Matt Todd Racing News
Home	November 17, 2009—MTR Year in Review: 2009 was a roller coaster ride for MTR. The season was filled with many highs, including 7 INEX feature wins, and a few lows, including 4 DNFs. Here are just a few of this year’s accomplishments: · 2009 State of Michigan INEX Semi Pro Champion · 3^rd place finish in Semi Pro INEX Raceceiver National Tour points · 7 INEX Semi Pro feature race wins including 2 INEX Raceceiver National Tour races · 6 AVBB Michigan Legends Series feature wins including the 13^th Annual Great Lakes Nationals · Top 10 qualifier and finisher in the Semi Pro A Main race at the Legends Nationals in Georgia · Selected as “2009 Intercomp Race Team of the Year” by INEX and US Legend Cars When the 2009 season started, the goals for MTR were to win a feature race and to finish top 3 in AVBBMLS points. While those goals were certainly accomplished, not winning the Michigan Legends series championship is disappointing. I’m not sure how many times in Michigan Legends Series history someone has won 6 feature races and not won the championship, but I know it’s not more than one or two in 15 years of series history. We’ll be back next year and hopefully we can equal or better this year’s accomplishments. September 13^th, 2009—MTR Picks Up a Third Place Finish at Flat Rock: As the season winds down, we had our final race at Flat Rock Speedway last Saturday night. Flat Rock is a tough track because it’s so fast and the cars are on the edge all the way around the track. My car was pretty good off the trailer, so I was hoping to keep improving my finishing position at Flat Rock after posting a 6^th and 4^th place finish earlier this year. I was fastest in the last practice session of the day which gave me some hope headed into the heat race. I lined up 3rd out of 8 cars in the heat race that was stacked with all the fast cars in the AVBBMLS. I quickly got to 2^nd place and was under pressure from Chance Rice while trying to grab the lead. Rice found his way around me and I followed him into second place as he took the lead on lap 6. I didn’t have anything for Rice and settled for a 2^nd place finish in the heat. I had to start behind the invert again this week at Flat Rock which of course gave me an 11^th place starting spot for the feature. I am really getting tired of the way we start our races—make that 13 out 18 races starting outside the top 5 this year. Rice started ahead of me in 9^th and I was able to follow him through the traffic during the opening laps of the race. It took me about 10 laps to get up to 5^th spot and once I got there I had a large gap to the rest of the top running cars. I whittled away at that gap, but a caution near lap 20 for a blown engine erased the gap. I inherited 4^th place as a result of the blown engine and thought that another one would occur at any lap once we started the race again because the car in front of me was pouring oil all over my car and the race track. I could not see through my face shield there was so much oil on my helmet. During the next caution, I asked the officials to take a look and see who was putting down the oil, but no cars were inspected, only the track surface was inspected. Thankfully after the next restart I was able to dispose of the 3^rd place car and get out from behind all the oil that was being dumped on me and the track. Rice had taken the lead from Tyler Rycenga by this point and those guys had a comfortable cushion on me. I pulled away from the 4^th place car and settled for a 3^rd place finish at the end of the 30 lap feature. 3^rd was my best finish at Flat Rock, so I was happy to give all the great MTR fans who came out to the race a nice podium finish. Thanks to all those great fans who packed the Flat Rock house! It was a standing room only crowd! Our next race is the last race of the AVBBMLS and it will be at Toledo Speedway on October 3^rd. That gives us a nice break until the final race of the season. I am 17 points out of first place, so it will take a miracle for me to have a chance to win the title (if only I had not thrown that temper tantrum at Grand Bend…). The champion will probably have that to thank in the end because that will probably be the difference. Chance Rice is only 3 points behind me for 2^nd place in points, so it will be really tough to hang on to 2^nd. He and I both have 6 feature wins this season. He and I have won 12 of 18 races while 3 other drivers have two wins each. No matter what happens, it’s been a breakout season for MTR. 6 wins is fantastic and really demonstrates how far we’ve come! Come on down to Toledo on the 3^rd and see how this whole thing plays out! We’ll see you at the track!—MT !!!MTR GRABS 6^TH FEATURE WIN OF THE SEASON IN INEX NATIONAL QUALIFIER AT GALESBURG!!! August 22^nd through September 6^th, 2009—MTR Takes 4^th at Flat Rock, Has a Meltdown at Grand Bend, and Grabs 6^th Feature win of the Season in INEX National Qualifier at Galesburg Speedway: It’s been a while since I have been able to update the website. Thanks to everyone who comes and reads the updates and all who have been wondering why the news hasn’t been updated lately. I’ve been really busy traveling for work and with three races in three weeks I’ve been busy racing too. We had a decent run at Flat Rock on August 22^nd. The car was fast in practice, but I never really could get the car racing fast, if that makes sense to anyone out there. We are running so fast at Flat Rock it is really hard to pass and I wasn’t getting off the corners particularly good on that night at Flat Rock. Per usual, I started near the back of the heat race. I had to work harder than I should have to get my way up through the field and wasted a lot of time doing so. I ended up with a 3^rd place finish which equated to another deep in the field start for the feature race—9^th place. We started the race cleanly and I worked the bottom side of the track to get to the 5^th place position. I settled in behind Tyler Rycenga and was following him as he battled the 3^rd place car. We were working through lapped traffic and got badly held up by one of lapped cars. This allowed Levi and Ben Rouster to get to my bumper and suddenly we had a race for 5^th spot. There was a lengthy caution period for a big tangle in turn 2 with only a few laps to go. Flat Rock is one of those tracks with the nonsensical rule of allowing lapped cars to keep their place in line on a restart, instead of moving them to the back and allowing the leaders to race each other and the lapped cars to race each other. On the restart I had in front of me a car who was 3 or more laps down and the car would not yield at all to let myself and Rouster pass on the inside. Both of us had to go by on the outside which killed any chance of us catching 4^th place and kept us from racing each other. With 5 laps to go the 2^nd place car suffered a suspension failure, so I inherited 4^th place and that was where I ended up when the race ended. I had to hold off Rouster the last few laps as my car was giving up a bit and his was strong at the end. I always dread the trip to Canada for several reasons. It’s a long way, you never know what might happen crossing the border with a trailer full of race car stuff, the track is really tight, and it’s hard to actually race there. I was able to win the last time I was there and I am usually pretty fast there, but I just do not like the place. I should have known when my prerace draw landed me 7^th of 7 cars in the first heat race that the night was going to be tough. I worked my way up through the field and finished 3^rd in the heat race which landed me a 6^th place start for the feature. Starting on the outside at Grand Bend is the kiss of death, so my goal was to get to the bottom as soon as I could on the start. I was able to do so and started going towards the front. I was able to get myself up to 4^th place and was ready to challenge for 3^rd when a caution came out on lap 9. On the restart, the leader bunched up the field really bad and his teammate drove into and up and over the back of my car coming out of turn four. Everyone else managed to keep their cars under control during the horrible restart except for the driver behind me. The track threw the caution and had to pull our cars apart. I went back to my 4^th place spot, but the track told me I had to go to the back of the field for being involved in the caution. Already steaming mad from being run over by the driver behind me, this news put me into orbit. Compare this situation to the real world situation of getting rear ended at a red light and having the cop write you a ticket for getting smashed into. I stopped on the track to argue with the officials about this and in the process said some things I shouldn’t have said to the officials regarding their call. I was pleading my case for wanting to get my spot back. Without warning, the track black flagged me and ended my night. I should not have been yelling at the officials, but a warning would have shut me up. Unfortunately, I didn’t get one and suffered a last place finish. After a lot of soul searching and even reluctance to show up at Galesburg, I decided to make the trip and participate in the race on Sunday. This race turned out to be another INEX national qualifying race, similar to the race earlier this year at Angola Motor Speedway. We usually only have one national qualifying race, so I am not sure how we were able to secure another one. I got another poor heat race draw and started 5^th out of 8 cars in the second heat race. I worked my way up to 2^nd place and had a good battle with Ben Rouster for the lead for the last 3 or 4 laps. I wasn’t able to quite get the run I needed off the corners to get by him and finished 2^nd. That race was what I needed—I was able to race with someone I enjoy racing with and I didn’t have to worry about getting crashed or racing with guys with agendas other than winning. I had not been able to do that in quite some time and it was fun. My heat race finish translated into a 6^th place starting spot for the feature. That marks the 5^th race in a row that I have not been able to get a top 5 starting spot for the feature. In fact, I have only started in the top 5 in 5 of 17 feature races this year. While we are at it, I have only started in the top 3 in 5 of 17 heat races this year. I have had to drive my way through the field all year! Starting on the outside of the Galesburg feature wasn’t such a disadvantage. There was a decent amount of grip in the second grove and I was able to make