Another good run for the team at Thompson for Military Appreciation day, as we survived an eventful race and wound up crossing the line 12th.
Debuting (the start of) some new colors, the #10CT Saturn rolled off the trailer to many comments on appearance. Bare without stickers, and freshly painted black the new look is off to a good start. But as we all know, the paint job don't make the car fast. We showed up to a beautiful day at the speedway, ready for 15 laps of Mini Stock action. We made very minimal changes throughout the day from practice to the feature, a first for us. We were running about 11th fastest of 22 entrants all afternoon.
We were slated to start 3rd in the heat race, but we're still trying to take it easy at the Big T seeing as our entry point is different compared to the other competitors due to us having to shift gears every lap, thus deciding to start in the rear. Fortunate for us the front row was involved in a lap 1 incident that may have not worked out in our favor. We finished the heat 7th.
The feature was very eventful and unfortunately we didn't have our camera mounted this time. We started 13th and got up to as far as 9th. We struggled on restarts and there appeared to be no shortage of them in this race. Once up to speed however we were moving along pretty respectably. With about 7 to go there was an accident in the middle of turns 3 and 4 that we got collected in. Unsure which way to avoid the accident, the brakes were applied in full force and fortunately we drove off (after getting unstuck with the 97ct). Luckily the tire didn't go down because they didn't give us much time to pit. Luckily the guys were quick on the ball and ripped off the front bumper cover that was rubbing our right front tire and we just barely made it to the tail of the field for the restart. The alignment was definitely off too from some minor damage to that area, but nothing to end the race over.
Restarting from the rear now, we had to work quickly to get back to where we once were, and the competitors made it tough to accomplish with some fun tight quarters racing. We managed to get up to 11th, but coming to take the white flag out of turn 4, the 87 drifted up into our left rear while attempting to pass and kicked us sideways in the high groove up near the wall. We made an impressive save and were able to keep going forward, thanks goes out to those drivers around us that gave me enough room to avoid more carnage. We ended up pushing the 87 across the line unable to make a bid for the spot back on the last lap.
Some work is needed to get back on track, our next event being at Thompson on 6/14. We hope to have it fully lettered at that time too. Work will also progress on our new adventure in this time. Thanks to our sponsors for being so understanding that we couldn't have them on in time: Andover Used Auto Parts, Biggins’ Auto Repair, So Sorry, Lucky Strike Lanes, Thirty Marketing.
Mitch Bombard, driver of the #10CT Enduro, NEMST Car, Mini Stock, is the writer of the weekly recaps, and expresses the views of his own from his viewpoint behind the wheel, and after watching video (if available).
