January 5th, we'll be headed over to Mohave Valley Raceway in Bullhead City Az. They're having a 4 race series that ends Feb. 2nd. We're taking the Mods over there so hopefully we come back to Bakersfield to start the season on top of our game. I'm pretty excited about making the trip over there. I've called and we should have a place to leave the cars there, then we're going to fly back and fourth to the other races and haul the cars home after the final race in Feb. Hopefully we don't hurt anything bad enough that we need to haul any of them back to CA before the end of the series. I have a good friend that lives in Bullhead City that I drove a Mod for a couple of times, so as long as we keep the damage to a minimum we should be able to fix it at his place.

I'll try to keep you all posted!

-Lee

It was a good year for the 23 team, I would have liked to have won the East vs West Championship, but we were runner up instead. Our last points race was a little disapointing with a 7th place finish, but the festivities that surrounded the last race were really fun.

We headed over on Friday afternoon, and stopped off at the Buckhorn in New Cuyama. We had motel rooms there for the night, so we went to the bar and I got to party with some friends from high school. It had been 15 years or so since I had seen most of them. We had a really good time. Brady Bell stopped in, and I had all my crew there also. We unloaded the car, and gave a quick ride even. Skinny BBQed into the wee hours of the morning, and I woke up with a tremendous hang over. It was a great night. lol.

Saturday we headed over to Santa Maria, licking our wounds the whole way. We got to the track early so most of us found a place to lay down and tried to get a little rest before the races. Big Mike, Skinny, and Matt put together another little gas BBQ so Skinny could cook more meat later in the evening. They let us into the pits and we started our evening of racing. I was talking to Jeff Priddy of Priddy Motorsports and he was worried about how big the Late Model field was going to be. I asked who he had in his back-up car, and he told me I could drive it if I'd like to. I checked the running order for the night, as I didn't want to drive the Late Model (LM) first and Jeopordize my Super Street (SS) points inany way, but the Late Models ran afterwards, so we entered up in the Late Model also.

I tell you, those guys over there worked feverishly to get that car the way I would like it. They just kept asking questions and making adjustments. I didn't get to hot lap it and I have never raced a LM before so when I qualified 11 out of 20 I was happy as hell. Here come the questions again, and I have to qualify my SS now. My guys never had to work on the LM, so they stayed focused on the SS, while Jeff's guys were working on the LM. In the LM heat I ran third to Zack Forester and Rob Sanders, Steve Drake finished right behind me. Here came the questions again. I told them the car was basically good, but a little tight in the center, and left to race the SS again. When I got back in the LM I started 8th, and it was handeling like a dream. I passed people, and made my way up to 5th. I was trying to pass for 4th and Zack got back by me, and at the end Phil Priddy went underneath me as I was trying to pass Zack back. It was one of the biggest highlights of my racing so far, and I thank Priddy Motorsports very much for the opportunity to race their car.

I hope to see everyone at the "Bud Nationals" in Bakersfield October 12th and 13th!

I fell behind on getting our primary car ready to race, so we ended up racing the back-up car. The track was actually bettr than anticipated, so the car worked pretty good. I ended up 6th, but was as high as 4th at one time from my 10th place starting spot.

This weekend 9-22-07, I'll be racing the Mod at Bakersfield Speedway come out and support if you get a chance.

Next weekend 9-29-07, we'll be back at SMS for our final points race.

Man oh man. I'll tell you, I qualified bad, and my heat race was bad. For the main I did every handling crutch I'd ever heard of to the car to try to tighten it up, and it helped. The car was actually decent, but I'm still awful worried about why it took that much just to get it good. I say good because it still wasn't great, but it was good. I won the Hard Charger award for passing the most cars, and ended up fifth in the main. Tim Randolph had another great night and stretched his point lead out by another ten points, to put me in second by 29 now.

I took my old leaf springs to A-1 Springs to have them re-arched in hopes that I can install them back on the car and it will be back to the way it used to be.

I hope to see you all at Santa Maria Speedway for our next race on September 15th.

