|
|
|
|
Dessie's Disclaimer: In an attempt to prevent future
confusion I would like to state that at no time in the past or in the future have I or
will I ever portray the comments on this page as factual information. They have
always been and will remain to be simply my opinions about what I
saw, heard or felt about the races.
Last updated September 18, 2006 04:22 PM September 29, 2000 The Shoot-out! It was reminiscent of the 2000 year of racing for #73. Ray ran a few laps in his first heat race before the Tranny croaked. Pulled that one, went and found another one, wrong gear ratio, put it in anyway. Bearly made it to the Main that evening, and ran about 2 or 3 laps when it went "BOOM". Too many Rpm's or something blew bits and pieces through the oil pan. Had several nice big cracks in the block as well. I think the heads were the only thing left intact and lucky thing (I guess) since they belonged to someone else! So, if the plan wasn't to start from scratch next year it is now! September 23, 2000 What a great night of racing! Turned out to be championship night. After not finishing either heat race last week, Ray was back in the A heat. He started last in the first heat and being really hungry for a Main Event win, he ran very conservatively and finished 3rd. The second heat was inverted starting Ray in front. He took off and never looked back cruising to an easy win. The Main Event was started with the points leader (Duane) in front. Ray started 4th and pretty quickly ran up to second. There was a bit of an altercation in-between turn 1 and 2 with Justin Manasco and Tab Barnard getting together. Duane being out in front was nearly the only car to come out unscathed. Ray was close enough that he took a hit in the rear fender but luckily the rub rail took the brunt of it saving the tire. They gathered everybody back up and Ray started 2nd behind Duane. He didn't stay there long! He knew his best shot at Duane would be at the green flag and he jumped all over #73 sending her down the front straight in fine fashion! It was Ray at turn 1 and every turn thereafter! Ray has driven against more than the usual adversities this year, trying to work the kinks out of a new car and motor. We rebuilt the motor several times, fought distributor problems, leaking value cap covers, lost a water pump, changed a smashed A frame, lots of clutch adjusting, learning how to adjust the values, changing axles, adding weights in the right places, changing tire staggers, and lost a transmission among all the other regular stuff. Bottom line is he only finished all of his races 7 times this entire year. So, it was a sweet victory indeed when he took the checkered flag for his first Main Event win. Congrats Ray! September 16, 2000 Ray jumped out front in the B heat again just to loose another axle on the checkered lap. He made a parts run to the shop, got another axle and got it on in time for the Main Event though. He worked his way up quickly and lead for awhile until Roger and Duane got by, leaving Ray with 3rd. I drove in the Mechanics race and wasn't doing too bad when I broke an axle in turn 4 of the checkered lap. Guess Tucker will get a visit from Ray this week. September 9, 2000 Ray had it going on Saturday night (for awhile at least).
He ran in the "B" or fast heat and jumped out to an early lead in the
first heat. He was chased hard by Duane Fuller but triumphed in the end. His
first time to take 1st in the B heat!!! He lost a belt somewhere in the last lap,
but we got that fixed and was ready for the second heat. He started at the back this
time (they invert the lineup for the second heat) but quickly ran up to 4th and then
passed Roger Dial for 3rd. That's when the left rear tire decided it had had enough
and went over turn 2 chasing rabbits in the pasture. Twisted the axle right in two.
Ryan Stelzig won the Main. September 2, 2000 Ray started out on fire.....won both his heat races!