some good ground up during the first few laps. We had an early caution that saw a car get on its roof when the field bunched up in the low groove of the track. Thankfully, the driver was okay. We would have several cautions during the race, but I was able to work my way to the lead by lap 12 or so with Chance Rice in tow. Rice and I separated ourselves from the field and were setting up for a battle when the caution fell on lap 18. There was a lot of oil and dirt on the track as result of an incident and the track spent a lot of time and effort to clean the track up. They did a great job getting the track as good as it could be, but the length of the caution make the track decide to shorten our race to 25 laps. I knew that Rice was going to be all over me and that he’d give me all I could handle. All he needed was for me to make one mistake coming off the corner and the lead was his. Our cars were the fastest in the field and we were pretty even during the race. We had to endure at least one other caution before the race ended, but I was able to hold off Rice to capture my 6^th feature win of the season. After last week’s meltdown, winning this week sure felt really good! The AVBBMLS returns to Flat Rock Speedway this Saturday for our third and final race of the season at the ARCA run facility. I have been able to get to second place in points with the win at Galesburg, and without the Grand Bend meltdown would likely be only a few points out of the lead. We have two races to go try and win the championship. It’s a long shot, but we are going to give it our best shot. This race is also Flat Rock’s last school bus race of the year, so it will be a fun night with a great crowd on hand. We’ll see you at the track—MT August 10^th, 2009—MTR Finishes Third at Spartan and Galesburg Gets Washed Out: The AVBBMLS had its last doubleheader of the year scheduled for this past weekend at Spartan and Galesburg Speedways. The weather in SE Michigan was threatening all weekend. We were just able to get the Spartan race in on Friday, but a huge thunderstorm came through Galesburg right at heat race time and washed out the evening on Sunday. We arrived at Spartan on Friday still feeling good about last week’s performance at ACS. The car needed some fine tuning in practice as Spartan presents some different challenges than ACS. The car was running pretty good and I lined up 3^rd behind Chance Rice in the 2^nd heat race. Rice and I took off on the start and I followed him for 10 laps. I stayed with him the first few, but he pulled away by a few cars over the last couple of laps. Rice is always lightning fast, especially at Spartan, and Friday night was no different. Having to start behind the invert again put me starting at a not too terribly far back 7^th starting spot. I was again behind Rice and I had 2 time AVBBMLS Champion Levi Rouster behind me in 9^th. We had the inside line, so I hoped to follow Rice to the front. It was working out that way as Rice quickly got to fourth and I to fifth place with Rouster in tow. Spartan can be a hard place to pass once the cars get in a line on the bottom and Friday proved no different. The four cars in front of me were going into the dirt in the corners to try and get underneath the cars in front of them coming off the corners. The Spartan Speedway officials had warned us about going into the dirt during the drivers meeting and told us not to force them into black flagging the driver(s) for doing it. The top four were warned on the radio by AVBBMLS officials, but the track threw a caution for dirt on the track and sent Rice to the back for kicking up the dirt. I inherited 4^th based on this and then the 3^rd place car of Bryan Knuckles was black flagged with 8 laps to go for an oil leak. That got me up to third place. My car wasn’t quite as good off the corners as it needed to be to grab second spot. I looked several times, but couldn’t get along side to get the spot, so I had to settle for third place when the checkered flag fell. Spartan Speedway shortened our race by 5 laps because of time constraints. I’m not sure I really understand that since it takes us 1:15 to run 5 laps at that track under green, but nonetheless, our feature was shortened. I could have used those 5 laps to get second place for sure. Congratulations to Tyler Rycenga and his team for taking the feature win. Our next AVBBMLS race is in two weeks at Flat Rock Speedway. I have not had much luck at Flat Rock, so we’ll be looking to have a solid run there this time around. Thanks for checking in and we’ll see you at the track--MT MTR BRINGS HOME THE 13^TH ANNUAL GREAT LAKES NATIONALS 50 LAP RACE WITH ITS 5^TH FEATURE WIN! August 3^rd, 2009—MTR Comes from Deep in the Field to Score 5^th Feature Win of the Year at ACS: The AVBBMLS was scheduled to have another doubleheader weekend this past weekend with races at the dirt track of Owendale Speedway and the asphalt track of Auto City Speedway (ACS). Saturday night’s race at Owendale Speedway was rained out as the evening clouds held a steady rain over the track. That left Sunday’s all important 50 lap, double points 13^th annual Great Lakes Nationals race at ACS. I picked up my first ever feature win at ACS in May, so I was looking for a strong run this time around as well. Bad luck has plagued me this year and I had some more of it a few days before the race. I was at ACS on Thursday before the race practicing with the car to get a feel for the track and find some speed. At the end of the evening, my ignition system went out again, just like at Owosso earlier in the year. I spent much of the next two days trying to figure out what was wrong. I was able to diagnose the problem on Sunday morning as a faulted crank trigger in the ignition system. I did not have a spare, so I had to wait until I got to the track Sunday afternoon to pick up the part and install it. I wasn’t even able to drive the car on the trailer when I left the house! Thankfully, the new part fixed the issue and I was able to get out for practice. The car was a rocketship in practice and it was handling really well. I made one small adjustment to account for the extra laps we’d be racing and I was all set. I drew a terrible number for the heat race and had to start 7^th in the last of 3 heat races. The car was really good and I was able to get to 3^rd by the end of the 8 lap race. Since I won the last feature race at Grand Bend Speedway, I had to start behind the feature race lineup invert which was 11^th out of 21 cars. I would have started 9^th based on my heat finish, so this was not a huge setback and I knew I’d have extra time with 50 laps to try and get as many spots as I could. We started the race with some beating and banging, and we had several cautions within the first 15 or so laps. This played right into my hands as the cautions kept the field bunched up allowing me to pass cars quickly. I was up to the top 5 by lap 10 or so and got to 3^rd place a few laps later. The car was hooking up really well off the corners and I was getting great runs down the straightaways. I got by 2 time series champion Levi Rouster for 2^nd and then was able to get by newcomer Sean McPherson for 1^st on lap 19. Once I got out front I had a good feeling that if the car didn’t give up on me in some way I had a good chance to win the race. The guys running 2^nd through 5^th were battling really hard and this would allow me to pull away from the field. We had 4 cautions between laps 19 and 35, but I was able to pull away on all the restarts. My car usually gets tight near the end of the race, but the adjustment I made in practice took care of that and the car was perfect at the end of the race. With the guys battling hard behind me for the last 15 laps, I was able to pull out to a large lead and pick up the feature win. This win felt like my most complete and convincing win of the season. I have struggled with starting deep in the field and being able to work my way through traffic, even with a faster car. This time I was able to overcome that and work my way through the field to get to the lead. Winning the Great Lakes Nationals event is really special as it is our only 50 lap race and it’s billed as the signature race of the AVBBMLS season. The ignition problem on Thursday was a blessing in disguise and I’m glad it happened then and not during the race like it did at Owosso in June. I can’t imagine my car being any better from start to finish during a race—it was perfect all day. Everything just clicked on Sunday for MTR! Thanks to everyone who helps and supports me on and off the track! The Great Lakes Nationals race pays double points, so I was able to make up some ground in the season long points race. I’m still a long ways out, but at least I am closer than I was before this race. I hope to keep things going this coming weekend for another scheduled double header. We race Friday night at Spartan Speedway and Sunday night at Galesburg Speedway. Hopefully the car will continue to run well and give me an opportunity to finish up front. Thanks for checking in and we’ll see you at the track!