There was a picture taken by motorsportsrus.com that sums up my frustration. I added the caption, but I'm pretty sure it's what I was thinking at the time!

picture courtesy of motorsportsrus.com

I thought it was going to be a good night, but it turned out to be just average. I didn't qualify very good, but I came from third to win my heat race. The fast qualifier drew a 12 for the invert, so I had to start in the sixth row (11th position). In the main I just couldn't seem to get any forward bite on the slick track. Usually my car is really good on that type of surface, but it just wasn't there Saturday. I managed to move up and finish 6th, but I think most of it was do to other peoples mistakes, not the fact that we had a good car for sure. Our next race is coming up this Sunday, Sept 2nd at Santa Maria Speedway. I hope to get the car a little more forward bite next race, but it isn't always easy.

Hope to see you there!

What a night. I started by running fourth which didn't get me into the "A" main right out of the heat races. I had to race the "B" main, but the car was good and I won the "B" which started me on the 7th row of the "A" main. The car was pretty good for the main event. It's a lot easier to get along with now that we've worked some kinks out of it. I made my way up to 5th, then went to the top and dropped back a couple of positions before gaining 1 back on the top. The motor started to lay down on lap 22 or 23, but I figured I could make the end of the race which was only a couple laps away. I took the white flag bailing under Randall Davis for fifth when the red flag came out, I knew it was for me, and I was pretty disapointed to get a DNF only about 1/2 a lap from the checkerd flag. I'll take the DNF over burning up though.

I'm taking this coming weekend off, and I'll be in Hanford on the 25th of August for the East vs West race up there.

Well, we got the car back in order after our last couple of races. We qualified a respectable 3rd, ran second in our heat, and went on to run good in the main. I started third row outside right next to co-point leader Tim Randolph. When we took the green Tim got off to a better start immediatley. I tried the high line and lost a spot, then followed Wayne Dotson around the bottom for a while, until I finally made a "Bonsai" move around the top of the race track. I finally got it to stick, and was able to pass Wayne then went under Pombo to gain another spot. I was trying to pass Billy Simkins on the last lap, but it didn't matter as he was docked two positions for passing before the cone on a restart. I ended up 3rd, but this cost us the point lead, as we're probably about 5 points behind Tim now. We still have four more races left, and I'm looking forward to a good point battle until the end.

I'll be in the Mod at Bakersfield Speedway August 11th!

The New Colors

The IMCA actually had the new colors on it last Saturday at Bakersifeld, but I just got a picture of it earlier. We took it down to Ventura for the fair race. There were 43 Mods that showed up, and they split them into 4 heat races. I started 10th of 10 in my heat, which also had car owner Jay Marks, and team mate Gary Dutton in it. I finished 4th a spot behind Gary, and a spot in front of Jay. The 4th place finish qualified me for the "A" main. Jay would later transfer to the "A" by running second to Brad Pounds in his "B" Main.

I started 15th in the "A" and was passing cars until I slowed for a caution, and my car pitched the driveline out. I was done for the night on lap 9. Paul Stone won, Clay Daly second, Danny Lauer third, Gary Dutton fourth, and Brad Pounds fifth.

We'll see you back at Bakersfield Speedway August 4th in the Super Street, and August 11th in the Mod.

My run in the Mod was less than great, but as always I had a great time. I got tangled up in a small train wreck, and had to go to the back of the field, but made my way back to 9th, which is where I started.

We're taking the IMCA to Ventura Aug. 2nd for the fair race, then I'll be back at Bakersfield Speedway with the Super Street on Aug. 4th for the final East vs West race of '07 at Bakersfield Speedway. By end of this week I'll have entered 14 races in the last 12 weeks. I can't imagine how they do it back east where they race several times a week. I'm so looking forward to having the 18th of August off.

I've been working on the SS all night, but Jay called and said the IMCA was looking great with the new colors and graphics on it. I'm excited to get to Aleco in the morning and see it. I put a new nose piece and bat wings on, but I still have to go wash the SS off in the morning so I can display it at the speedway, then maybe get a few laps in, so I can see whether or not the changes I made to it are going to get it back to it's old form. I just don't want to have another night like we did at Santa Maria, here in Bakersfield next week.