ARCA EAST for 2023…Flat Rock
Two weeks after I got the car to Charlette North Carolina here we are at Flat Rock, Michigan. The amount of work to prepare the car for this race was extraordinary and shocking it was done in time to be honest. We needed hood flaps, roof flaps, the wrap redone, new windshield, new fuel cell, new carb, new fuel lines, a new ignition box, the seat installed correctly, the seat belts put in, weighed, setup, and the list goes on and on. The car was a mess when it showed up to North Carolina and I cant thank the team enough for all the effort they put in to even get the car to Flat Rock. I assure you, they all let me know how much it was and how much they enjoyed working on this car…
Flat Rock was not on my schedule at all at the beginning of 2023. I knew little of it and it hadn’t been raced in 15 or so years in ARCA. None of us had data, notebooks, setups, or anything. A Great place to kick off our 2023 and figure out what kind of car we were working with. The goal was to shake down the car, and to finish the race. Something no driver wants to hear or do but it was where we were at on this car. On a positive note we are able to work with the track and the Michigan VFW to get them set up for the race at the track. Another small victory in our journey together.
Now for the recap of the day. Practice was a mess. As I got into the car the radios were not working well and we were switching them out all over the place. 15 Minutes into the practice session I could finally talk to the Spotter, but not the Crew Chief so we just went for it. After 5 laps the car was smoking and lose off so we brought it into the pits. The power steering had a leak and the engine heat was burning the fluid that caused the smoke. We went out again for another 15 laps , the car started to smoke again, and we were awful in the center of the corners. So the team started pulling hoses and low and behold another Last Chance Racing gremlin showed up; a cracked connector on the end of the hose connected to the power steering reservoir. What I did not know at the time is that I had been driving this car now for 20 laps with not power steering and just thought the car was a bear to handle… we were out of time to go back out on the track so here we were ready for qualifying. As I took the track for qualifying on a fresh set of tires I noticed quickly they were greasy and I was all sorts of loose. As I entered into turn 3 on my first qualifying lap I wheeled it in there too hard (using my muscle memory from no power steering) and then pushed out of the corner a bit to hard which got us drifting out of turn 4. I was able to handle it but we were off on the setup and my control of the car was horrible to say the least. We qualified 12th somehow and that was that.
The race went pretty well all things considered. Starting 12th in the 12 car. When the race started we moved up quickly to 10th and held that position. We did not have much for the 9th place car and with no pit stops in this race I didn’t see me catching that car unless they had more significant tire falloff them me. As I saw it on lap 30 of the 150, we would most likely hold this spot. Possibly even move up a spot or two if some of the front runners get tangled up. On lap 41 is when disaster struck. As I came out of turn 4 the car started to sputter and die. I fired it back up, but when I hit the accelerator the car died again. I pulled into the pits to see what had happened. All our spare parts and major tools were outside the track due to the size constraints of Flat Rock and sure enough those were the parts we needed. The fuel pump had gone out on us. It ran fine in the shop, ran fine up until that point, but in the end it went out and ended our day. We learned a lot about the car at Flat Rock and although this was my first ever DNF in ARCA it was at least due to one of the cheapest parts possible and not anything major. It wasn’t the start to the 2023 season I had built at the end of 2022 but at least we were out there and we are working towards salvaging what we can for the remainder of 2023.