I Woke Up With a Dominator in My Trunk!!!!

When I was in my twenties, I may have stayed out a little too late now and then.  Sometimes I didn't make it home until the early hours of the morning and I knew the next morning was going to be rough, but it all seemed worth it at the time.  On occasion, the details would be a little foggy, like trying to figure out how I ended up with two sombreros and only one shoe, then being thankful that I still had eight dollars in my pocket so I could still grab breakfast.

Last night at Dukes Proscale Raceplex was a little like that without the hangover and foggy memory, and instead of a couple of sombreros, somehow I ended up with a Dominator in my trunk when I woke up.  The racing was done at 1:00 am which is respectable for Dukes.   The track really doesn't get tacky and good until the sun sets and Andrew does a good job of keeping the show moving without rushing the racers.  That still puts me home at close to three o'clock in the morning which is something that gets tougher and tougher every year.  I wouldn't do it anymore to go out drinking, but somehow it still seems to be completely worth it to race under the lights at Fruitport.

There was a good turnout at Dukes.  I'm guessing it was something 30 some entries in four classes (Dominators, 2WD LM, Sprint, and 10.5 4WD).  Dominators and and late models went two full heats deep and were combined for the mains, which is cool to watch.  I always think there should be a lot more people out RC racing.  I know that there are at least 75 dirt oval RC cars in West Michigan (besides the ones Duke and Randy own).  Duke also gets a fairly good sized crowd of spectators which is kind of cool too.

Several RC racers came up out of southern Michigan to race Dominators at the Raceplex.  It was kind of nice to see some new faces come out and race up at Dukes and they were great guys.  Hopefully, they had a good time and will think about coming back (maybe for the State Championships?).

The racing was good. The weather was  great.  Duke had dogs on the grill, the whole nine yards.  The bite on the track really didn't come up until the second round so the first round was really just a test to see who could feather their throttle the softest to stay on the track.  It was still fun, but for sure, no TQ was going to be set in that round.

Not that I have a ton of wisdom, but if I were to share anything about my strategy for Duke's it's that you don't work on your car during the day or even after the first heat.  The track is nothing like it's going to be at the end of the night so why chase the track when you know it's going to come to you later?  Easier said than done for sure.

After the second heat, I dialed on my LM a little bit to try to get rid of a really loose exit and it came back to bite me.  My car was so tight in the third heat when the bite came up that I scrubbed a ton of speed off of my lap times.  Just wish I would learn to follow my own advice.  I still had a good time battling Steve Bahr as we were pretty close in lap times.

2WD Late Model can be an extremely competitive class, but it's also pretty easy to get into.  All different types of equipment are competitive out there.  Last night, there was a 20 year old CW car, B4 conversions, CW Rockets, SE3's, Kranzels and whatever you would call that car that Jason (Team Ductape) car put together, all within a lap or so of each other.  Dirt is the great equalizer.

My sprint car was fast like it has been at Dukes lately, but problems with my servo kept me from really seeing how competitive I could make it.  That will be fixed for my next time out.  When there's a good turnout for Sprint cars, there's nothing like racing them.

The mains were crazy.  I'm sure a couple of people weren't real happy that there were going to be 8 or 9 cars in the field.  Me, I love that stuff.  It doesn't always work out.  You get caught up in other people's and it's less likely that you're going to be setting your personal best, but hey, that's what racing is all about if you ask me.  It's not always about the fastest car or even the most talented driver.  There's  a good bit of luck involved in that as well.  It's just plain fun to get a bunch of cars going around the track really fast to see how it works out.  In the main, even though there were a few wrecks, the top three were all within 5 or 6 seconds of each other.

The Dominators looked really fun out there.  They ran an 8 car main in 13.5 blinky that looked like a riot. Somehow, I ended up with one.  I'm not entirely sure why at this point.  I really enjoy 2WD LM and Sprint so I really didn't need another class.   Maybe I'll run it down at Stateline since they don't always get as many 2WD LM's there.   It seemed like a good idea at the time :)

I'll be travelling next week so I'm not sure that I'll be posting unless I can sneak some racing in.  I hear that Muskegon is a great place to camp and my daughter has never been to Michigan Adventure.  As long as my wife doesn't read this blog, it might fly.