—MT MTR PICKS UP ITS 4^TH AUTO VALUE BUMPER TO BUMPER MICHIGAN LEGENDS SERIES FEATURE WIN!! July 19^th, 2009—MTR Starts on the Pole and Never Looks Back at Grand Bend: The AVBBMLS headed to Grand Bend Ontario Canada this past Saturday night for the 2^nd of its 3 scheduled events at the tight 1/5^th mile track. The Grand Bend Speedway caters to small race vehicles, so things can get really tricky when a field of Legends cars get on the track. I’ve always been a little apprehensive about racing there because you have to tip toe your way around the track and the other cars. We had to battle the elements this time as well as a light mist would come and go all throughout the evening. I started 4^th in the first heat race behind Keera Allen and beside Matt Barton. I fell in behind Barton on the start and began to try and work my way up. Barton and I were able to get by Allen, and then I got by Barton with a couple of laps to go. By that time, the leader had checked out, so I had to settle for second place. Just like Spartan a couple of weeks ago, the invert combined with my second place heat finish would land me the pole position for the start of the feature race. The weather would become a major factor leading up to our feature race. The track scheduled us for the last race of the night, but they pulled us ahead in the racing order once a big dark cloud started towards the speedway. We got on the track, but as we did, the light mist turned into a drizzle and we had to get off the track. There is always a good breeze at Grand Bend because it’s right on the water, so the breeze dried the track out in about 30 minutes. The track hurried us back out on to the speedway, but once again just as we got out there, the mist turned to drizzle and we had to pull off the track and wait for the rain to stop and the track to try. It took a little longer for the track to dry this time, but it did dry and the track gave us one more shot to get our race in. This time the rain held off and we were able to get the race started. I got a good start and would slowly pull away from the field for the first 10-15 laps. A caution came out near the middle of the race and that bunched us back up. On the start I pulled away again. Chance Rice had started 5^th and I knew that he’d be the one to challenge me for the top spot, so I tried to get as far ahead as I could so that he would only have a few laps to try and get around me. By the time he got to my back bumper he and I had a big lead on the field. We battled for several laps with Rice looking high and looking low to try and pass. I was able to get good runs off the corner and keep him behind me. Coming to take the white flag, the caution came out again. This would set us up for a green/white/checkered flag finish. Rice is great on restarts, so I knew I had my hands full. I got a good start and kept Rice behind me through turns one and two. Going down the back straight the caution came out again. This time the track ended the race as the Grand Bend Speedway policy is to give the drivers one shot a green/white/checkered finish, just like NASCAR. If a caution comes out again, the race is over. I was really happy to win the race and get a chance to battle with Rice for the win! He’s the guy to beat in our series and any time you can race with him and beat him, you’ve really done something. The Grand Bend Speedway also had a nice, tall trophy for our feature winner and I’d like to thank them for that. A night of apprehension with the track and the weather turned out great! The AVBBMLS gets another week off this weekend, so we’ll get to enjoy this win for two weeks! The next race is on the dirt at Owendale Speedway on Saturday and that is followed by the 13^th annual Great Lakes Nationals race at Auto City Speedway on Sunday afternoon. I’ll be looking to just get through the dirt race and get ready for a strong race at Auto City. If you read this page, you know we had a great run at Auto City back in May, so we’ll be looking to back that up with another strong run this time around. Thanks for checking in and we’ll see you at the track!—MT MTR PICKS UP ITS 3^RD AUTO VALUE BUMPER TO BUMPER MICHIGAN LEGENDS SERIES FEATURE WIN!! July 6^th, 2009—MTR Rebounds with Another Feature Win and Top 5 Finish in Doubleheader Weekend: After a month of June that could not have gotten much worse, MTR got back on track this past weekend with two fantastic runs that included a feature win at Spartan Speedway on Friday night and a fourth place finish at the INEX National Qualifying race at Angola Motor Speedway on Saturday night. The finish at Angola was good enough to guarantee MTR a starting spot at the INEX Legends Nationals event at Lanier Speedway in Braselton, GA in October. Spartan Speedway in Mason, MI has always been a good track for me and this past Friday was no different. The car was fast right off the trailer and only minor adjustments were made during practice. I had a good run in the heat race, but wound up with a third place finish. That finish turned out to be the key to the evening as it put me on the pole position for the start of the feature race after the invert was determined. As we have seen this year in Michigan Legends, the better your starting position, the better your finishing position. I was able to lead every lap in the feature race to take my third feature win of the season. Of course it was not without drama, as I had to endure 4 or 5 race restarts and a broken muffler with two laps to go. The broken muffler was really dramatic as I ran over it when it fell off and the change in the pitch of the engine sound was almost enough break my concentration and give second place a shot at the win. In the end I was able to maintain my lead and take the victory in front of a great crowd at Spartan Speedway. To make things even sweeter, both my parents were on hand for the victory and the track was able to get them down to victory lane for some pictures! That was really special for me to have them there in victory lane and for them to be a part of the victory! I’d like to thank the Spartan Speedway staff for all their efforts to help us during the evening! The win felt like a vindication of sorts after having a terrible weekend last weekend! I really enjoy racing at beautiful Angola Motor Speedway and I was looking forward to having a good race on Saturday night. The Angola race was an INEX National Qualifying race and that means that the top finisher in each Legends division (Young Lions, Semi Pro, Pro, and Masters) gets a guaranteed starting spot at the INEX Legends Nationals event at Lanier Speedway in Braselton, GA in October. There were several fast cars from out of town on hand for this event since this was a national qualifying race. My car was really good in practice and I laid down the fastest lap of the day during the last practice session. I started on the pole for the third heat race and led every lap to take the win. I had to hold off a hard charging Tony Monge who was right on my rear bumper the entire 8 laps. Being the winner of the last feature race, I had to start the feature race behind the invert which ended up being 9^th place. The start of the race was clean, and I began to work my way up through the field. I was able to avoid a nasty on track skirmish right in front of me during the early laps of the race and worked my way up to fourth place behind Chance Rice, Ben Rouster, and Tony Monge. Rice pulled away during the middle of the race and Rouster, Monge and I were glued together. With about 7 laps to go, my car started to get tight and Levi Rouster worked his way to my rear bumper as Ben Rouster and Monge pulled away. Rouster looked inside of me a few times, but I was able to hold him off in the end for a fourth place finish. I was the top finishing car in the Semi Pro division, so I was able to lock up that guaranteed starting spot for the INEX Legends Nationals. I was pretty content with the 4^th place finish and enjoyed the race at Angola. Every time I have won this year, I have had someone from Alabama with me at the track. First it was James at Auto City, then it was my Dad at Owosso and this time it was both my Mom and Dad at Spartan. I guess I am going to have to start buying plane tickets each time we have a race to get someone up here and bring me some good luck! The AVBBMLS has a much deserved and needed weekend off this coming weekend and then the series hits the Grand Bend Speedway in Ontario Canada for the second of three races. I am really glad to have some positive news to report after a few rotten weekends at the track. I hope we can keep the good finishes coming! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you at the track—MT June 30^th, 2009—MTR Endures an Incredibly Rough Month of June: MTR is celebrating this being the last day of June 2009. The last three races have been incredibly difficult for MTR. The national qualifying dirt race at Crystal followed the Flat Rock race. I was optimistic about a good run there since I had a good run there in May, but it was not to be. I never could get a good handle on the Bishop Performance machine that I was driving. I went off the banking in turn 2 in the heat race and finished poorly. I started deep in the field for the feature race and was coming up through the field on Chance Rice’s bumper when I spun out in turn 2 around lap 6. I gathered the car up and kept going, but three laps later I did it again. Unfortunately, I collected Gary Joppich when I spun the second time and he went for a wild ride. Thankfully, Gary was okay, but neither of us was able to continue and I wound up with a 14^th place finish. Eager to put the dirt behind me, I was excited to return to Dixie and Owosso Speedway this past weekend. I had good runs at both tracks the last time we were there in May. The car was hooked up for the feature at Dixie and after starting 7^th, I found myself in 4^th spot by lap 6. I was setting my sights on 3^rd place when my right rear trailing arm bolt broke coming out of turn two. This bolt keeps the rear end housing in place and when it broke the rear end slid back and the driveshaft pulled out at the yoke. I spun out and got tagged in the rear as I spun into the backstretch grass. It was a quick end to a promising night. I ended up with a 15^thplace finish. I had a top 5 car for sure, and likely had a top 2 or 3 car. I was very disappointed, but conceded that mechanical failures will happen. It was the first time in 2.5 seasons of racing that I had had that failure happen to me. I brought the car home from Dixie to get it fixed and ready for Owosso Speedway on Saturday. Once again, the car was fast at Owosso. The track wanted us to qualify to establish a track record for our series, so we did that instead of doing our normal pill draw procedure to determine the heat race starting lineup. Chance Rice and I turned identical fast laps of 17.698 seconds. Chance turned his fast lap on lap one, and I turned mine on lap two, so Rice got the nod as the official fast qualifier. I was optimistic about the night after turning such a fast lap time in qualifying. I had to start at the back of the heat race which contained the top 6 qualifiers. The pole sitter of the heat race got a terrible start and that backed up me and Levi Rouster who started on the inside line in front of me. I wasn’t able to recover from the bad start and had to settle for 5^th in the heat. This put me 12^th for the feature. Only in Michigan Legends can the fastest car in the field have to start 12^th! I worked my way up to 7^th place pretty quickly, but had to run down 6^th place from a straight away behind after having to fight my through the field. I did that and caught 6^th place with about 8 laps to go. I looked inside 6^th place a couple of times but the caution would wave three times in the last 8 laps and I was never able to make a solid charge. The second caution saw 3^rd through 5^th place get tangled up, so I inherited 4^th place with 2 laps to go. Under the caution, my