Kzoolou Wins Late Model A Main!

Be careful what you ask for :)

There are plenty of things to be thankful for this holiday season.  Racing toys on dirt is one of them for me.  Surprisingly, I've gotten out 3 weeks this December to do some racing even with the myriad of holiday events that accompany this season.  

I'm no track schil, but the racing at BFG just keeps getting better and better every time I go.  After the online drama last week, I wasn't sure if I was even going because I enjoy racing, not high drama.  There's a reason that I don't stay home on Saturday nights and watch Real Housewives on DVR.  I was pleasantly surprised that the entire subject was a non-issue.

There were 45ish entries last night and again, that includes several regulars that were not in attendance.  It was the most courteous racing that I've seen from top to bottom in every class all night long. With the exception of the Mod Sprint A Main, none of the heats were a hack fest (I'll get to that one later).

It's nice when guys aren't driving out of their asses trying to push a car harder than it's set up to go and moving over when they can to let faster cars go by.  Part of it, I think is awareness.  When the race director lets drivers know that they aren't racing for position, it makes it easier for racers to move up a little to let them by.  I would never want to hold a guy up that's laps ahead of me.  This ain't NASCAR and there isn't a lucky dog so if you're more than a lap down and slower than the fast guys, you're probably not getting that back in four minutes anyway, so why not let them by?  Anyway, to everyone that showed up last night, thanks for the clean racing.

Ionia was in the house again last night.  Those guys travel nearly as far as I do and probably make it out to race more than I do.  Great bunch of guys and good clean racers too.

My Late Model was hooked up pretty good last night.  Jody and Steve have gone faster in the past, but the car just felt very planted last night. Consistent 3.8-3.9 second laps with none really dipping down too much below that.   With Steve Bahr and Chris Holiday only running Sprint cars, it wasn't an "I beat everybody night", but it was fun to win a Late Model main where I actually won instead of just survived.  I led with this story even though it wasn't really the big news of the night because, what the hell, it's my blog right?

This thing was a rocket ship.

The big story in my mind last night was the track record run that Steve Bahr had in the second heat of  Mod Sprint.  That was the first, truly fast run I've seen at BFG this year.  64 laps and at least one dipping down to 3.345 is pretty impressive.  I heard the lap counter announcing 65 laps, 4.0 at one point in the race.

My Sprint was ok, but not nearly as stable as Bahr's.  I could rip off a couple of 3.7 second laps and might have dipped into the 3.6's, just couldn't hang on to it for a bunch of laps.  The car just dives and hooks somewhere in the corners.   I think I might be spring a little light up front, might have to mess with the wing, just not sure.  I wish I could make it out for practice nights more often.  It's tough to get a good read on your car working through the heats.  Just not enough laps to feel the car, make a change, then re-test.

I might lie, but numbers don't lie

The downside to the new found speed in Sprints was the hack fest of a main that we had.  Six cars started, only 3 or 4 finished.  It was wreck after wreck for the entire race.  Leonard was out front for a good chunk of the race and had a speedy car until his luck ran out and he joined in the wreck fest.  As much as it pains me to admit it, six is probably too many for a mod-sprint main if we're not all within two laps of each other.  There's just no time to react if something goes wrong.  Everyone was a pretty good sport about it.  No one threw a temper tantrum  and if there ever was a run where someone was going to lose it, that was probably it.   I broke my first part in ages, busted my nerf bar on the side of the sprint and I think Len lost a shock shaft.  A combined $3 fix.  Other than that, no harm, no foul really.   I had the fourth or fifth fastest car and managed second somehow.  I'm not really sure what happened with some of the others.  I know I both delivered and received several hard whacks during the race.   It was ugly.  It happens.  The two Battlefront bucks for second were well worth it :)

No room on the drivers stand for Street Stock mayhem,

The EDM truck class is growing in GR.  There were three full heats of them last night and what has been a pretty hard scrabble class at times was some really clean racing last night.  I don't know and can't speak for everybody, it just seemed like everyone was low key and enjoying themselves even if they weren't having the night on the track that they would have liked.

A full heat of Street Stocks

There are a couple of offroad racers that have started running this class and as predicted, they are running very competitively right from the start.  I think running offroad gives you an advantage driving wise because you are constantly adjusting to the track conditions, which helps when you're trying to dodge traffic on the oval.  If I wasn't already running two classes, I would consider putting one of those things together just to join in the fun.

Street Stocks ran with nine in their heat again.  Not as much carnage as you would expect.  A result of the five second break out no doubt.

I think I saw that Butch Beebe set a new track record in Short Course Late Model.  Someone else will need to confirm that because I was trying to replace my dog bones when that was announced.  If bodies weren't so expensive, that would be a great class for people to run.  Those things are indestructable, and believe me, it looks like they're trying some nights.

The newly minted 21.5 class did not run last night.  I want to hedge my bets and say that I'm both for and against it.  I'm not a fan of having more classes in general, I think it increases the likelyhood that the top and bottom of a heat are going to be running at completely different speeds.  In general, less classes=better racing because the heats sort themselves to have similar speeds run together.  In a class with 3 cars, one will be fast, one ok, and one out to lunch.  As a consequence, they aren't really racing.  They're just running together.

There does seem to be some interest in 21.5 though and the speeds may be more to some racers liking so I hope it gives them what they were looking for.  If they are expecting it to be more competitive, I'm a little skeptical.  One thing I have learned in the years that I've been doing this is that the fast guys are going to be the fast guys.  If Jody Flipse puts a 21.5 in his Late Model, there's a good chance he's going to be 3 laps up on the field regardless.  If it takes off, great.  If it doesn't, I just hope that it doesn't cost racers more money having to go out and buy a new motor to run the class (see Mini Sprint class) and then have it not run week in and week out.

Offroad racer Isaak took some awesome action shots of the racing last night.  I can't get those kind of pics from my phone. I don't know if he reads this blog.  If you do Isaak, thanks a million for sending me the picture of the number 70 Kzoolou Late Model pulling through turn three at BFG.  It's going to be my new background on my computer.

From here, I turn my attention to getting my cars ready for the Big O in January.  I'm not expecting it to be a huge race, just a change of pace from the regular grind of racing at the same place every week.  I love the track so I'm really looking forward to it.  Not expecting an A main appearance, just hoping for a good run to put me wherever my speed dictates.

I may be out for one to two more weekends of racing at BFG before then.  I hope so.  I am definitely going to try to make some practice dates to get my stuff ready.  I don't want to get down there and have to rebuild my diffs and replace outdrives as I have had to do in the past.

Later, and oh yeah, have a Happy New Year!!!