Budzo Racing Notches First Top-5 Finishes of 2014

After salvaging an 11th place finish on opening night at Luxemburg Speedway, we looked to build upon a good start to our 2014 season. Cold weather forced Luxemburg Speedway officials to make a business decision and cancel the scheduled races this past Friday night. With that, we decided to head south and race at Manitowoc County Expo Speedway’s opener.

After finishing 4th in the heat race, the dice roll put us in a favorable starting position for the feature. I started the feature 3rd on the grid, but quickly realized our setup was not going to put us in a position for a good finish. Unable to enter the corner without much momentum, I maintained my position for most of the race inside the top 10. When the checkers flew, I was happy to come home with an 8th place finish.

During the races on Friday, we discovered our MSD rev limiter box to be malfunctioning, causing the box to limit our RPMs at sporadic times. Also, we discovered our tire pressure gauge was giving inaccurate readings. Both factored into the poor handling of our car at Manitowoc.

Having diagnosed these issues, we made the trip up to Thunderhill Raceway on Saturday night for their season opener. After finishing 2nd in the heat race, a bad re-draw put us in the last row of the 10 car feature. I was able to navigate my way through the pack up to the 4th position, however by that time the front 3 cars had pulled away. We were very pleased to have a good handling car again and wind up with a 4th place finish.

On Sunday, we decided to try our luck at Seymour Speedway. Starting in the 7th position in the heat race, I was able to work my way into an invert spot for the feature by finishing in the 4th spot.

Starting 9th in the feature, I waited patiently for an opening to shoot up to the high groove. The wait was a little longer than I would have liked, but once I had my momentum built up I was able to start picking off cars one by one. A late race battle ensued with Bruce Belland, as I had to work the middle groove between him and a lapped car. Coming to the finish, I was able to get just enough bite off the top to nip him at the line for a 5th place finish.

On the whole, it was a very successful weekend for us. Our plan is to run Luxemburg Speedway this coming Friday and Thunderhill Raceway on Saturday. 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.