News

5/10/08: Ron spent the week making all the necessary repairs to the car. At about 5:30pm on Friday, he realized that the right rear birdcage had been bent in last week's wreck. Unfortunately, by this point all the racing parts stores were closed for the weekend. Thankfully, one of our racing friends was able to find us a birdcage to borrow from another driver that was racing in the Fastrak race at Carolina speedway that night. Ron drove to that driver's shop after the race ended, arriving back home with the birdcage around 2am. Saturday morning, Ron rushed to replace the birdcage so we could hit the road to drive to Virginia. We made it just in time to meet the rest of the crew and head to the track.

Ron's practice times were good, but he was forced to make additional repairs after practice. He qualified 5th with a time of 18.97 and then rushed to finish more repairs before the race. The race proved to be very eventful, but luckily not for us. Ron was able to dodge the numerous wrecks and work his way up to 2nd place. With the last restart, there were 6 laps to go. Ron tried to make a run on the leader, Clinton Cook in the #7, but was unable to complete the pass before the checkered flag waved. After our disastrous wreck last week, we were all pretty pleased to bring home a 2nd place finish and a relatively undamaged race car.

5/3/08: Though rain was originally forecasted, we only had a brief afternoon shower which, thankfully, wasn't enough to interfere with the scheduled races. Ron put up a great qualifying lap and started in the 4th position. After 2 restarts, the third restart was good and the race was underway with Ron in the third position. Midway through the race, Ron caught up to the #11 car and was able to pass him for second place. The first 3 cars were pretty spread out, so there was a excellent chance that Ron would have at least a 2nd place finish for our first race of 2008, even if he just rode around for the remaining laps.

Unfortunately, Ron caught lapped traffic around lap 19. Although they had been getting the blue and yellow flag for the last 5 laps, the #97 and #34 cars refused to yeild to the leaders. Ron rode behind them for one lap, but when both lapped cars went high coming out of turn 4, Ron drove underneath them to pass on the bottom. The #34 car decided this was a perfect opportunity to pass the #97 by making it 3 wide. While Ron was passing underneath the #97 car, the #34 dove in between them, spinning the #97 down in front of Ron on the front stretch. While trying the avoid the wreck that he had created, the #34 also spun, pinning Ron's car to the inside wall. We were able to get our damaged car into the pits and ready to go back out, but the track officials refused to allow Ron to finish the race because he had gotten out of his car on the track. After a great start to the evening, we finished a disappointing 11th. Only 19 laps into the season and our nearly brand new car already needs over $1000 worth of repairs due to another driver's stupid, senseless actions.

4/26/08: After a rainy day, the track finally dried out enough that we were let into the pits. We were able to get in one practice before the rain started again. The races were cancelled, so we'll see you next week!

2/25/08: Ron and I are expecting our first child. Our little boy should be born around 7/20/08. Obviously, this will affect our racing schedule, so be sure to keep checking the webpage for updates as the season progresses.

9/16/07: The 2007 racing season is over! Ron had a good "rookie" year returning to dirt racing as a crate late model. He put up some good finishes and really learned a lot this past year. We're all looking forward to what next year will bring! Congrats, Ron!