Controversial Call Ends Rough Weekend for Budzo Racing

After washouts a week ago at Luxemburg Speedway and Thunderhill Raceway, we wound up heading out to Seymour Speedway with the open motor and found some success in the feature with a 7th place finish.

This weekend, the skies were clear for a return on Friday night to Luxemburg. Unfortunately for us, that was the only good part of the evening. Early on in the heat race, we were involved in an incident, which caused a lot of damage to the right side of our car.

I was able to finish the heat race, but we had wrecked a shock, header, beadlock and the entire side of the body. Also, the chassis had been bent over to the left, but was still raceable for the feature.

From there, things went from bad to worse as the green flag flew and cars made contact in front of me. I avoided those cars, but hit the loose clay in the infield and shot back onto the track and into another car with the right front tire. The contact wrecked almost all of the suspension parts, ending our night prematurely yet again.

After a trip to the frame straightener and another trip to Vlies Custom Race Car Bodies for some fixing, we were all ready to head up to Thunderhill Raceway for their switch to Sunday night racing.

After loading the car, we got the word that rain had moved through around 3:30 and they had cancelled the races. In a quick decision, we unloaded the car and changed rearend gears to head west to Seymour Speedway again.

In our heat race, I started in 6th and quickly shot to the runner-up spot behind Vince Engebregtsen. From there, it was a nice and easy run to the finish, and I was glad the car worked well enough to finish in 2nd.

Starting 6th on the grid for the feature, we felt we made the right adjustments to have a shot at winning our first ever feature at the track. Early on, the top 6 cars were all in a pack, and it was anyone’s guess on who was going to shoot the gap to take control of the field. Lucas Lamberies shot to the point, with Engebretsen in 2nd and myself in 3rd.

A caution came out with about 6 laps in, and I stayed up on the outside of the racetrack in pursuit of Lamberies for the lead. With about 5 laps remaining, I was closing the gap, as Lamberies started to shoot up to the wall on the straights and down to the tires in the corners. With 2 laps remaining, I made my move on the backstretch and shot to the inside in turns 3 & 4, making for an exciting finish for the final lap.

Coming into turn 1, I held my line down by the infield tires as Lamberies lowered his line to my passenger door. We made slight contact, and Lamberies spun in turn 2 as I continued to the backstretch. The caution flag flew, and the track made the decision to put us at fault for the incident, handing Lamberies the win and giving us a last place finish.

We were very disappointed in the outcome at Seymour, but the great thing is our car was deserving of being in the winner’s circle after a couple of rough weeks on the track. We’re still proud to be on top of the standings at Thunderhill Raceway, and we hope to be back in victory lane sooner rather than later.

The calls we received and outpouring of messages on social media after Sunday’s race showed how lucky we are as a team to have awesome fans and supporters on and off the racetrack. We’ll continue to work hard and do things the right way, hoping that our bad luck is out of the way for the rest of the season.

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