We are often asked, “Why do you race?” Honestly, that’s a great question.
For Dad and me, it’s the challenge that comes with each race. It’s the unknowns that pop up throughout the night and figuring out how to overcome them. Sunday, September 6 with the Modified Racing Series at Claremont Motorsports Park was a perfect example.
Over the last few races, we’ve really started building our notebook and establishing a direction we want to take with the car. We’ve raced at Claremont, the track most of us still call Claremont Speedway, quite a bit, but unfortunately we’ve never really shown the speed we know we’re capable of. Based on what we’ve been learning, we were excited to get back to New Hampshire and put our ideas to the test. I felt good about the base setup we brought to the track.
Unfortunately, that feeling didn’t last long.
We unloaded with a car that just wasn’t very good. Older tires certainly don’t help when you’re trying to find speed, and we were definitely fighting that all day. But I could tell right away the car was unstable and simply wasn’t turning the way I needed it to.
Dad and I went back to the drawing board and made some adjustments for the second practice, with even more changes planned afterward. The car improved, but I still needed more. I was struggling with front turn in and overall rotation through the middle of the corner, which was killing my momentum and drive off the turns. We made additional changes heading into the heat race. We pulled the #7 pill, which put us on the outside of the front row, starting second in the third heat race.
When the race started, the leader was determined to hold the top spot. He pushed us up into the wall in Turn 2, but fortunately I was able to keep it straight and avoid any damage. We dropped back to third, but I settled in and started feeling the car out. The top two cars were racing hard, and I knew we didn’t have anything for them at that point. I rode around in third, saved my tires, and focused on learning what the car was telling me. We were still fighting the same issue from practice: the car was tight through the center and wouldn’t rotate enough, which continued to hurt our drive off the corner.
Finishing third in the heat put us ninth on the grid for the feature. Our goal was simple: stay in the top 10 through the first half of the race and then start moving forward. Unfortunately, during the pace laps I noticed a major problem. I was losing power steering. At that point, it became a matter of hanging on, seeing how long the system would last, and giving it everything I had. The car fired off a little on the loose side, but it was still better than it had been all day. The power steering completely went away when the green flag dropped. From there, it was all about managing my tires, the car, and honestly, my own strength. We got into a long 50-lap green-flag run, and while we slipped back a few spots, we never gave up. We kept fighting and eventually got a caution with just over 20 laps remaining.
We came down pit road, made a small adjustment, and got ready to battle for the final stretch. We were right there fighting for a top-10 finish, but unfortunately the right rear tire had simply given up. At a technical place like Claremont, I could only drive the car in so hard without power steering in order to get it to rotate. We fought hard with what we had, but when the checkered flag flew, we came home 14th.
So why do we race? For nights like these. For the nights that we hope are coming. We race because you never know what is going to happen. One week we’re at Oxford fighting all night and bringing home a sixth-place finish. The next week we’re at Claremont battling setup issues and then losing power steering. You leave the track thinking about what went wrong, what went right, and how you can make yourself better the next time out. That’s why we race. It’s the constant drive to learn, improve, compete, and never quit.
None of this would be possible for DDR Motorsports without the support of NH Oil Undercoating, P1 Web Development, Reed Properties, West Street Auto Body, my parents, and our entire crew: Timmy, Nick, David, and Robert. We can’t thank all of you enough for your continued support.
So what’s next for us? I have a business trip and a personal trip coming up, which means we’ll unfortunately miss the next race. However, our focus is already on September 27th at Oxford Plains Speedway. We learned a lot the last time we were there, already have some ideas we want to try, and we’re ready to get back after it in pursuit of a top-five finish