ignition box malfunctioned and my motor was only running on two cylinders. I had to pull over as the field took the green flag with 2 laps to go. I limped around for one lap and then pulled off the track. It was another incredibly disappointing finish. I wound up 14^th when I would have finished 4^th. As you can see, June was not kind to MTR. With finishes of 14^th, 15^th, and 14^th in the last three races, what once was a promising championship run now appears to be over. I was leading the point standings by 18 points after Flat Rock three weeks ago, but am now a whopping 57 points out of first place. It will take first and second place having some bad races for me to have a chance to get back in contention. My car is capable of running up front each week, but that alone won’t get me back in contention for the championship. I can take solace in fact that each week I have the fastest or 2^nd fastest car at the track, but the disappointment of the last three races looms large. Hopefully, July will bring MTR some better luck—it can’t get much worse than the luck we had in June. See you at the track--MT June 15, 2009—MTR finishes a disappointing 6^th place at Flat Rock: Thanks to all the wonderful MTR fans that came out to Flat Rock to support us this weekend. We finished 6^th with a car capable of winning the race. See you at Crystal--MT June 7, 2009—MTR comes homes second in Oh Canada: I headed to Oh Canada solo this past Saturday for the first of three trips to the Grand Bend Speedway for the AVBBMLS. The Grand Bend Speedway is a small track for us, so the racing is close and it’s really hard to pass there. It is strictly a one groove track, and even if you are faster than the guy in front of you by a large margin, it can be difficult to get around. It is not my favorite venue on the circuit so I was just hoping to log a top 5 finish, head back home and get ready for Flat Rock next weekend. My car was really tight during practice. I made some major adjustments but just couldn’t quite get it turning through the center as good as I needed. I lined up 4^th in the second heat race. I battled with John Turnbull Jr. for second for the first few laps a caution on the 2^nd lap. Turnbull raced me really hard. I got alongside him going down the front straight and we almost got together in turn one. If had not locked up my brakes it would have been a big mess. A few laps later I was able to get by, but by that point, Chance Rice had checked out and I settled for a second place finish in the heat race. Since I won the previous feature race at Owosso Speedway, I had to start the feature race in 7^th position behind the invert. This was pretty deep in the 11 car field, but I was glad to be on the inside line. We got a clean start and I tried to stay on Rice’s bumper who started in front of me in 5^th place. We got by a couple of cars, but he made his way to the front quicker than I did. I found myself running fourth behind Rice, and Tony Monge after about 10 laps. Rice was going for the lead and Monge was sticking his nose underneath Rice. I was just sort of hanging back because it was early in the race and I figured something would happen. Rice made slight contact with Monge as Rice came down off of turn 4, and that sent Monge for a spin. I went high to avoid and continued. On the restart, Rice go the lead quickly and I tried to follow him underneath, but I wasn’t able to get the spot. Rice began to open up a small lead when his engine blew on lap 23 heading into turn 1. It is the second time this year that Rice has lost an engine. I feel really bad for him and his team because they have been battling some kind of engine demon and that demon is sure getting the best of them. Rice was okay, but was done for the night. I inherited second place and that was where I finished the race. I was content with finishing second and am glad that I won’t have to start behind the invert next week! It was a decent day for MTR in Oh Canada. We did not get torn up and we logged a second place finish. I am really looking forward to next week’s race at Flat Rock Speedway. I had terrible luck there last year getting crashed by other drivers in the heat races at both events. I don’t think it can get much worse than that! Hopefully the black #8 will be running well and we’ll have a better night this time around. Of course the School Bus Figure 8 race will follow our show as the main event, so that will be fun. There will be a huge crowd and I am looking forward it. Come on down to Flat Rock Speedway this Saturday and we’ll see you at the track!—MT MTR PICKS UP ITS 2^ND AUTO VALUE BUMPER TO BUMPER MICHIGAN LEGENDS SERIES FEATURE WIN!! May 31^st, 2009—MTR takes the checkers at Owosso Speedway; top 5 finish at Dixie Speedway: This past weekend the AVBBMLS had a double header feature weekend with a race Friday at Dixie Speedway and Saturday at Owosso Speedway. My father was in town for this weekend's races, so I was hoping to run well for him while he was here. The car was fast off the trailer at Dixie on Friday night. The 1/3 mile track has gotten really bumpy and rough and it was hard to handle the car getting into turn one. I anticipated that might be a trouble spot for the field and it turns out that it was in my heat race. I started last out of 5 cars in the third heat race. I knew there could be trouble in front of me so I took it easy on the start. On lap three, Roy Nicholson was wrecked going into turn one. I went high and avoided the wreck. I was in second for the restart behind Tyler Rycenga. Rycenga got a good lead on the start, but after a few laps I started closing in on him. I got underneath him coming off two and we raced side by side for two laps. We were both racing hard and we put on a great show. I got by him with the preferred inside line and took the checkered flag. It was good to race hard and clean with Rycenga. Since I won the previous feature race at Auto City Speedway, I had to start behind the drawn invert for the feature race, which ended up being 11^th place. Gary Joppich and Skip Krassa were on the pole and I had a bad feeling that the start of the race could be trouble with a lot of fast cars right behind them. Joppich took Krassa really high going into turn one and everyone made a mad dash to get by Joppich on the inside. That created a huge backup going into turn three with everyone getting hard on the brakes when Krassa tried to get back in line. Nicholson drove over John Warden's left rear tire and barrel rolled his car twice going into turn three. It was a scary wreck, but Nicholson was fine. We had a complete restart. Joppich took Krassa high again going into turn one on the restart and Tony Monge and Jerry Warden made a dash to get inside of Joppich. Warden got his left side tires into the dirt in turn three when Joppich and Krassa came down the track. Warden's car got really upset and bounced back into the track coming off of turn four. Joppich went high to avoid Warden and hit the left rear of Krassa who was still holding on the outside. Krassa spun down in front of Joppich and hit the right rear of Warden. That contact sent Warden hard into the frontstretch wall with the left side of his car. Krassa then spun into Warden's car after it had hit the wall. It was a vicious crash. Warden had to be taken to the hospital for tests. Thankfully he is okay, but he has cracked vertebrae at the top of his back. He'll be out for a while, but he will be okay. After that wreck, everyone calmed down a bit and we were able to get the race started without incident. I was behind 5^th place for several laps as we tried to get by some slower cars that were working their way to the back after having started up front. I was able to get by 5th after we cleared the slow cars, but the slower traffic had set us back a whole straightaway to the next place car. We had a caution with about 7 laps to go and that deficit was eliminated. My car was handling good and I was poised to gain some more spots. Unfortunately, the track insisted on doing one of the dumbest things a track can do—they allowed the lapped cars to start amongst the leaders in the places they had been lapped. This was a huge problem because there were two lapped cars between myself and the next place car of Monge. I was really upset with this call by the track, but the track never did the right thing to get the lapped cars out of the cars running for position. On the restart I had to battle with lapped traffic and that of course gave the 4^th place car of Monge a chance to get away. He did just that, and before we could get by both cars, we had another caution. So of course, the track let the lapped cars line up right in front of me again. On the next restart, the lapped cars caused another wreck in turn three and I had to go low to avoid the wreck. I had to drive through the grass and my tires got really dirty. I wasn't able to get them cleaned off good enough before the start and on the restart with 3 or 4 laps to go, it was like my car was on ice. I had no grip at all and 6^th place was making a run to get the spot back from me I had taken earlier. We raced really hard for the final three laps and I was able to hold him off to come home 5^th. It was a pretty bad race that was filled with cautions. The first few were on us for some of the guys up front being to impatient, but the last round of cautions we had can be blamed squarely on the track for allowing lapped cars to start in the middle of the top five cars. I will never understand the logic behind the tracks decision to do that and would love to hear the thought process that goes into that. I wasn't content with 5^th, but really was just glad that I didn't get wrecked. Chance Rice got out front early and dominated the race. Congrats to him and his team for taking the win at Dixie. We had a light field at Owosso Speedway on Saturday after the carnage at Dixie. We still had the usual top 7 cars that are a threat to win each week. I wasn't sure what to expect at Owosso since I had never been there. It is a nice 3/8ths mile track, and I like those a lot because there is plenty of room to race and we can go really fast. My car was okay off the trailer, and I made a bunch of changes to it in practice. I started 4^th in the second heat race and raced with Levi Rouster and Rycenga. We got in parade formation and ran off the laps quickly. Rycenga made a few runs at Rouster and I made a few runs at Rycenga, but we all stayed in line and Rouster won the heat. I started the feature race in 4^th on the outside of Ben Rouster. Joppich