Turkey Classic Saturday In-car

We had three cameras on the car Saturday.  There's some good stuff here before our night got cut short. 

Turkey Classic 2012

That didn't quite go as planned.  The Turkey Classic at Cocopah Speedway for pro stocks (street stocks, wcss, super stocks, limited late model, or whatever you want to call then) was held this Friday and Saturday, November 23 and 24. 

The schedule for the night included qualifying, heat 1, heat 2 (invert), a dash for top six qualifiers, and the main.  Unfortunately, the night was rough on tires.  A handful of flat tires set us back a bit.  We ended up qualifying mid-pack for the main and finished in one piece (relatively) in 10th place. There was a lot of frantic engine work in between and we probably were never 100%.

Saturday looked more promising as the track was setting up just like we like it.  We were just starting to move forward in the main when this happened:

Oh well...it happens...repeatedly.

We thought maybe Team Dragon Slayer could get the 21 into victory lane

Cocopah, November 3, 2012

You ever had one of those nights where you can predict the finish?  And you know you're not going to get the big W?  We quickly figured out we were about a third place car and guess what?  We finished third. 

This amused me to no end.  This Dr. Pepper can got to go for hot laps! Fastest soda in the west!

Next up is the big one.  Cocopah Speedway's Turkey Classic is coming up at the end of the month.  Here's hoping for a good turnout!

Trophies

I guess it's  been a while since we've seen one.

Full GoPro videos up soon...

WIN!

Back from Bakersfield

We're back!

We were the last of 25 WCSS to show up to Bakersfield Speedway, but at least we made it.  25 cars is a pretty good showing for this division.  22 cars started the main.  We had a good time and finished with a fourth place in the big show.  We wanted more, of course, but we were happy with that
.  

Getting there late, we pitted in the overflow of the overflow.  It turned out to be a pretty decent spot.

No reason to fix last races' (Cocopah) disaster yet.  They just beat the body back out and called it good.

Nothing to do with us, but I love this shot.  And the WCSS cars are always a lot of fun to race with!

Back to Bakersfield

As I type, the guys are furiously working to put the car back together, and then we're off to Bakersfield Speedway for the Bud Nationals.  We had a great time last year, and we're hoping for more this year.  They'll probably still be working and loading the car at the same time, but we are coming. 

See you tomorrow Bakersfield!

Well...

That sucked.

But, it's not as bad as it could have been.  The guys still hope to have it put back together in time for the Bakersfield Bud Nationals.

Oh Cocopah...

Last night we returned to Cocopah Speedway.  With a lot of our usual help out of town, we were down to a skeleton crew, but managed to have both cars race ready and competitive (thanks Andrew!).  Sean Callen's #11 street stock looked good with  new paint and body (so new that the numbers went on at the track).  Sean used his head and patience and drove to a 4th place finish in what is traditionally a nutty, wreck-filled class. 

All the work that we've been doing with the #21 should have payed off last night.  The car ran great and we were headed for the front.  Unfortunately, others wanted to get to the front faster than us, and apparently by whatever means necessary.  There were 12 pro stock at the beginning of the night.  Two finished.  Enough said. 

You can check the YouTube link to the left for videos. 

Until next time...

Tucson

Well, we went to TIR for the two day show and did pretty well for ourselves.  We come home with a 2nd and a 3rd place finish, but there were some sketchy dealings going on and we should have had a win.  The locals are nice and friendly and the driving is clean, but there might be some organizational issues going on at this track. 

Videos coming soon...

Off to Tucson

We're going to Tucson this weekend for a little racing action.  Racing returns to Cocopah Speedway in a few weeks, so we hope to shake off the dust and maybe meet some new people before the season starts.

Wish us luck!

Summer

We're breaking for summer, but we hope that everyone who is racing through the heat has a great time.  Good luck and be safe.  See you in the fall!

SMS Video Comp

Here's  little compilation set to music covering our whole weekend at Santa Maria Speedway.  Enjoy!

We're Back

We're back home anyway.  Our weekend in Santa Maria went ok.  We didn't get the big W, but we were competitive and had fun with a great class of drivers/crews.  We qualified second fastest in our class (18.01), and finished second in our heat.  We had to start at the back of the qualifying dash and never really advanced much, due to an assisted spin.

 For Sunday's main, we started in the ninth position.  There was some really aggressive racing and we got caught up in an incident and had to restart at the back.  It was a battle (and there are a lot of torn-up racecars out there today), but we finally brought it home in fifth place.

