HayWire Racing’s BLOG

A bit late on the race review, but here you go. It was a holiday weekend after all.

Last weekend was Donny’s first two-day show as well as his first 100lap feature event in the 4th Annual Dennis Smitham Memorial. After some early practice times showed we were not very fast we began looking at any adjustments we could make. We put Tommy in the #29 car for one practice session to gain some insight into what the car was doing on the track. Once we made some adjustments and Tomymfelt it was worthhanding back to Donny, Donny climbed back in to just log laps and become more familiar with the car and what he was feeling.

The 25lap qualifier race held on Saturday found us on the outside looking in. We set our sights on the last chance consolation race as our hope of making the show. Sunday morning found some cars leaving and not rejoining the event, thus we were informed that there would be no last change race and we were indeed in the show. This was good news to us and one less thing to worry about.

Starting in the last row, Donny chose to just stay out of trouble and ride this one out to gain some much needed experience. His strategy proved to be a good one as many cars were tore up in some very large wrecks. In the end, Donny came home in the 10th position, grabbing his first top10 in a 100lap feature and coming out of this one with a solid finish we can all be proud of.

We have this coming weekend off before we return to the track for the final points race of the season on the 18th. Donny currently sits 10th in the point standings. I’m not sure we can improve on that much, but the goal is to stay there, which I feel pretty confident we can do. The plan this weekend will be to do a little work to the #29 car and some work on the new shop out at Tommy’s place.

Stay tuned for more news and updates. . .

We seem to be stuck in a rut right now, but there just isn’t much going on. . .

Donny will be returning to the track with the #29 car this weekend for the “Dennis Smitham Memorial 100″, the biggest Street Stock race of the year. We are all looking forward to this one. With what looks like well over 25 cars, this one will get pretty serious as we try to get Donny in the show. This is scheduled as a two day show with the qualifiers on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

After that, the schedule really winds down with only a single race left for Donny and the #29 car. Other news with the team is pretty low key. The new shop is close to finished. We still need to get electrical work done and let the concrete cure before we can move in. In the mean time, the #68 car still waits in the trailer and the #92 car still waits in Tommy’s garage. So close, yet still so far away. Again, huge thanks to Tommy for dealing with all the stress this shop has been to bring us all under one roof.

As we look toward next year (yes, some of us are already doing that :wink: ), I want to mention that we are always looking for dedicated volunteers to help with the cars. If you are interested and have some mechanical ability, give us a shout. We generally spend about every Saturday during race season either racing or preparing for a race and about every other Saturday during the “off season”, give or take a week here or there. As it stands right now, we are looking at running Southsound Speedway in Tenino, Washington again next year for their weekly racing series’ with the occasional “out of town” event. Schedules will be finalized as the tracks start releasing them and we get a better feel of our team, budget and time. Also, there are occasionally some weekday evenings that are spent under the cars after something bad goes wrong. We could always use an extra hand or two, so if you are a fan who always wanted to be a part of the madness, just let us know and we will see where it goes. Those with some race chassis experience are highly encouraged.

Not much going on right now. We have this week off as Donny is not scheduled to race until the 4th. The guys were planning on doing soem work to the #29 car last weekend, I’ll have to check in on what got done as I was out of town.

Work continues on the new shop over at Tommy’s place. Sounds like it’s getting close to done, or at least closer.

Ok, so I’m a little behind on this one.

Last weekend we headed to the track with Donny driving the #29 Street Stock. We were missing Tommy due to work obligations. Hopefully he made enough money to make it worth it. The car was not so good early on. It seemed like no matter what we tried to throw at it, all it did was get slower. Donny was fighting a very loose car on a very hot and slick track. We kept trying to tighten the car up, but nothing was helping. After a not so good qualifying effort, we ended up undoing everything we had done throughout the day and going in the opposite direction with the adjustments. For some reason, Donny seemed to respond to it a little better.

The heat race found Donny starting on the pole. I gave him a little advice that seemed to help him some. He raced the other front row car fro a lap or two before realizing that he couldn’t run with him and dropping into second place, where he rode out a solid second place finish. We were all very excited to see Donny finally finish one off with a good run and nothing go wrong with the car or anything like that.

The main event was another story. This time Donny would be starting last. After keeping his car out of trouble and driving a good race, Donny came home either 10th or 11th, we realyl aren’t sure yet since the track hasn’t posted the ” offical results”. Either way, it was a solid run, a checkered flag and a good night.

As for the new HayWire Motorsports World Headquarters, I stopped by to check it out earlier this week. The construction is going rather slow and has had a few delays due to material shortages and a questionable labor force. I think they should be done by the end of the week, but we will wait and see. At the rate they are going, it will be more like the end of next week. After they complete the construction, we still have to wait a couple weeks before rolling cars in on the new concrete. It really can’t come soon enough for all of us.

Posting this one a bit early since I have a moment right now. :-/

This weekend will be the next to last points race for Donny in the #29 Street Stock at Southsound Speedway. We are looking to close this season out on a high note. We made some more changes to the car last weekend that we hope are moving in the right direction. The car looks a bit better, hopefully that will show on the track. I’d like to get Donny going a bit better as we near the end of this season. He has had some solid runs, but after that mechanical failure took his first heat race win away we are looking for justice.

I also need to check on the HayWire Racing World Headquarters and see how construction is going. They were suppose to start this week, so I think I’ll make use of this office I work in and get them on their toes. Stay tuned for more news on that topic!

Looking ahead on the calendar (I know, I need to do a few updates there), Donny still has the Dennis Smitham Memorial race and then the final points race before Tommy is planning to take the #29 car to Port Angeles for the Coors Light Twin-50s to cap off the season. That reminds me, I need to make a phone call. . .