going into turn 3 and both spun in front of the whole tightly formed pack.  The first several cars got slowed down, but Cory Miles (# 48) didn't see the incident and ran full force over Ralph Alexander (# 37) stopped on the track.  This sent Cory on a wild ride flipping out of the track catching on fire as he hit the wall, then back in to finally come to rest on top of Tom's 34' Ford coupe.  Again thankfully everyone walked away, but another car was totally destroyed.  The race was down to just a couple of laps when it resumed, with Art Nevill now in the lead and Bob Landreth in second.  The last lap was almost as wild as the rest of the race, with Art coming into turn 3 leading for the win, Bob Landreth looked determined to 'rattle Art's cage' (as D.E. would put it) and stuck Art in the rear fender to spin him out, (again in front of the whole pack) taking the checkered himself.   Everyone else made it through, with J.D. Hendly in second, who was eventually declared the winner of the race after Bob Landreth was DQ'ed for rough driving.  It was some night to remember, or maybe just forget for some of us, as we ended up 21st on the night.

We returned to Cajon Speedway on June 29th for our next race of the season.  I had made repairs to the car, and spent some extra time going over everything looking for area's of improvement.  The extra effort seemed to pay off, as I was able to qualify the car 7th with a 19.24 on the 12 degree banked 3/8's mile course.  The time came to line up for the main event, us with a much better view than I'd seen in a few weeks.   I didn't get a good start, missing a gear to let a few cars by before we reached the first turn.  The racing was close, and I was able to get a run on the inside of Dave Doll (# 62) going through turn 4 just before mid-race.  As we were coming off the corner, I pushed up a little and Dave got loose causing us to touch wheels, upsetting Dave's car quite a bit.  I backed off to let him catch the car, but his rear end kept drifting out as he stayed on the gas and the car spun slowly into the infield.  The green stayed out as Dave was able to right the car and get going again, but I had lost the lead pack in the incident.  This also put us just ahead of the fast car of Mark Gaiser (# 36), who gave me all I could handle for about 5 laps.  About this time the yellow flag flew for debris on the track, consisting of Art Nevill's (# 15) muffler, which sent him to the back of the field for bringing out the caution.  The field bunched up for a shootout to the finish, us holding on to the 8th place and Michael Morrisey Jr. (# 15N) of Reno getting the payoff for the long haul to San Diego as he took the win from a close second of Brent Jones (# 5).  This night gave me the feeling that we were finding some traction to stay with the leaders coming into mid-season, where we will be running on the dirt up at Barona Speedway in our next race.

We at GRAHAM Motorsports are proud to announce the acceptance of the FEED THE CHILDREN organization to allow us to help promote awareness in their fight against hunger for needy children around the world. As well as displaying their logo on our car, we have also chosen to sponsor a child through their wonderful organization. Please visit their website at http://www.feedthechildren.com to see about helping to relieve the suffering of very needy children.

See you at the races,