Budzo Racing Comes Up Just Short of a Big Payday at Thunderhill Raceway

Photo courtesy of Dan Lewis Photography – www.danlewisphoto.net

With showers forcing a cancellation of Luxemburg Speedway’s scheduled races this past Thursday night, our car was 100% ready for the big $1,500-to-win “topless” sport mod special at Thunderhill Raceway on Friday night.

Using the draw/redraw format for the night, I drew the 3rd starting position for my heat race. Jesse Kroll and Hunter Parsons battled for the lead ahead of me throughout the race, and I would end up finishing in 3rd place.

My redraw chip would put me 8th on the starting grid for the 40-lap feature event. Time constrictions would nix the competition caution that was scheduled for lap 20, so we would be running the race straight through.

At the drop of the green, I was able to follow Scooter Boyea past the inside row of cars to shoot up 5 spots to 3rd in only 2 laps. After an early caution, I used the inside line to move into 2nd place and ran behind Todd Wiese for several laps.

Another caution flag flew, and this time I was able to run right with Wiese on the restart and eventually take over the lead. I led several laps before Boyea started gaining momentum on the outside and passed me with about 13 laps remaining.

A final caution flag flew, and set up a fantastic race to the finish between myself, Boyea and Wiese. I continued to run the bottom with Boyea on the outside and Wiese in the middle. We would run 3-wide for about 4 laps before Wiese would fade back.

I charged back into a narrow lead over Boyea with about 7 laps remaining, and we battled back and forth to the white flag. In the end, Boyea was able to get the better run on the final lap, leaving me to finish in the runner up spot for the 5th time this year.

On Sunday, we went back to Seymour Speedway hoping to try out a few new adjustments for a slick track. Instead, we were greeted with a very wet and greasy track for our heat races. Starting 4th in my heat, Robby Thiel was able to get the jump on the outside front row and gave me the opportunity to jump into 2nd place on the first lap. We would run single file to the checkers, ending up finishing in the 2nd spot.

Starting 8th in the feature, I could tell right away our setup wasn’t going to work well with the track conditions. The car was too tight, and I was unable to run the burm that was built up about ¾ of the way up the track surface. Making matters worse, I lost several spots after moving to the bottom groove and getting knocked into the slime on the frontstretch.

After a caution flag flew, I was able to regain a few of those positions I lost, but couldn’t make any passes on the inside line before the checkered flag flew. Unofficially, I believe we ended up 10th in the feature.

This weekend we will be racing at Luxemburg Speedway on Friday night and Thunderhill Raceway on Saturday night. We still sit in 3rd place in points at Luxemburg and tied for the lead at Thunderhill.

Remember to check out Budzo Racing on the web at budzoracing.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/budzoracing, on Twitter at twitter.com/budzoracing and on YouTube at youtube.com/budzoracing.