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. . .

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.

Well, we had a rough night at the track.

First I have to thank my guys for the amazing work they did. I think we had one of the bets practice sessions ever in the final session. We must have made about a dozen changes during that 20 minute session. In the end the car was pretty good. Not amazing, but pretty solid and raceable. I was happy with it and was looking forward to the Main Event.

Our qualifying session was held in a group format with everyone on the track at the same time. Not my prefered method, but what do you do? So in the end I have no idea what time I ran in qualifying since they don’t post it unless you are the fastest time. that is just one of the MANY reasons I don’t like this group format.

The Main Event was going ok for a little while. We started in the back, so I must have been pretty slow in qualifying. I was able to stay with the field, so we couldn’t have been too bad. We had an early caution so I used the “cone” to gain some positions on the high side when we went back to green. When you are way at the back, you might as well roll the dice.  I started developing a brake problem shortly after that and it kept getting worse as the laps went on. Not sure what the deal was, but it wasn’t helping. After tangling with another car I think I knocked the toe out pretty bad. But the car was still running so we soldiered on. A little while later there was a big pile up in turn 2 just as I was setting my car into 1. I heard my spotter tell me “Wreck in two, go high” but I had already set the car in low. When I got on the bakes that issue jumped right up and bit me. The brakes locked up and stayed locked after I took my foot off the pedal. With the brakes locked, the car just slid right into the wreck. It hit pretty hard and tore up the whole front end. That ended our night, and my season.

With only 2 races left, one being too soon to fix the car in time for, we will be forced to just park it and try again next year. This will give us the whole winter to fix the car right and work out a couple other issues we seem to have with it.

Again, I have to thank my team for their hard work and dedication. I wish it had turned out better, they certainly deserved a solid finish. But we will be back with Donny and the #29 Street Stock in two weeks, so we aren’t totally done yet.

Wow, that was a fun night.

We started our race day with a very hot and slick track in early practice. Donny was doing ok though. He continues to get better each week. After a little practice and a few adjustments, we stuck Tommy in the #29 car to get some more feedback. Tommy had the car runnign pretty good, he wasn’t really nay faster than Donny, but he felt the car as more “race-able”. After putting Donny back in it we learned that he likes the car a bit different than Tommy and we had to undo a few things for him to be more comfortable in it. So we learned something there.

Donny started his heat race from the pole and was doing a right fine job of running away with it, when all of a sudden, right after the half way point, the throttle linkage fell off. Donny showed some quick thinking and pulled out of the way before causing any issues, but the race way taken from him rather quickly.

The main event saw Donny starting last. After thinking about the setup, the track conditions and so on, we made some adjustments to the car that ultimately proved to be way off. The track did not change the way we thought it would, in fact, I think it may have gone the other way. In the end, we sent Donny out with a car that was way too loose to drive. In the end, he could not keep it pointed the right way and his night was ended early. Not one of our better calls, but even Jeter misses a fast ball every now and then.

So after a long, hot night, we headed home a bit deflated. But there’s always another race.

It was a very long weekend for me, and from what I understand the guys didn’t fare much better.

I spent my weekend working on the track crew for the NHRA Northwest Nationals, something my wife and her side of the family does every year so this time I joined them. I’ll get to that a bit later since what you really came here for was to find out how the race went, right?

I got some updates from Dad as I checked in all day. Sounds like Donny was looking pretty good in practice and the track was very hot a slick. Our typical thought is to go into a waiting stance and use the heat race to get it dialed in since the track will change a lot and chasing a hot track is of no use when it won’t be hot come race time. The heat race found Donny making a pass for the lead, something I love to hear about, when the leader decided better of it and for what ever reason the end result was Donny going around. Not what we were looking for, but what do can you do? The Main Event saw Donny start on the pole, have some early trouble that put him in the back after a pit stop to modify some damaged body panels and then racing his way back to 10th place for the finish. A top-10 is always good so we’ll hang our hats on that and look to the next race. It sounds like there will be some body work to fix before then but the car and driver seem to be getting better every time.

As for my weekend at the drag races, it was an up and down deal. I spent some time at the end of the track rolling up parachutes and pushing cars, kind of fun, but also tiring when it’s in the 95+ degree heat on a track surface that was pushing 140 degrees at times. I also got to spend some time handing out E.T. Slips after the runs. A lot more fun and less work but the guys who lose can be a bit pissy at times and they tend to direct it at you for some reason. I got to watch some awesome racing from some vantage points I’ve never seen before and I saw some things I never want to see again. There are times when things happen at the track that make you realize what we do is flirt with death on a regular basis. Racing is a dangerous sport. But so is driving to work in the morning. Make sure you spend your days doing what you love. You never know what tomorrow brings.

With that, I think I’ll sign off. Thanks for reading our blog, thanks for cheering for us and thanks for your support. Chat with you all in a day or two.