It was great having some of the Tucson guys come over

She was looking so pretty too...

And one quick video.  Multi-view of the "big" wreck during the Sunday night main.  We had three GoPros on the car and filmed from the grandstands.   As they say, "Overkill is underrated."

Check the links to the left for more photos and video.

Almost Back

As we get ready to head back to Santa Maria next weekend, we decided to double up this weekend and get all the track time we could.  Saturday night at Cocopay Speedway, Brent Ashurst was in the #21 pro stock as usual, but also gave the street stock class a try in Sean Callen's #11 (fondly known as Darla).  Compared to how our season has been going it was a success.  We finished first in our street stock heat and third in the pro stock heat. 

Brent was moving through the field in the #11 street stock when the car broke (a bolt fell out is what was explained to me).  Oh well.  It was good experience and a lot of fun.

In the pro stock, we finally had a good night. We ran good the whole race and even lead a lap, but were out-motored at the end by Frank Rascon.  We took home second, and some good information for next time.

Up next, we return to Santa Maria Speedway.

Not sure that pass was completely clean

Poor Darla has seen better days

Bad to Worse?

Our race weekend got off to a bad start when we discovered a stuck valve on the 21 before loading the car Saturday morning.  So, no pro stock racing for us this weekend.  Because of this, everyone decided to throw everything we had in with street stock Team 11, Sean Callens.  The night got off to a great start with Sean winning his heat with a car that looked great.  There were over twenty cars and for the main, they inverted the start (starting to notice a theme here?).  With the fast guys at the back, and the, how should we put this, not so fast guys at the front, it wasn't long before disaster struck.  A rollover at the front took out a number of good cars and got a piece of ours.  We managed to come back out a few laps down and we were running cars down.  Another car spun in front of us and drifted up the track and we got a big piece of that.  To summarize, the night ended like this:

 As always, check the links for photo and videos.  The street stock GoPro footage will be particularly entertaining.  We tried a helmet cam this time.

Soon, Team 21 is headed back to Santa Maria Speedway.  I think we need the change of scenery.

Breaking the curse

Well, we didn't get a win, but for the first time in a while, we finished on the lead lap which is better than we've done in a while.  It wasn't smooth sailing by any means, but our guys struggled through to respectable finishes.  Brent Ashurst in the 21 pro stock finished 4th with no power steering, and Sean Callens in the 11 street stock finished 5th with no rear brakes.


In other news, it's been a hard week for my equipment as well.  Early last week, my computer crashed taking all of our videos with it (thank goodness for youtube).  I just bought a replacement for one of the GoPro camera which broke a couple of months ago, so I was anxious to get both GoPros (we try to run two--either front and rear mount or one on each car) to start building my video collection again.

 Instead, this happened:

Luckily, it's just the lens cover that was shattered.  A few replacement parts, and we're back in business.

We'll be back in a few weeks.  In the meantime, we've put the hard work in, now we're still searching for that last little bit of good luck.

We need a lucky charm

Well, both cars (the #11 street stock and the #21 pro stock) were about the best they've ever been last night.  They ran great, the drivers were happy, the track was nice, but there was a whole lot of aggression being taken out last night.  Dirt track drivers don't handle a two month break in the action well.  No major incidents, but both cars went home a little worse for wear.

The 21 of Brent Ashurst was looking good with more of the graphics done. Unfortunately, some over driving (by others) knocked the nose off.  It's mostly cosmetic though .  A new bumper and reattached nose and we're good. 

Sean Callens' 11 is a little more banged up after his wall ride. 

Screen capture of the fun part

We're looking into some lucky charms.  A few four leaf clovers and rabbit's feet can't hurt at this point. 

As always, check out the videos if you'd like to see the demolition derby disguised as a stock car race from this weekend.

Man, we had this one!

Yeah, that's what everyone says at the track.  We returned to Cocopah Speedway with a brand new body and a newly tuned engine (thanks to Kracker Diesel Service/Kracker Racing Engines).  The car looked great, ran great, and felt great.  Unfortunately, during the main, contact with another car resulted in a flat.  With a short main of only 15 laps, there wasn't enough time to get back out there.  However, we left feeling pretty good about the car's performance. 

The graphics aren't quite done yet, but the car still looked pretty clean.

Good things to come...

Just Like New

We didn't quite manage to get everything back in place for the first race of 2012 at Cocopah Speedway, but we plan on being there for the next one. 

We're hoping for good things in 2012!

Preview of work in progress