and John Warden were on the front row. We took off on the start and Warden missed a shift on the frontstretch. Everyone had to check up, but we kept the cars straight and made it through turn one and two. Warden was able to get by Joppich in turn four. I squeaked by Joppich in turn two as his car was sliding up the track. I got by Warden a lap later and took off. I knew that Rice was coming and that I had to get as big of a lead as I could before he got to second place. Rice had to start at the back because he was having car trouble in the heat race. By lap 5, Rice had made it all the way to 4^th place. He got by Levi Rouster for 3^rd and by lap 10 had gotten by Rycenga for second. It took him a few laps to catch me and when he did we had five laps to go. I had gotten in a good rhythm and had found a good line. Rice was getting his best run off of turn two, but I was able to hold my car down off the corner and he couldn't get the run off the corner underneath my line. We would stay even down the back stretch and I was getting through turns three and four a little better than he was. He pressured me really hard, but was not able to get his car low enough to get a run on me. I took the white flag and Rice made a last ditch effort to get by me coming off of turn two. His car wiggled and he washed up high coming off of two. I opened up a few car lengths lead on him and that was enough to preserve the victory. I came off turn four and took the checkered flag! I was so excited to hold off Rice. I felt like we were able to have the race we didn't get to have at Auto City two weeks ago. Rice is such a good racer and competitor and it felt good to be able to hold him off and take another feature win. I wasn't really sure how good my car was going to be after the heat race, but I made an adjustment right before the feature that made the car as good as it had been all day. That was good enough to get me out front and get the win. It was also good that we put on a good, caution free, show for the track following our difficult race on Friday night. The fans were pleased and the track was happy with the race we ran. Rycenga, Levi Rouster and Monge rounded out the top 5. I was really happy to get the feature win while my Dad was in town. He and my mom make MTR possible and to get a win while he was here was fantastic. Now the pressure will really be on for me to run well when my Mom is here in July! I never would have thought that I'd get another win so quickly after winning at Auto City two weeks ago. My car has been running really well, and I hope I can keep this good run of winning going for as long as possible. Everyone in the pits was really happy for me and congratulatory after the race and as I mentioned after the Auto City win, that means a lot to me. I want to thank all of the competitors and their families for that! Alison sprinted to the flagstand after the race was over and we got our picture made on the frontstretch. It was awesome to have my real trophy queen with me in victory lane! It was a great night for MTR at Owosso Speedway! Next Saturday the AVBBMLS heads to Oh Canada and Grand Bend Speedway in Grand Bend, Ontario. Grand Bend is a really tight track for us. Last year I had three top five finishes in three races there, so I have had some good runs there. Hopefully, we can keep the black #8 nice and straight and out of trouble over there. Come out and see us in Grand Bend and we'll see you at the track!—MT MTR PICKS UP ITS 1^ST AUTO VALUE BUMPER TO BUMPER MICHIGAN LEGENDS SERIES FEATURE WIN!! May 17^th, 2009—MTR gets it done at Auto City Speedway: The AVBBMLS held its first asphalt race of the season at Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI on Saturday night. The series was scheduled to race at Mid Michigan Speedway on Friday night, but that race was cancelled. The weather started out partly cloudy, but the clouds broke and sunshine and clear skies would dominate the rest of the day. I was glad to have my college roommate James Watkins in town for the race as well. The car was good in practice and I didn't make any changes to the car before the race. I drew another good number for my heat race starting position—I started 2^nd in the third heat on the outside of Dr. Ron Semlow. I got a great start and got out to a big lead on the field. Roy Nicholson broke free from the pack, but I kept a 8 or 10 car length lead on him to take the win in the 8 lap heat. The car was hooked up and the cool conditions were providing great grip at the often tricky Auto City Speedway. I started 3^rd in the feature after the invert was set. Tyler Rycenga was on the pole and Nicholson was on his outside. We got a good clean start and Rycenga and I pulled out to the lead. On lap 3, I got a good run on Rycenga off of turn 2 and I pulled along side him down the backstretch. He gave me plenty of room going into turn 3 and I completed the pass coming off of turn 4. To my surprise, I pulled out to a nice lead on the field over the next few laps. The car was handling good and I had found a good rhythm. We had a caution around lap 10 and that erased the nice lead I had. Defending series champ Chance Rice had worked his way up through the field and a couple of laps after the restart was behind me in 2^nd place. I knew if I was going to win I'd have to beat him, so I stepped my intensity and he and I checked out to a straightaway lead on the field. We were turning some lightning quick laps! I was able to keep him behind me while we raced and, unfortunately, Rice lost an engine entering turn one on lap 19. Fire erupted from the engine of Rice's car and he pulled his car off the ¼ mile track and up on to the ½ mile. Rice was okay, but his night was over. There was a long caution period to clean up the oil and I knew that I had a good chance to win the race with the leads I had developed during the race. I also knew that my car was better on the longer runs and was getting tighter as the race went on. I got a clean start on the restart and Rycenga was right on my bumper. He looked inside of me going into turn 1, but I maintained the lead coming off turn 2. I wasn't able to pull away from the pack because we kept having cautions every 3 laps. We finally had our last restart on lap 27. Again, Rycenga was right on my bumper and he gave me a run going into turn 1 but I was able to hold him off. My car had gotten really tight in the middle of the corners and I wasn't able to get to the gas as fast as I had been earlier in the race. Rycenga made a race out of it, but I held him off those final three laps and took my first feature win in the Michigan Legends Series! Winning the feature race was the one of the happiest moments in my life. I can remember seeing lots of drivers at local short tracks get their first wins as I grew up watching local short track racing. I never would have thought that I'd be out there among them. I have worked so hard over the last two years to learn the car, learn how to drive the car, learn how to race the car, learn how to repair the car, and learn how to setup the car. All that work and learning finally paid off with the win. So many great people have helped me over the past two years and this win is just as much theirs as it is mine. I hope I have made them proud to be a part of Matt Todd Racing and I thank them for all their help. I'd like to thank my wife Alison for all her support and help with MTR and I'd also like to thank my parents for all they have done for me as well. Everyone who races in the Michigan Legends series was very gracious with their support and congratulations after the race and I want to thank them for that. Having the respect of my competitors means a lot to me and I strive to attain and keep that respect each time we race together. The AVBBMLS has a double header weekend planned for May 29^th and 30^th. Friday night we race at Dixie Speedway in Birch Run and Saturday we race at Owosso Speedway in Ovid, MI. I posted the fastest qualifying lap in AVBBMLS history last July at Dixie Speedway, but I haven't had a lot of good finishes at the track. I'll be looking to change that on the heels of this week's victory. Hopefully we can keep this nice streak of winning alive. My father will be here for the doubleheader, so it will be nice to have company at the track again. Come out to the track and see us race. We'll see you there!!!---MT May 10^th, 2009—MTR puts on a good show in the dirt: The AVBBMLS headed to Crystal Motor Speedway on Saturday for the first of its two dirty dates at the central Michigan track. The weather was cloudy and cold, but rain was not a factor for the evening's race. 15 cars showed up for the kickoff of the 2009 season. I was running a car I rented from Bishop Performance. Randy and Scott from that team were kind enough to paint the car black and create some #8 decals for the car, so the car looked a lot like the MTR #8 except the body was a 1934 Ford Sedan, not a 1934 Ford Coupe. I drew a good number for my heat race starting position—I started 2^nd in the first heat on the outside of Gary Joppich. I got a great start and got out to a great lead on the field. Jerry Warden lost his trunk on lap 4 and that brought out the caution flag. That erased my big lead and tightened us all up. I was able to get another good restart and opened up another good lead on the field. With two laps to go, Levi Rouster caught up to me and began to mount a charge. I was able to hold him off and take the heat race win. The car felt really good and it was hooking up good off the corners and down Crystal's long straightaways. I drew the invert pill for the feature race and luckily drew a B which translates to a 4 car invert. Jake Dunsmore decided to start at the rear of the field and so that moved me to the 3^rd starting position for the feature. I really didn't know what to expect at the start of the feature. The Sloan guys from Ohio were starting on the outside of me in 2^nd and 4^th. On the first lap, I lost some momentum off of turn two, but was able to recover and slide in line in 4^th place. I made quick work of one of the Sloan guys and started working on Levi Rouster for 2^nd. I was able to get by Rouster and I started working on the other Sloan who was leading. I was faster than he was, but he was making his car awfully wide and I even got into him twice when he ran me down the track and up the track. Not being able to dispose of him enabled Chance Rice and Rouster to stay glued to my bumper. Rice got by me and tried to work on Sloan. Rice was unable to get by and the three of us