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| OPENING DAY (MARCH 31, 2007) |
Opening Day 2007 for the LeftTurn Motorsports team turned out to be pretty positive in
spite of the adversity faced by many teams on Saturday. First of all, I would like to thank
everyone that helped us out during the day; Carl Johnson, the Tuey gang, the Hays
brothers (I might have to take the "11" off the car now), Don Weber, Dave Gassett (the
senior), as well as whomever else I could steal for a moment.
The day started off pretty rough for the entire group with nothing but mayhem in the first
practice session - a blown up motor, brake problems, and I had a coolant line disconnect
from the water pump while just sitting. Fortunately, we were able to repair the line issue
with minimum trouble and move on to better things.
In the second session the car was working pretty good with the newly installed nose wings
(yes I finally gave in, and they do look pretty cool - I think they might even do something),
as well as the updated braking system - wow, what a difference. We were running some
pretty decent times and the car felt like it could go wherever it was pointed.
Since there were so many classes at the track on Saturday we were allowed only 2 practice
sessions, and next up was qualifying. After trying to loop the car during the warmup lap,
we went on to qualify 3rd with a 13.643 - almost .500 faster than we ever qualified last
year. We did notice though that the car was getting pretty loose coming out, so a few
adjustment were made in preparation for the Trophy Dash.
The dash was lined up in qualifying order - Lance Tatro (13.211), David Tuey (13.317),
Lance Jackson (13.643) and Kenny White (13.732). Tatro and Tuey zoomed off and I
decided to take the 4 laps and see if we had made a difference with our adjustments. The
changes were OK, but not enough so at least we had a plan for the Main Event. The Dash
ended with Tatro, Tuey, White, and us.
Going into the Main Event we made a few more adjustments to tighten the car, but didn't
go nearly far enough. The car got a little better after the first ten laps and we started
making up a little ground on the 78 of Dave Gassett while Tatro and Tuey disappeared,
followed by White. Then Gassett's motor let go in a big ball of smoke and steam on lap 22 -
the good news is that David managed to keep it out of the wall and anything else. After our
tires cooled off during the yellow and red flags, the car was really tough coming out of the
turns. After two or three saves during the next few laps, I missed one and ended up
spinning the car coming out of turn 4 with three to go - I asked Tuey afterwards how many
chances I was supposed to give him to pass Tatro....LOLOL One thing for sure - I will
never, ever forget the move I saw Dave pull on the last restart - I think he was in front of
Tatro before we got to the middle of Turn 3... and the start stayed green!
Anyway, the finish was Lance Tatro, Dave Tuey, Kenny White, Lance Jackson, and Dave
Gassett. Good luck to Dave G., Hays, and Thompson in getting their motor stuff squared
away - remember if anybody needs anything we need to communicate.
Also, if anybody out there is interested in working on race cars, is willing to learn, and will
work for essentially nothing except fun and food and pit-passes, drop me an email
THANK YOU TO ALL THE FANS!
Lance Jackson
spite of the adversity faced by many teams on Saturday. First of all, I would like to thank
everyone that helped us out during the day; Carl Johnson, the Tuey gang, the Hays
brothers (I might have to take the "11" off the car now), Don Weber, Dave Gassett (the
senior), as well as whomever else I could steal for a moment.
The day started off pretty rough for the entire group with nothing but mayhem in the first
practice session - a blown up motor, brake problems, and I had a coolant line disconnect
from the water pump while just sitting. Fortunately, we were able to repair the line issue
with minimum trouble and move on to better things.
In the second session the car was working pretty good with the newly installed nose wings
(yes I finally gave in, and they do look pretty cool - I think they might even do something),
as well as the updated braking system - wow, what a difference. We were running some
pretty decent times and the car felt like it could go wherever it was pointed.
Since there were so many classes at the track on Saturday we were allowed only 2 practice
sessions, and next up was qualifying. After trying to loop the car during the warmup lap,
we went on to qualify 3rd with a 13.643 - almost .500 faster than we ever qualified last
year. We did notice though that the car was getting pretty loose coming out, so a few
adjustment were made in preparation for the Trophy Dash.
The dash was lined up in qualifying order - Lance Tatro (13.211), David Tuey (13.317),
Lance Jackson (13.643) and Kenny White (13.732). Tatro and Tuey zoomed off and I
decided to take the 4 laps and see if we had made a difference with our adjustments. The
changes were OK, but not enough so at least we had a plan for the Main Event. The Dash
ended with Tatro, Tuey, White, and us.
Going into the Main Event we made a few more adjustments to tighten the car, but didn't
go nearly far enough. The car got a little better after the first ten laps and we started
making up a little ground on the 78 of Dave Gassett while Tatro and Tuey disappeared,
followed by White. Then Gassett's motor let go in a big ball of smoke and steam on lap 22 -
the good news is that David managed to keep it out of the wall and anything else. After our
tires cooled off during the yellow and red flags, the car was really tough coming out of the
turns. After two or three saves during the next few laps, I missed one and ended up
spinning the car coming out of turn 4 with three to go - I asked Tuey afterwards how many
chances I was supposed to give him to pass Tatro....LOLOL One thing for sure - I will
never, ever forget the move I saw Dave pull on the last restart - I think he was in front of
Tatro before we got to the middle of Turn 3... and the start stayed green!
Anyway, the finish was Lance Tatro, Dave Tuey, Kenny White, Lance Jackson, and Dave
Gassett. Good luck to Dave G., Hays, and Thompson in getting their motor stuff squared
away - remember if anybody needs anything we need to communicate.
Also, if anybody out there is interested in working on race cars, is willing to learn, and will
work for essentially nothing except fun and food and pit-passes, drop me an email
THANK YOU TO ALL THE FANS!
Lance Jackson
| Lap times and more from Opening Day! |
| The Design contest has been extended to May 8th, 2007 DESIGN CONTEST!!!! OK - Everyone has been commenting on how we need to have some graphics on the hood and nose (and now wings) of the car. Here's your chance to put your design skills to work - there some photos in the Gallery specifically for drawing your ideas on. Submit drawings via email or in person and the winning design gets a Leftturn Motorsports t-shirt! Entries due by April 28th GOOD LUCK!!! |