Maddening Madera Strikes Again!!
As usual Keith and I were the last ones to arrive at the Madera
Speedway. Surprisingly we had actually left
Stockton on time for once. Dave Ball and Sam
were back racing with us this weekend along with Fred.
It was cool to have all three teams together for another try at this tough
old speedway. If you will recall, the last
visit we had here our little #8 had the best qualifying time of the Clement/Ball
Racin’ Bunch. Well, we were slapped back
to reality this visit. We had tried the setup
we had at Ukiah since we ran very well there. That
setup was junk at Madera and the car was bad loose in the first practice session. So, we figured we could go back to our last setup
from Madera that had worked so well for qualifying. Wrong
again kimmosabe!!! The car was still loose in
the second session of practice so we adjusted the pinion angle on the rear end and changed
some air pressures for qualifying. Keith’s
first lap was okay but I knew he would really let it fly for the second lap. It was going pretty well until the 4th
turn when he got so loose he nearly bit the fence head-on trying to hang on to it. Needless to say we didn’t fare well and ended
up 17th fastest of the 22 cars that were there.
Fred, meanwhile had been trying a new rear gear and was having mixed results
with it. By himself he could really sling the
thing around the track, but with cars around him he was having troubles. He ended up 7th fastest and would be
starting from the pole in the fast heat. Dave
had his car running pretty decent but had been fighting with what he suspected was a brake
problem. He ended up 15th fastest
overall. Dave and Keith would meet up in the
first heat.
Keith was set to start the heat behind the #5 car, a new guy who
normally races dirt tracks. (The #5 and the
#65 travel a long way to come race with us and unfortunately for them, their trailer had
caught on fire the night before and the #65 was badly damaged and unable to race.) Dave would be starting his #3 car right behind
Keith. These two have dueled a few times
before and I know Keith really would like to get the best of Dave in this heat race. Keith also knew that because the #5 is so new to
the asphalt tracks that he tends to overdrive the turns and ends up sliding the front end. As the race got underway the #5 made a good run
past the #18 of T.J. Garrett and took the lead going into turn 1. Keith laid back a bit because he wanted to make
sure he didn’t get into it with the #5 or #18 if they tangled. Just as he suspected would happen the #5 went into
turn 1 too hot and slid right up in front of T.J. in the #18. That left the door open for Keith and Dave both to
charge by those two cars. Now with Keith in
the lead and Dave in second the race was really on. Keith
looked to have the stronger car for the first couple of laps but Dave is relentless and
finally poked the nose of his car under Keith in turn 1 on lap 3. Keith knew he would really have to turn it loose
to have a chance to get the lead back now. He
put on a few hard charges to the outside of Dave and was able to turn a couple of really
quick laps towards the end of the race but to no avail.
Dave prevailed once again, showing how hard he is to rattle. Since Keith would be starting just behind Dave in
the Main Event he looked to reverse that scenario a little later in the evening.
Fred was up against the fastest of the fast in the third heat. He grabbed the lead for the first three laps of
his heat also. The #96 of Micah Parmer took
the lead on lap 4 and then the #35 of Matt Scott wrestled 2nd away from Fred a
couple of laps later. It still amazes me how
hard it is for these guys, who are 3 to 5 tenths of a second faster per lap than Fred, to
actually pass him. He and Dave both are very
hard to pass. Just ask Keith how hard it is
to get by ‘em. I am pretty sure it comes
from having run at 99 Speedway. When you have
somewhat less capable equipment it makes you work to get all there is to get every lap. Racing with some of the best racers around the
area at 99 made you tenacious. Otherwise you
would find yourself at the back of the pack almost instantaneously.
In the Main Event they inverted the top 12 qualifiers at the front
of the field. That put Fred on the outside of
the third row. By comparison, it put Dave on
the inside of the 8th row with Keith starting one row farther back just behind
him. You have no idea how that looks for a
race car driver. You can barely see the cars
starting on the front row and it seems like an impossibility that you can ever pass cars
that are already faster than you to try and get a decent finish. Fred has a different problem. He is absolutely surrounded by fast cars and sort
of in the eye of the hurricane. The fast
qualifiers will be trying to force him forward through the traffic ahead or if necessary,
they will just try and knock him out of the way. Either
way, it will be an adventure!!
As the race began Fred was in for some tough sledding and dropped
back to around the 11th or 12th
spot. He eventually moved back up to around
10th and seemed to stabilize about
that point. From that point on he just began
to hope his cars handling would improve as the laps wore on. Due to that new gear he really needed a bit more
elbow room to really get the most out of it. Meanwhile,
towards the rear of the field we found Keith getting a decent start and immediately moving
to the outside of Dave to try and grab that spot. As
it turned out, poor Dave was going to be a sitting duck at the end of the first lap. What had seemed to be a brake problem turned out
to be a ball joint that had come loose from it’s mount and let the suspension drop
down on the front of his #3 car. He was done
practically before he ever got up to speed. I
know Keith would have much rather raced side by side with him the whole race rather than
see that happen to him.
Keith raced up behind the #5X and #57 cars and began putting on
the chase to try and take their spots away. He
looked to have enough car to do it early on, but unfortunately my adjustments hadn’t
fixed the loose problem completely. As the
laps wound down his car would just continue to slide the back end on every corner. I am beginning to believe he would do great on a
dirt track He drove the wheels off the thing
just to be able to hang on to his position. (He
would end up in 16th position at the end of the race.)
Fred and Cody Berger in the #63 battled for much of the race for
that 10th position. The little gal
in the #21 joined their party and eventually went on by both of them. At about that same time Matt Scott in the #35 was
being knocked off the track and nearly losing his rear bumper. That knocked him from the 5th spot
clear back to just in front of Keith in 15th.
Keith managed to move in front of the #35 for one lap but was unable to hold
him off on the next. Partially because Matt
is pretty fast but also because his bumper was swinging around behind his car and Keith
had to take evasive action to avoid running over it and potentially getting a flat or
tearing up his own car.
But wait, there’s more!!!
With only one lap left to go in the race, the leader, #38 Kelly Martin, was
shoved out of the way by the #11 (piloted by visiting driver Dustin Ash). In the ensuing melee the top 7 positions up front
changed drastically. Kelly had been the
leader with the #11 in second, the #53 third, 05 fourth, 96 fifth, 25m (Makenna Bell)
sixth and #56 Dylan (the Villain) Albiani in 7th. Kelly fell all the way back to 9th, the
#11 dropped to 3rd, Makenna in the #25M moved to 2nd, the #53
dropped to 6th, and most amazing of all the #05 of rookie Robbie Czub moved
from his 4th spot to take the lead and win the race. What a mess!!!
It is a good thing they have electronic scorekeeping these days. Fred hung on through all that to finish 10th
and Cody finished up right behind him in 11th.
I kind of think Keith would have liked to seen a yellow flag for all that
and a chance at a Green/White/Checker finish. He
gets great restarts and I am pretty sure he would have stuck with the #35 to try and move
up a couple of spots before the finish. Ahhhh
well, so goes racing at Madera for Clement/Ball Racing.
You just never know what she is willing to give you, wreckers or checkers!!!
For those who would like pictures of that last lap, join the
crowd. My stupid camera malfunctioned on lap
28 and I missed the end of the race too. Since
there really wasn’t any wrecking goin’ on all I have are pictures of our
undented, unscratched cars. Thus ends a very
unusual night at Madera for all of us.
Samantha had her camera at the race for more pictures click here
Next up, Fred and Dave will be at Ukiah for the two day Memorial Day show. Keith and I will miss that race but we will be at Lakeport the following weekend.