Then toward the end of the Trophy Dash something broke and he had to leave. Ended
up being a push rod and he had to pull a spark plug and run with 7 cylinders in the
Main. Still had lots of power though and was running 3rd for awhile until the tires
heated up and the car started pushing on him. Ended up 6th. August 26,2000 Ray was out front in the second heat when once again the
electrical demon struck. We hadn't isolated the problem in time for the Trophy Dash
and had to scratch. Got her back for the main though and the car looked good
finishing 3rd. I might add what a good job driving Ray did....he missed an accident
that took out 4 cars! I won another Ladies Race, 3 cars in all, two Mini Stocks and
me, but I had lots of fun again. August 19, 2000 NHMSC closed for the Curry County Fair August 12, 2000 #73 finished FIVE races last night! Not all as we would
have liked, but at least it was on the track and we weren't up to our elbows in grease all
night. Ray had some problems with his carburetor in the first two heats, finishing
3rd and 4th. He ran 3rd in the trophy dash, with Duane Fuller taking that trophy.
Roger Dial locked his transmission up in the trophy and didn't make it to the main,
giving Duane an even better lead in the points as Duane won that too. Ray finished
7th in the Main having great difficulty trying to convince the car the keep turning left.
I ran in the Mechanics race and got a little seat time. Clint Ford won that
one! August 5, 2000 Ray lost all the water in the first heat but placed 4th, and
then, according to the score keepers, ran 6th in the second heat race (not quite sure how
that happened, as he had a flat and had to leave the race). The Main Event, however,
#73 was hooked up! Ray had a good starting position and got around the #7 car to
lead the race for about 5 or 6 laps! It was great fun while it lasted! Then
the tranny croaked and he had to watch the rest from the infield. July 29, 2000 Ray ran the first and second heat races then loaded the
car with motor problems. July 22, 2000 This being the 1st races of the 2nd half, the drivers drew
for positions Sat. Ray drew into the second heat and ran 2nd and 3rd in the heat
races. There weren't any Trophy Dashes - 1st half trophy presentations instead.
Which turned out good for us as it gave us extra time to change distributors again.
Still working some bugs out but Ray drove well all night. The Main Event
started 10 cars and finished 7. Ray took a couple of hits but none that were
race-ending. It did however bump him back to 6th were he finished the race. July 15, 2000 Bryan and Randy got to be the Wise Up pit crew for the #23
Modified Car (Kent Ware). They had lots of fun and were big helps too! DRY
track. Looked like it might "come in" for a few races and then it just
dried up and blew away. Ray took 4th in the first heat and won the second heat,
lapping the only other car left on the track. He drew into the Trophy Dash but had
to pull to the infield after just one lap with electrical problems. With help from
lots of different guys we finally got her back together for the Main. What a Main it
turned out to be! There were only 13 cars, but it was somewhat reminiscent of the 21
car fields of last year. Dry track + lots of loose cars = lots of wrecks and
somewhere around 6 or 7 Red Flags. There were quite a few mistakes made in the flag
stand as well as re-lining the cars up and even allowing one car to come back on the track
after the race had gone back to green but luckily I don't think anyone ever got hurt.
It was a marathon however! Ray was having some difficulties with his clutch
but a good motor, good driving and few near misses later and he finished 4th.
Actually, they weren't all near misses, he did say howdy to the wall during one
incident. Tapped it with the rear end which spun the front around to say hi too.