were all jockeying for the lead. It was a heck of a battle! There was a caution on lap 19 and on the ensuing restart I made a big mistake by trying to anticipate the start. Sloan brought the field down slow as Christmas and I hit the gas at the exit of turn 4. The only problem was that he and Rice had not gone yet. I had to duck low avoid hitting Rice and then slow down to avoid getting black flagged. That enabled John Turnbull Jr. and Warden to get by me when we got down to turns 1 and 2. I spent the next few laps working on Warden and went high on him going into 1 to get a run around him on the high side. His car came up the track and I hopped over his right rear wheel. It popped my car up into the air and I went up and over the turn 1 banking. Luckily, it was really soft on the other side of the banking. I was able to keep going and I got back on the track. Unfortunately, I had lost one more spot and I had to finish the race in 6^th position. I feel like I threw a good finish away, but I am glad I was able to battle up front with Rice, Rouster and Sloan. It was a lot of fun racing with those guys. I had a great car and I feel like if I had been able to get by Sloan early, the race could have been mine to win. That move I made on the restart with 10 to go was not smart and it really cost me a top 3 finish. I’ll learn from it and know better next time. Thanks to Bishop Performance for providing me with an excellent car to race—it was the best car I have ever had on a dirt track. I wish I could have brought those guys a podium finish. Congratulations to Rice and his team for picking up the win. Rice got by Sloan on the last corner of the last lap. Next week is the first doubleheader weekend for the AVBBMLS. Friday night's race is at Mid Michigan Speedway (formerly Springport Speedway) in Springport, MI and Saturday night's race is at Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI. My college roommate James Watkins is flying in for the doubleheader, so it will be great to have him here for the races. We'll see you at the track—MT May 4^th, 2009—MTR kicks off the 2009 campaign with a win: The Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Michigan Legends Series (AVBBMLS) was scheduled to hold its first race of the season on May 1^st at Spartan Speedway. We made the trek up on Friday afternoon, but the weather did not cooperate. No sooner than we got in line to practice just after 3pm, did it start raining. The track made the call early to cancel the evenings racing schedule, so were quickly done for the evening. I was really disappointed with the cancellation on Friday night, but the Northern Ohio Legends Series was racing at Lorain County Speedway in Lorain, OH and the Bishop Performance Legends Racing Club was racing at Mottsville Speedway in Mottsville, MI on Saturday. We decided to go to Mottsville and try our luck down there. Turns out it was a good decision. We unloaded the car and found a problem with the brakes during the short hot lap session the track gave us. After a few adjustments, things were fine and we started the heat race in 5^th spot. I was able to make my way through the traffic and to the lead by lap 4. I opened up a nice lead on the field and finished 1^st. I was happy with the car and didn't make any adjustments for the feature. I lined up 4^th for the feature race and made my way to 2^nd by lap 5. I tucked in behind 1^st place and rode for several laps. I looked for the lead just about every lap coming off of turn 2, but couldn't quite get along side. Finally with about 2 laps to go, I was able to make the pass for the lead exiting turn 2. I pulled ahead after that and took the checkers for the feature win. It was a good day for MTR. We got reacclimated with the car, didn't damage anything, and were able to pick up a heat and feature win. We enjoyed racing with the Bishop Performance Legends Racing Club as well. Thanks to those guys for putting on the race and putting up a nice purse to go along with it! The AVBBMLS returns to action next Saturday, May 9^th at Crystal Motor Speedway. Once again, we will be opening the season on the dirt. Crystal is a good dirt track, but racing on the dirt is always a wild card and you never know what will happen! We'll see you at the track—MT January 25^th, 2009—Michigan Legends Series Announces 2009 Schedule: The Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Michigan Legends Series has announced the series schedule for 2009. Check the MTR 2009 Schedule Page for all the details. New to the schedule are two 3/8 mile tracks---Owosso Speedway and Mid Michigan Speedway. These two tracks have been on the MLS schedule before, but it has been a few years since the MLS has raced at either track. These tracks are big and fast and after losing Kalamazoo Speedway and M40 Speedway from last years schedule, I am glad to see these tracks on the schedule. Thanks to their ownership for having us in 2009! The 2009 schedule is jammed packed with race dates, so it will be a busy race season filled with opportunity. MTR is looking forward to a fun and successful 2009 campaign! Keep checking back with us as we get closer to the 2009 season opener at Spartan Speedway on May 1^st 2009!—MT September 29, 2008 Auto City Post Race Report: Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI was the sight of the season ending race for the 2008 Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Michigan Legends series on Saturday night. Auto City Speedway has been a decent track for me, but I have never experienced great success there. I was hoping for a good run to finish the season on a positive note. The point's battle was relatively close, but it would have taken a meltdown for us to lose fourth place. We started the day early with what would be a record 5 practice sessions. Eager to dial the car in, I used all five and made adjustments all throughout practice. The results were positive and I had picked up over a tenth of a second by the time practice was over. I had another lousy heat race draw and started 5^th in the 3^rd heat race of the evening. Chris Perry started on the pole and he took off on the start of the race. I battled with Ron Semlow, Kent Semlow and Skip Krassa for a few laps and was able to get by all of them without issue. There was no catching Perry, so I had to settle for 2^nd place. The car was handling good and I was looking forward to the feature race. By the time the feature rolled around, cool and moist conditions had set in. This made getting the setup right for the feature a bit tricky. I lined up on the outside line in 8^th. I had good cars in front of me and behind me, so I had my work cut out for me. On the start, Levi Rouster made it three wide to my outside in turn one and got everything bottled up in the middle of the pack. After a few tense laps we got settled down, but I found myself back in 10^th spot. I was able to work my way back up to 8^th place under the long green flag run. Much of that time was spent going around the outside of Rick Kilbourn. Rick was racing with us for the last time in his career and he is going to be missed on the track and in the pit area. He has been my mentor over the past two years and is a great ambassador for all of Legends racing on and off the track. Once I got around Rick, I caught back up to Rouster and began working to get around him with about 10 laps to go. Unfortunately, the caution came out and my car was a bit loose on the restart. I lost ground to Rouster and lost a spot to Tony Monge. We went a few laps and another caution came out. My car was too loose on the restarts to mount a challenge on Rouster, so I had to settle for a disappointing 9^th place finish. I had a fast car, but as we have seen several times this year, I had trouble moving up through the field and cutting hard to the inside to drive underneath cars in front of me. Chance Rice took the feature win from 11^th starting spot—his 10^th of the year. Rice had a remarkable season capturing our series championship and is looking to carry his success over to the Legends Nationals at Elko Speedway in Minnesota this weekend. With the 9^th place finish I was able to hang on to 4^th place in the final points standings. I was glad to finish 4^thin the final standings, but had hoped to end the season with a better run than 9^th place. Considering the week we had last week, I guess I'll take it. I'll spend some time digesting the season over the next week and write a season summary soon after. A lot of things happened this year—some good, some bad—so there will be plenty to recap and think about heading into next season. Thanks for reading this week and be sure to check back to see the season recap article and more pictures I hope to add soon—MT September 22^nd 2008 Flat Rock and Grand Bend Post Race Report: The Flat Rock race that was supposed to be run on August 9^th, was rained out and rescheduled for September 13^th. The September 13^th race was rained out as well, so Flat Rock put us on the schedule for their final event of the year on Friday September 19^th, 2008. After the horrible night we had at Flat Rock back in June, I was looking forward to going to Flat Rock and having a good night. Unfortunately, the night would end up being more of the same for us. This may get long winded, but stay with me on this… It all started with a near miss in the first practice session. I was running behind Jerry Warden when Andrew Moorman looped his car in the middle of turns one and two right in front of Warden. Warden had no where to go and plowed right into Moorman's car. I was able to narrowly miss by darting to the high side of the track. I thought after that narrow miss that I had gotten past any close calls that might happen for the night. Warden was able to get his car back together, or so he thought, for the first heat race. He started on the pole in the race, followed by Tyler Rycenga, Brandon Mahoney, and myself. Warden spun his car coming to take the green flag, which should have been a sign to him that not all was right with the car. Unfortunately for me, we did a complete restart and Warden got another chance to start the race from the pole. This time he made it to turn two before he spun his car. I saw him get loose and spin and I moved to the high side, where I already was in anticipation of him having an issue. All was fine until Warden decided to do his best Joie Chitwood impersonation. Instead of engaging the clutch and holding the brake to keep his car down on the track, he cut the wheel and mashed the gas in an attempt to