Starting Out The Year # 2

I hope the winter has been good to everyone, but I sure am glad it's spring. I know all you guys are ready to race. We finally did get to race last weekend. With Rockingham getting postponed due to rain and then the Farmington race getting pushed back a week, it seemed as though we would never get to race. Let's back up a couple of weeks.

In the last blog the car had just been painted at Chuck Chapman's place. Following that, Sandy assembled the car and I met him at Mooresville Dragway to test. Sandy has an eighth mile set up where he runs only on motor (no nitrous). While most cars just turn off the nitrous and race, Sandy changes the rear end gear, converter and other settings on the car to maximize performance and minimize problems. The testing went well. Sandy made three runs of 4.98, and back to back 4.97's. We loaded up with the outlook good and we were ready for Farmington.

The Farmington weekend started off with sunny skies and a little wind. It was about ten degrees cooler than when we tested in Mooresville, but hey, no rain in the forecast. Sandy made his two qualifying runs Saturday, which was a 4.88 and a 4.90. We thought about running the combo race but the temperature was falling fast. The track gets real tight when it gets cold and bracket racing a 4.80 door car in forty degree weather can get a little crazy. So we hung out with our friends at the Jay Zimmerman camp before calling it a night.

Sunday was sunshine and no wind. Temperature in the upper fifty's. First round we ran Mike White in his 63 Corvette. Second round was the Allen Racing Engines Monte Carlo. Third round was Tim West from Asheville, NC. He was going for the jugular. He was -.001 & dead on with a 1. That was about to be ugly. In the semi's we got around Mark Payne in his new Cavalier. Sandy had been in the zone all day with the car running the number. In the finals, we were matched up against Jeff Rudisill who was making his Top Sportsman return after a four year absence. Sandy and Jeff both missed the tree and both cars were one number over. But unfortunately for the Sandflea, the win light was in the other lane. Congratulations to Jeff Rudisill, but losing sucks. It was a hard pill to swallow after having such an awesome day.

After a person gets over the what ifs and emotional roller coaster of the day, you have to look at the big picture. 1. This was the first race of the year and we made it to the finals. 2. It was back to back finals after ending 2008 with a win at the Rockingham National. 3. We are second in divisional points. A top three finish in the division gets you in the shootout for the championship at the end of year. 4. The car performed flawless over the course of the weekend and 5. Sandy made his first driver error in ten rounds of competition. Going back to the fall Rockingham win to end 2008 and this race to start 2009, that is one mistake per ten runs. I will take that ratio every time.

As the title states, Sandy started out the year number 2. He has #2 on the window from last year and in our first race we ended up # 2. Now if we can only finish the year #1. Honestly, Wilkins Motorsports has been truly blessed this past year (other than the crash). But even in the crash we were blessed. Winning rounds is fun and winning races is great. It is why we race. We love the people, the competition and Sandy loves the challenge of taking a 432 cubic inch small block and making it run wicked fast. See you in Mooresville.

Don