Finally Back on Track!!!!
For those who have been following along, the last year and a half of racing has had a lot of downs and not a ton of laps. Finally, last year we got a motor that allowed us to make laps and finish races.
Fast forward to 2026 — we had a brand-new motor built, made changes to the chassis, and got a new shock program. Excitement and anticipation were high to get the season started.
Due to not being 100% confident and ready, we elected to skip our first race and go practice at Star Speedway. We had a really solid day, got laps in, and were able to work through a few bugs that, if they had happened on race day, may not have been solved 100%.
This got us even more excited for our first race, which was June 12th at Lee Speedway. The goal was to get every lap in, fine-tune the car, and see what we had. If you don’t have race laps, you can only fine-tune the car so much. We fired off really well in the first practice. We were a little loose off, but flirting with the top five in practice.
We made a few small changes for the second practice, and the car felt better but went significantly slower. Unfortunately, in the third practice, what was going wrong really showed its hand, and I pulled off just a few laps into the session. After some investigation, we thought oil was leaking onto the clutch and causing it to slip.
The decision was made not to risk further damage. We skipped the heat race, planned to run a few laps in the feature, and then pull off. After just a few laps in the feature, I could feel it getting much worse and pulled off after only five laps. Later in the garage, we found that the clutch had additional issues and simply wasn’t right.
It was a frustrating day because we seemed to have decent speed, but at least we didn’t cause any further damage.
Now the focus shifted completely to Claremont. We changed the clutch, went through the car, and got everything ready to make laps. The goal was simple: complete every lap, bring the car home in one piece, and finish the race.
Claremont is a fun track to run. Each corner is different, and it takes a lot of finesse while still charging hard to be fast. We fired off okay in practice. The car felt a little off, but I knew a lot of that was the driver being rusty. Each practice run, we made gains on the car, and I continued getting more comfortable. We were struggling with drive off, but we kept improving the car in the center and knew we could continue making gains.
We had a good draw for the heat race and started on the outside pole. The goal was to fire off strong, settle in, and see where we ended up. We had a strong heat race and didn’t want to burn our stuff up or chase the setup
We fired off strong and settled right into second, but a caution came out before we made it through Turns 1 and 2. We re-racked them and tried again. We got another strong start and settled back into second. We were just a little too snug in the middle and ended up dropping to third early on. We were able to hold on to third, which put us eighth for the feature. We were simply too tight in the middle to move back forward in the heat race.
We made a few adjustments for the feature but wanted to stay focused and not dial ourselves out. The priorities were to finish every lap and continue building a notebook.
We fired off decent and settled into eighth, running there for the first third of the race. Unfortunately, as the race went on, I continued to be tight in the middle and had zero drive off. We ended up getting spun around while avoiding a wreck in the middle portion of the race.
We elected to pit and did improve the car, but by then the right rear tire was used up, and I was mostly along for the ride. I kept the car underneath me for the remainder of the race. We spent a good portion of the event hanging around the top 10, but ultimately came home 13th.
The biggest takeaway was that we finished the race and completed every lap. By the end of the race, I knew we were a little off on balance, but that’s something you can’t learn from only running five or ten laps. Those 77 laps told me a lot and really helped build the notebook.
Dad has already documented everything, and we have a plan for changes before the next race. There was solid speed throughout the day and plenty to build on.
Our next race is July 12th at White Mountain Motorsports Park. The last time we were there, we had speed but suffered a flat tire in the middle of the race and just couldn’t recover from it. We’re looking to continue what we started at Claremont, run every lap, and keep building our notebook. The speed will come.
To close, I have to thank all of my sponsors for making this season possible. Thank you to New Hampshire Oil Undercoating, P1 Web Development, Reed Property Services, West Street Auto Body, and everyone else who helps make this happen.
We’re already looking forward to the next one.