perform a 360 degree spin. Warden miscued badly in his attempt and when he hit the gas his car, of course, was pointed straight at mine. He hit the left side of my car and the impact knocked my right front into the backstraightaway wall. The impact with the wall tore up my entire right front suspension and the impact from Warden bent my rear end housing and left front suspension. I don't recall ever being as mad as I was when this all took place. I could not believe that the exact same thing that happened in June had happened again. There I was AGAIN--wrecked in turn two of lap one about 5 yards from the same place I was wrecked in June--and all this in a heat race! I don't think Jerry could have done what he did on purpose, so I was more upset that he just didn't keep his car under control when he spun out. Instead of sitting in my car this time, I got out and let everyone at Flat Rock know just how mad I was. Looking back, I probably looked silly throwing my steering wheel at Warden's car as he pulled away and walking in the middle of the track pointing and screaming at Warden when he came back around, but it did make me feel a little better. John Turnbull, our series director, was able to get me off the track and headed back towards the pits to see if we could fix the car. Once again we were in full emergency response, trying to get the car put back together before the feature race. Dan Mahoney, Tony Monge, Scott Menlen, and several others came over to help me get the car back together for the feature. Only because they helped me was I able to get the car back together well enough to roll out for the feature race. Thanks to all of them for their help—it is appreciated more than they could possibly imagine! I lined up 12^th for the feature with a car that ended up being pretty ill handling. I was about 4 tenths slower than I had been in practice and the car had a bad push in the corners. I still had a top 10 car and was working my way up, trying to stay out of trouble when trouble found me AGAIN. This time it was in the form of Skip Krassa. Krassa had started on the outside pole and had backed his way up to about 9^th or 10^th place when I came upon him. I was clearly faster than him, but Krassa was mysterisously having a hard time keeping his car in a steady line in the corners. I would get a run on him and his car would magically come from the top of the track to the bottom of the track when I would do so. I bumped him a couple of times in the straightaway to see if he would just let me go in the corner. He did not want to do that and continued to drive in multiple lanes on the track. Having lost a straightway to the next cars in front of us, I decided to bump Krassa out of the way in turn 1. I did so and moved low to pass him. Coming out of turn two, Krassa turned left into my right rear tire at the exit of the corner in an attempt to hook me into the backstraightaway wall as I drove underneath him. Lucky for me when he hit me, my right rear wheel jumped over his left front and my car spun to the inside of the track. I engaged the clutch and held the brake pedal to keep my car from rolling back up into traffic. The car kept running and I quickly pulled way. I was pretty surprised at what Krassa had done, but should have expected it. Because I kept the car going, the track did not throw the caution flag. This was unfortunate for me because I had lost over a straightaway of track position and about 5 positions with about 10 laps to go. In 8 laps I was able to make up all the time I had lost and with 2 laps to go, I was back to the rear bumper of Krassa. Unfortunately, Cody Mahoney was behind Krassa when I got there, so I wasn't able to get to Krassa to try and pass him again. I would up with a disappointing 12^th place finish, but then again I was lucky to be able to even race in the feature. Thanks again to all those who helped me get my car back together and out on the track in time for the feature. Congratulations to Chris Perry and his team on winning the feature event at Flat Rock. Having the car torn up on this night was especially hard because we had to race the next day at Grand Bend Speedway in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada. I got the car unloaded and in the garage by about 10:30. I did not finish working on the car until 5:30 Saturday morning. It was a long night but there was a lot of work to do. I had to rebuild and place the front suspension, re-center the rear end, and change the gear. I was able to get it all done and get the car back in the best shape possible. I was able to get a few hours sleep before we had to head to Oh Canada. Grand Bend has been a good track for me this year with 2 3^rd place finishes, but the track is really tight and there is little room for error on the small 1/5 mile track. With the poor luck I had the night before, I wasn't really excited about going there. We unloaded the car and it was pretty good in practice. I was running a tenth quicker than I during the previous two visits, so my spirits were lifted pretty quickly when I saw some of my lap times. I lined up 2^nd in the 2^nd heat race behind Tyler Rycenga and in front of Brandon Mahoney. I was a sitting duck in the outside line on the start and had to fall in line behind Mahoney in 3^rd place. I stayed on Mahoney's bumper the entire race, but wasn't able to get inside him enough to get a run on him. I think I was a tick faster, but just couldn't make the pass. Grand Bend is a tough place to pass, so I had to settle for 3^rd. This put me in the 7^th starting place for the feature race on the inside line. I was glad to be on the inside line because that is the preferred groove. On the start of the race exiting turn 2, Cody Mahoney's car washed up into Tyler Rycenga's car. All this happened right in front of me and I was just able to avoid getting collected in the mess. We had to do another restart and this time we got away cleanly. Chance Rice and Chris Perry got by me and we all were able to get by Tyler Rycenga and Tony Monge. Rice made his way up to second place behind Brandon Mahoney. Kenton Taylor was in third followed by Perry, myself, Rycenga and Monge. The five of us raced really hard for the next 15 or so laps. Taylor was having a hard time getting through the corners and it was holding up the rest of us. Monge was beating on Rycenga, Rycenga was beating on me, I was beating on Perry, and Perry was beating on Taylor. It was pretty intense, but it was probably the most fun I have had racing all year! There was a lot of contact, but I felt confident racing with Perry, Rycenga, and Monge that they would be able to keep things under control. It all came to a head when Taylor lost his car coming out of turn four. Taylor checked up to collect his car and Perry had nowhere to go. Perry got into Taylor and looped his car. I had to check up and Rycenga ducked to my inside and got by all of us. I followed him and narrowly avoided Perry's spinning car. Monge wasn't so lucky and he collected Perry right at the flag stand. Monge continued, but Perry was done for the night with a broken oil line. We restarted with Mahoney in front followed by Rice, Taylor, Rycenga and myself. With only a few laps to go, there wasn't much time left. Rycenga snuck by the still squirley Taylor to take third place. I got my nose under Taylor several times, but his car was so out of control on corner exit, I wasn't able to get along side to make the pass. I settled for a somewhat frustrating 5^th place finish. The real battle on the track was for the lead. Mahoney had led the entire race and Rice was mounting a furious charge. Mahoney was protecting the inside line and with a couple of laps to go Rice made a run at him on the high side. Rice made it stick up on the high side and got around Mahoney to take the win. It was a very impressive pass for the win by Rice. Congratulations to him and his team on their 9^th victory of the season. Friday night was déjà vu all over again for us at Flat Rock, as the saying goes. It was absolutely a horrible night for us—the kind of night that makes up your worst nightmare. I am glad we were able to rebound on Saturday for a decent finish at Grand Bend. That finish took away part of the sting of Friday night, but Friday night still hurts. I like racing at Flat Rock and am really, really disappointed in the kind of nights I had there this year. Getting wrecked there twice through no fault of my own is a tough pill to swallow. I have had a lot of tough racing luck this year and have been wrecked by other people 6 different times this year. This weekend the Michigan Legends series wraps up its season at Auto City Speedway. Auto City has been a decent track for us, but at this point, I just hope I can get out of there without getting wrecked by someone. I hate feeling like that about going racing, but at this point, it is what it is. Come on out to Auto City Speedway and see if you can bring MTR some much needed luck this weekend! Thanks for reading and we'll see you at the track—MT August 30^th 2008 Spartan Post Race Report: Spartan Speedway in Mason, MI has been a good track for MTR this year. In two races at Spartan this year I have fourth and fifth place finishes. I have been helped with good starting positions both times, but the car has handled great at the quarter mile track. With two good finishes at Spartan this year, we were looking for a third in our last trip of the year to Spartan. I spent a lot of time working on the car this week getting the setup just right. All that work had me expecting good results in the race. The car felt good in practice, but weather conditions were hot and sticky for practice, and lately I have had problems staying on top of changing track conditions in the transition from hot humid afternoons to cool nighttime conditions. We had a very large car turnout at Spartan—25 cars made the trip. I had an unfortunate draw for heat race starting position. I had to start 7^th out of 7 cars in the first heat race. I made my way up to fourth place pretty quickly, but stalled out behind Kenton Taylor and Ben Rouster. Taylor was hugging the inside and Rouster couldn't find his way around him. I tried to get inside of Rouster a couple of times, but couldn't get the run I needed low off the corner. Spartan has no outside groove, so there was nothing happening there either. I had to settle for a frustrating fourth place finish. I felt like I had a faster car, but just couldn't get by the guys in front of me hugging the inside. The car felt good, but I didn't really