ELKO: Race #2 of 2023
Elko Raceway in Elko New Market Minnesota. My wives family is from the greater Minneapolis area, we have two partners, Business Executives for National Security (BENS) and Bellator Recruiting Academy interested in this race, and the Minnesota VFW is more than excited to come out to the track to setup a booth. This track, similar to Flat Rock, was not on my radar for 2023 but it is exactly what we need right now… another race to move our program forward. Goals for this race… finish with a clean car.
The Recap: Fast Track Racing brought 5 total cars to this race so the team was spread thin to say the least. My program is a bit different than some of the other drivers so we took what we could get for help. An awesome group of guys came up from Iowa to help out but sadly at the last minute two of them couldn’t make it due to a illness in the family so we were left we two crew guys. Two crews guys for two scheduled pit stops was bound to be rough but we dealt with the cards we were handed. Practice we again had radio issues and missed the first 10 minutes. We went out, turned 5 laps, then went in for adjustments. Everyone was tight in the center of the corner and I was no different. We went out again for another 5 laps and the car was better but I was now struggling to get into the corner. All in all we did 10 total practice laps, the car was super tight, and that’s when the thunderstorm hit us. It rained hard, lightning all over the place, and we started to think this race will have to be moved to the next day (forecasted weather just as bad). As we waited out the rain, the practice laps we ran would turn into our qualifying laps and I sat 15th to start the race. 15th with a green track, a car that was super tight with some major untested swings put into it, rain/showers could possibly hit at any time, a short .4 5 mile racetrack, and the darkness of night creeping in… lets do this! On a positive note, due to the weather I was able to chat with the VFW quit a bit, and hang out in the suite with the folks from BENS and Bellator Recruiting Academy. Lemons into lemonade?
Once the race started I found out quickly that I was not a 18-20th place car, but was still struggling a bit being to tight on entry. I moved up quickly to 13th at the start and was stuck there until work could be done to make some adjustments. Fear of going down a lap if I went in under a caution was in the back of the teams mind so we held on the best we could to the 13th place. Out of the 5 cars we brought with Fast Track, if I wasn’t the worst I was close. After the first pit stop is when the car and I found life. I found out after the race that when the 48 car went off the track due to engine issues one of the pit crew guys from that team came over to help us out which was awesome to see and hear! Huge thanks, but back to the race. After those adjustments the car was still tight on corner exit but entry, and mid corner were excellent. Good enough that I could run the low and mid lines through the corners which gave me more options and I became competitive. The car had gotten so much better that I was starting to un-lap myself from the drivers in both 11th and 12th place. I was no longer the worst car in the Fast Track organization, I was now running close to the fastest. The car felt great, and I was able to hang onto the bumper of the 4th place 15 car as he went by for a few laps which was a great feeling. With a caution coming out 6 laps until the next pit and the restart happening 3 laps until the next pit is when the car cutout. I searched all over the car to see what had happened. Did I lose 4th gear, nope 3rd/2nd not working either, did the fuel pump go out; I don’t think so I didn’t feel it sputter… but the I realized all the gauges read zero to include to engine temp which immediately sounded alarms in my head. I peaked around the steering wheel to see the ignition switch was in the off position but by then I had already rolled onto pit lane and the race started without me. I fired it up, skipped my pit box, but the damage was done… I lost 3 laps in the pits. When that happened I had raced myself into the 11th position by un-lapping myself. I did not have anything for the 10th place car, but with a lot of racing remaining I may have gotten lucky with someone wrecking out and I could move up. The last stage of the race I was able to un-lap myself 1 lap, secured 12th place, but that’s all I could do from there. Those 3 laps took us out for that possible top 10.
The true racing enthusiast will understand what I about to say next. I have been a back of the pack driver for all of my ARCA races leading up to this point. Often we see 3 races in these ARCA races and up to 5 or so at Phoenix with the mixture of Main, West, and East Drivers. Of the three races going on, I had been working to be the fastest of the slow group. I have shown that every race I have competed in at ARCA, but the next challenge is to actually compete with that middle group of drivers. That’s where you see the most wrecks, the most competitiveness, aggressiveness, and race craft in ARCA right now. The front pack is usually is in a league of there own and made up of 2-5 cars at most but that mid-pack is a grind and hard fought. Elko turned out to be my entry into that mid pack race. Laps ahead of the back of the pack drivers (14th-20th), and slowly working my way through the back of the mid-pack (5th-13th). Its a huge win for our organization at Elko and we showed that with more experience, laps, seat time, and funding we will continue to work our way up through the field. GULDT!