With
everything loaded we headed to Madera Speedway the following weekend. Patty was still sick
from Lake Port and decided not to go to this race. Ted and Keith showed up with the #8 on
all four wheels and a primed fender ready to race, it looked a lot better than the last
time I saw it, they put in some long hours also. With no testing on the #3 car after it
had been repaired everyone was a little skeptical as to weather the car was going to run
well or not I will say it ran great.
Using the first practice session as a
shake down test to make sure nothing was going to brake or fall off, I felt it was good
enough for some quick laps. I finished off the session with laps in the 17.4 bracket. In
the second session of practice the car was a little tight but running well. We made some
adjustments to the car for qualifying, which afterwards put me 8th on the sheet
with a 17.397. An 8-car invert was drawn;
this put me on the pole for the heat race and for the main event as well. In the heat race
I managed to lead some laps until the real fast cars came by, but I managed to finish in
the fourth position.
Before the
main event we made changes to the car so it wouldn’t get tight, I will tell you it
was definitely not tight all night long. I started on the pole and led early but the car
started to get loose and Fred over took me for the lead. I had to run the outside grove
just so the car wouldn’t spin out I could see that Fred was having the same problem,
he would go on to finish third driving the outside grove. I passed a few cars but in turn
also got passed by a few. In a fierce battle at the end with Ross Strimiska #90, we both
raced side by side all the way to the checkered flag. When it was all over he beat me by
inches. What a fantastic run with a car that a lot of the racers said would never run
again. At the end I wound up finishing 8th, right were we qualified, and the
kicker the car ran good and didn’t even get a scratch on it.
David Ball #3