29 Car at Kokomo, IN / USAC National Sprint Car Tour of Pennsylvania and Maryland / USAC National Sprint Car “Border Wars XIV” in Ohio / Indiana
Hello from the Road!
So here I am writing you as I travel to Knoxville, IA for two nights of racing for the USAC National Midget Series. I thought we were busy earlier this season in my last OTB, but this has gone to another level! With all of the racing throughout the Midwest and east coast at this time of the year, we are trying to get to all of them I think. This is great because, the more seat time I get at various tracks and in various series, the quicker I learn. As I have mentioned in the past we are focused on both the USAC National Sprint and Midget Series National point standings. However, there are both pavement and dirt tracks all over the area that race under various sanctioning bodies every week that offer tremendous competition. A great example for us has been at the Sunday night local races at Kokomo, IN.
Kokomo Speedway is a ¼ mile dirt oval that due to a good prize money package has become a place to race for many of us on Sundays. By us, I mean many of the guys that I race in USAC. However, instead of racing for our big teams like I do with Keith Kunz Motorsports in USAC, we race our own cars or for local owners. For me, I have my “house car” #29. When I say “house car”, that is exactly what it is. We have a small shop at the house in Indiana where my mom and I live. I work down at Keith Kunz’s shop two or three days a week and the other days I work in my shop. My friend Chuck Gurney Jr. and I spend about three nights a week preparing the 29 car for the Sunday night racing. We both have learned a lot more about the technical side of the sport by working on the “house” 29. It helps me not only in my own car but when I drive for different car owners. I can take apart and rebuild everything on the car. I think this is important because when I look at guys like Sprint Cup drivers Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers, they all worked on their own cars when they were younger. To me it it’s a great way to understand how a car works. Besides, I love working on race cars. Now at the track we have definitely been able to take what I have learned and get better results each week. In our first race we showed up and finished eighth out of 22. This car was a brand new car and is a different chassis than I drive for KKM. We have been working to figure out set ups that will work with the car. When you drive on dirt, the track is always changing so you have to be right on for set up. We had a couple of races where we were off, but we worked together to figure it out. We rebounded pretty well, and we won with more than 30 cars at the track! The next race we finished fifth after getting spun and restarting in 20th! Last week was a rainout (and by that I mean a rain, sleet, hail, almost tornado out!).
Now for our USAC program, we have been super busy also. We went on the Pennsylvania Tour, a set of races on the east coast. To begin we were scheduled to race at Grand View and Williams Grove Speedway. However, unlike California where I am from, the weather plays a huge factor. People out here say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes.” The weather gets in the way sometimes, but there is nothing you can do about it so you find things to do on the road. Usually my teammate Darren and I will work out in the hotel gym, do some on-line racing, MySpace, ps2 or my favorite, find the nearest indoor karting center where we can race! Once we do get to race it’s definitely worth the wait! Friday night we raced at Big Diamond Raceway. We unloaded fast, and we qualified fifth. It is good to qualify up front because it means that if you can make the feature race, you will get to start near the front. And while you can go from the back to the front sometimes, it is tough to do. In the heat race we started eighth and moved up quickly to finish second. This took us into the main. We started second next to Dave Darland and I quickly found my way past Dave to take the lead. From there we just began to click off laps until lap 15 of the 30 lap feature when a caution came out. While we were in the lead, point leader Levi Jones from Tony Stewart Racing had moved up to 2nd place. For the rest of the race, Levi and I broke away from the pack. Levi tried to find a way past on the last lap, but I was not going to make it easy. We banged a little on the back straight, and I was able to take the checkered flag at the finish. We won! It was cool because I broke a record that night as the youngest winner of a USAC Sprint National dirt event. We got a lot of press from this which was good for us and for USAC. I have to say though everything was a blur. Between all of the cameras and the super-hot trophy girl, I hardly remember anything after I got out of the car. But that’s okay, I hope for more of this type of results if we keep doing our jobs.
The next night it was back to racing. We finished the tour in Hagerstown, MD. Again we came out fast and I was able to post a third in qualifying. We started the main in fourth and again moved into the lead of the race. Chad and I had a great race, we exchanged the lead a couple of times and I tried different grooves to get past him, but with the hooked up track the top line was working and I finished 2nd. For the team, this meant we left the east coast in the point lead. This was really great news for Keith Kunz Motorsports and for me. A point lead means that as a team and a driver we are making the right calls to not just win on occasion, but also finish up front.
After a race at Kokomo and a couple of days at the shop, we moved on to “Border Wars XIV”. This is a mini tour for USAC that was scheduled for three nights of racing between Ohio and Indiana tracks. We started in Winchester, IN at the Winchester Speedway. For my team, Keith Kunz Motorsports came in with a target on us for sure. KKM won the last three USAC National Sprint Car events held at Winchester. Therefore, we had to uphold the tradition. On top of that, Winchester is the fastest, most hard core paved oval on the circuit. If you can run up front here, you are doing something good both as a team and driver. We came out and showed the field we were ready. The three KKM cars qualified first, fourth, and fifth. It was cool to look up at the leader board and see all three 67 cars in the top 5. The fast way around Winchester is to run right next to the fence on the top line, that’s where we ran. With 7 to go, I was in the lead and my teammate Darren, was in 2nd. We were both good, but my car was just a little loose and Darren got past me. We ended the race in first and second! When things are going right, they have a way of continuing. That’s momentum and it comes from not just driving fast but everyone working together. We are lucky, we have great chemistry as a team and this helps us a lot in our results.
Race two at the Shady Bowl was rained out, so off we went to Eldora Speedway. This is another legendary track that takes a lot of guts to run up front. It is a dirt track that is high banked. Tony Stewart liked this track so much that he bought it! We came out and struggled in qualifying. Part of running good at Eldora is being confident to run certain places on the track. We qualified 21st. However, as the night moved on, I grew in confidence. Keith gave me some tips and we moved from 20th to finish eighth. Now that I am more comfortable there, I look forward to coming back and attacking for the win! Plus my two night results made me the winner of “Border Wars” championship. That’s cool, because it’s another mark that we are running strong every night. We now have a 19 point lead in the points. Unfortunately due to age restrictions, I am not able to run the next sprint car race at Richmond. It really bums me out, because I know we could be fast, and I would love to run at Richmond. But rules are rules, I guess. We will just try to pick up the momentum where we left off and head into Sprint Week strong and confident.
Well like I said my mom, my friend Kyle, my teammate Darren, KKM, and I are on our way to Knoxville, IA for two nights at the USAC Knoxville Midget Nationals. I’ll be checking in soon!
Till next time….
Cole