Madera Speedway

By Dave Ball

Well after weeks and weeks of watching it rain, we've finally got to show our stuff at Madera Speedway, and show them we did, with twenty-five cars. Madera is a fast third mile facility with a great new female promoter that is willing to listen to the drivers.

I unloaded the #3 Chevy and then went to help the rest of the team get their cars off the trailers and ready for practice. The first set of practice went well, the car ran good and got better with every lap. The second set went great, with some laps under my belt, I found a good groove and thought I would try my hand at putting down some good lap times. There was a little extra incentive to do well as we had the team owner Chuck Carmen of REP-CO with us; And Alan Yordy a top sponsor in the stands, I managed to get down to the mid 17's, which is not bad for the first time at the track.

Qualifying I laid down a good lap of 17.568, which put me 10th in the line up. I would start 13th in the main event. My brother-in-law Fred the 2005 Pro Champion qualified 5th, Keith, Fred’s cousin, a real rookie with very limited experience qualified 20th and Patty, Fred’s mother who has not been in a race car since the late eighties qualified 21st.

For the heat race I lined up 5^th, with only 8 laps in the race I knew with a Quick good move I might have a shot at getting my first victory. I learned that legends drivers, are real tough, with quick moves of their own, I finished the 3rd. After the race I ran for grandstands on the backstretch, where the drivers and crews can watch the races from the pits, to watch Fred run his heat race and see if I could pick up any tips about driving this track, Fred came back to finish 4^th after spinning to avoid a wreck.

The semi went well up until the last few laps Keith had a transfer spot but took a shot in the side while making an outside move and elected to back off rather than wreck the car he finished 5^th just one spot out of a transfer, Patty had a great time and ran a good clean race putting laps under her belt finishing 7^th. She’s looking forward to Stockton 99 Speedway a track she knows well.

The main event was very interesting, plagued with cautions at the first of the race, during one of them I saw Fred starting over from the back. I quickly made my way into the top ten while keeping an eye out for Fred, with the car handling well I made my way under several cars, but as the race went on my car started to get tight coming off the corner, then I saw Fred coming in my mirror. There was no point in holding him up so I let him go and tried to get in behind him but he was flying and I couldn’t hang onto him. I managed to get by Kelly Martin #38, a master driver, for the 7th position, and I held it for the last 8 laps. Coming home for my first top 10 of the season. I also finished 2nd in the semi pro class behind driver John Green and I was the highest finishing rookie in the field. Fred got to 4^th place before he ran out of laps and the checkered fell.

I’m really looking forward to Stockton 99 this weekend so come out and watch. I want to thank all my sponsors; with out your help none of this would be possible.