Thursday Test

We finally got to the track Thursday and got a test in. It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid 80's and sunshine everywhere. We unloaded about 10 am and after baselining the car (weighed the car on scales and checked heights so that we knew where our starting point was) we made our first runs at about 11:30. We worked hard through 3pm and made lots of changes.

My goal for the first test was to shake the car down and make sure nothing fell off of it and that there were no mechanical issues before South Boston. Fortunately for us, we only had one minor oil leak that was fixed by tightening up a fitting that was inadvertantly left loose.

The new engine felt really strong and it pulled really well off of the corner. We took our Laughlin car to the test and it was handling well, but I wanted to make big changes to see how it responded. The result? We took a big step forward in chassis evolution and performance. We're about 2 tenths or maybe 3 better than what we were last July for the race. The car drove well and our times were awesome.

So what does that all mean? I'm not sure. I think we will be pretty good at South Boston. The car should drive well but it will be up to me to fine tune it to make it better for race conditions. Being out on the track by yourself is one thing, but when you have 30 other knuckleheads out there with you, that kinda changes things.

I'll promise one thing, I'll be focused on getting our Kidd Tire/The Works Chevy turning and accelerating off the corners well. I promise we will be giving it our all come Friday and Saturday....