He was able to drive through it though with little damage! David Flowers ran
a very consistent 1st half to sneak off with the mid-season championship. Congrats
to him! July 8, 2000 I was out of town Saturday, but Ray went racing and actually
got to finish all 3 races! He ran 2nd in both heat races and was just behind the
money in the Main. July 2, 2000 We made the trek to Lubbock Sunday. Ray's car looked really good in the first heat race. He ran 3rd most of the race then got bumped from behind and lost a position finishing 4th. There were 15 really fast well driven cars in the main. Ray started in 8th position and was running well until he got a little loose between 3 and 4 and several cars ran by underneath him. It was his first time to drive at Lubbock Motor Speedway and he just never did find a groove that fit. Ended up 11th. June 24, 2000 No racing for Ray tonight! Waiting on parts! There will be no races at NHMSC next weekend in observance of Independence Day, but Amarillo and Lubbock are options for Ray if he gets the car back together. Will let you all know. June 17, 2000 Yet another short night.....lost a water pump in the first
heat. Finished 5th there, then put her up for the night! Lot's of other good
racing to watch though! June 10, 2000 Rough night Saturday in the #73 pits. I won't even try
to explain the problems, will just say that we finished a weak 4th in the 1st heat and
never got back on the track. Attrition, I guess you would say. Hopefully,
nothing terribly serious and we'll be back next week! June 3, 2000 Had a pretty good night Saturday. Ray started 4th in
the 1st heat and quickly jumped out to the lead and had a pretty easy go of it. The
track was still pretty muddy and several of the cars went over the top between 1 and 2
trying to no avail to catch him. He developed a miss in the second heat and finished
2nd there. We changed the spark plugs after that and then Aaron quickly re-attached
the throttle cable while they were waiting for Ray to line up for the Main. Spark
plugs didn't fix the miss. Ray said he was probably only running on 6 cylinders but
managed a fourth anyway. Corey Riley won with Ryan Stelig (sp?) and Mickey Lunsford
next. If I calculated right that makes Corey the new points leader and Ray should be
around 5th or 6th maybe. May 27, 2000 We had a really wet track Saturday, which I will say turned
into a nice tacky Main Event track. However, the first heat race got ugly real fast
when Mickey Lunsford's rear end came around on him. The 04 car went high, but not
high enough and hit Mickey sending him down the track into Ray. It took the right
a-frame out on Ray's car and the left a-frame out on Mickey's car. David Flowers was
good enough to share a spare a-frame with us but we still had some crooked stuff in the
right front. Ray went ahead and ran in the Main finishing fifth, but having quite a
bit of handling problems. On a side note........WOO HOO.....I won the ladies
race! There were only 3 of us but I did have to pass the other two cars to win.
I get way too worked up but manage to have fun anyway! Thanks Ray for having
the patience to teach me a bit about driving and the courage for letting me do it in your
car. BTW, I actually did try to check the temp gauge out there once, then
remembered the light was out! Aren't you proud of me anyway? May 20, 2000 Got off to a late start Saturday. Ray didn't get there in time to mud in so he had to start scratch all night. Good thing is........ he got to run all night! He finished 3rd in the second heat and 3rd in the Main. The track turned ugly, potholes in 1 and 3 really bad, and not many cars finished any of the main events so we felt pretty good about 3rd in the first Main we have gotten to finish this year. 3 previous + 12 tonight = 15 current points May 13, 2000 I like the way they are doing the line-ups this year.
The first heat lines up with the most points to the rear, second heat is an invert of the
first and the main event is lined up according to how well you did in the two heat races
with best first. Probably takes a bit longer to line up the main, but I think it's
better. It gives each car a line-up in the main according to how well it is running
that night, theoretically anyway. May 6, 2000 Not much to mention about the first race night for SS
#73. I was at my daughters' dance recital earlier in the evening and by the time we
got to Ned Houk, the car was already loaded. Seems like the same thing happened last
year on opening night. This year, Ray ran 4th in the first heat, then found an oil
leak. He was pleased with the handling though so ........fix the leak and on to next
week. April 8, 2000 We went to Lubbock Saturday! Ended up 1st - - - - -
- to load the car on the trailer that is. Had a miss in the motor and
suspected a bent push rod, so we loaded up and watched the racing. Lots of cars, the
pits were full. They had a Junior Bomber race that was lots of fun, a Street Stock,
Pro Street, Super, Outlaw Modified and a IMCA Modified race. The Street class seemed
to be about what our Hobby class is with the Pro Street class like our Street Class will
be now. I didn't know very many of the cars but David Johnson drove the #30 car in
the Pro class. The car didn't seem to handle really well for him and he got loose in
turn 1, losing lots of ground and just didn't get caught back up. Michael Sisson won
the Supers with Ralph Messinger, Roger Sisson and Randal Copley next. There were
only 4 Outlaw Modifieds but were 13 in the IMCA class. Made for a great race with
really exciting driving.
|