know what I had because I was stuck behind the two cars in the heat race. I made one small adjustment on the car for the feature race and that was the only adjustment I made all night. With the fourth place heat race finish, I expected to have to start 13^th in the feature. I figured I would have a tough time making my way up through the field. In the biggest stoke of luck possible, an "O" was drawn for the invert which means half the field was inverted. That put me on the pole! Talk about luck! Of course, I was very happy with this result and felt like I had a great chance at another good finish at Spartan. I led the field down for the start of the race and I got off to a great start. I took off and jumped out to a three our four car length lead. I knew that the other fast cars that had to start in the middle of the field would be coming, so I wanted to get out front as far as I could. The car was handling great, and I kept a two or three car length lead. I led the first twenty laps of the race and I began to think that victory was in sight. A caution on lap twenty threw a wrench in my plans. On the restart, the car washed up in turn two and Tony Monge, who was running a strong second place, got on my inside and beat me down the backstratightaway. Luckily for me, the caution waved again before we could complete a lap, and I was able to retake my position up front. I learned my lesson, and kept the car down on the next restart. Unfortunately, with all the caution laps, the car wasn't the same as it had been before the caution on lap 20. The car wasn't turning as well from the middle to the exit of the corner and I was losing ground to the guys behind me in that area. The field was having a tough time keeping their cars straight and it seemed like we had about 6 or 7 restarts between laps 20 and 25. On one of the restarts, we ran two laps and Monge was able to get by me again going down the backstraightaway. Of course he was being tightly followed by Brandon Mahoney and Chance Rice, so I was dropkicked back to fourth place in on corner. I quickly got back down to the inside and followed those three. Monge was trying to hang on to the lead but both Mahoney and Rice mounted furious charges for the top spot. It was quite a battle to watch from fourth place. Monge lost the lead in a three wide battle down the frontstraightaway. On the next lap, Rice was challenging Mahoney for the lead when the two tangled with a slower car getting into turn one. Mahoney got the worst of the incident, but both had to go to the back of the field. That left Monge in the lead and me in second place. With my car's handling going away, I knew that if I had any chance at getting Monge, it was on the restart. I laid back a bit, and got to the gas just before he did. I gave him a little bump coming off turn four and it loosened up his car, but it wasn't enough for me to get inside. Monge's car was really strong down the straightaways and I didn't have enough to get inside of him going into turn one. We raced three or so laps and another caution came out on lap 28. I thought I might have another chance at getting past Monge, but the track had had enough of our racing and inability to go more than three laps without wrecking. On lap twenty eight under caution, they threw the checkered flag on Monge and ended the race. I finished second. I felt like I had given one away after leading 20 of 28 laps, but Monge's car was fast and he drove a great race. He never bumped me and got by me as cleanly as could be. He just had a little more than I did down the straightaways. That first caution on lap 20 really hurt me because my car just wasn't as good after that long run. Congratulations to Monge and his family on their first feature win. The Michigan Legends have a much deserved week off after 7 straight weekends at the track. With first, second, and third place in points all having rough nights at Spartan, I stand to gain some ground with my second place finish. I will still be several points behind third place, but I will have a much better chance of making a charge with three races to go. Our next race is at Flat Rock on September 13^th. This is a make up from the August 9^th rainout. This is the night of the last school bus race of the season at Flat Rock, so it is sure to be a fun night of racing at the fast quarter mile track. Thanks for checking in on MTR and we'll see you at Flat Rock!!—MT August 23^rd 2008 Toledo Post Race Report: Toledo is a really tough track for us. It is tight, bumpy, and really short, so it is a challenge to get the car to hook up there. We arrived at Toledo with a little bit different setup than what we had run all season. I wanted to try a couple of things in the first practice to try and get a better feel. Unfortunately, they did not give me the feel I was looking for, so I changed back to my more conventional setup after the first practice. The car was better, but I was still looking for something more. I made a few more changes before the heat race. I started on the pole for the first heat race. We took the green and I took off. The changes I made to the car were great, and I pulled ahead to a nice lead on a field filled with fast cars. On lap 6, I noticed that Chance Rice got himself to second place, so I knew I was going to have to hold him off to take the win. I kept him behind me for a couple laps, but let the car get a little too high coming off of turn 4 to take the white flag. That was all Rice needed and he dove to my inside headed into turn one. I had to give up the spot but Levi Rouster was trying to follow him by on the inside. I drove it in deep on the high side into turn three and was able to get a good run off of turn four to beat Rouster to the flag for a second place finish. I was disappointed that I gave up the win, but still pleased with a second place finish. With the invert in place for the feature, I started 7^th behind Rouster in 5^th. My plan was to stay on his bumper and follow him up to the front. On the start, I let Jerry Warden down in front of me. At that point I was fine, but a few laps later I got a little high again coming off of turn four, just like the heat race. When that happened, I ended up on the outside of about three cars and got freight trained, losing three spots. I was very disappointed in this because I had cost myself those spots by not being precise with my line. From that point, I tried to make my way back up but struggled to get on the inside of the cars in front of me. I got one spot back under green, and then two more when Jerry Warden and Tony Monge got together. That was all I would get and came home with a 7^th place finish. I was pretty disappointed with this finish as I felt I had a faster car than 7^th place. I have struggled all year with being able to pass cars under green. I need to get better with learning how to pass cars and stay aggressive under green. I tend to get conservative and it ends up costing me spots I shouldn't be losing. I hope this comes with more racing experience, which unfortunately only comes with more green flag laps. Tyler Rycenga won the feature race—congrats to him and his team on a great victory! Next week is another Friday night show at Spartan Speedway. I have two top five finishes at Spartan this year, so I am expecting to keep the car there this Friday as well. We have four races left and I am really hoping to run well in these races and give the guys in front of me in points some competition. We'll see you Friday at Spartan!—MT August 21^st 2008 Grand Bend Post Race Report: I have been a little slow to update the website over the past month or so. I have been busy at work and have been trying to stay on top of the car as much as possible to finish the season strong. Thanks for continuing to check in at the site and keeping up with what we have going on here at Matt Todd Racing. After the lousy doubleheader weekend at Owendale and Dixie, Flat Rock couldn't arrive fast enough. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us on that day. We were able to get some practice in at the track, but the rains came right about showtime. The rain wouldn't let up and the race was cancelled. However, there is a sliver lining—the race was rescheduled for September 13^th which is the 2^nd school bus race date at Flat Rock. That event is always a good time and it is great to race in front of all the lively fans. I really looking forward to it. See the schedule page for more details. With Flat Rock postponed, we turned our attention to our return to Grand Bend Speedway in Grand Bend, Ontario, Canada. You may recall from earlier in the year that Grand Bend is a tough little track, but I walked away with a then career high third place finish. I felt okay about going back there, but the margin for error is a lot less at that track than anywhere else we race. The car was good off the trailer and I didn't make any adjustments during practice. I drew third place in the first heat, starting behind Gary Joppich. Gary did not get a good start on lap one, and I watched 2^nd and 4^th place drive around us on the outside before we could even get to turn one. I got by Gary going down the backstretch and set my sites on making up some ground. I was able to make up a little bit of ground, but couldn't advance my position any farther than 3^rd by the time the checkers fell. 3^rd ended up being a great spot because after the invert, I started on the pole for the feature race! I made a couple of adjustments to the car after the heat race because the track was cooling down and darkness had set in. I had never started on the pole for a feature race, so I was excited about the opportunity and hoped it help me have a good finish. I got a great start coming to the green for the feature race and pulled ahead of the field by a few car lengths. I held on to the lead for about 10 laps when, guess who, Chance Rice pulled right up to my bumper. I battled with Chance for a lap or two, but he had a better car than I did and I had to give up the top spot. I held on to second for a few laps, but my car started getting tight from the middle off. I wasn't able to get to the throttle coming off the corners like I would have liked, and this was slowing down my lap times. The 3^rd-5^th place cars of Tyler Rycenga, Brandon Mahoney, and Chris Perry, ran me down and were really knocking on the door after a few laps of my car being tight. I held them off as long as I could, but I just couldn't keep the car down coming off the corners. Rycenga got on my inside and when he did, I had to fall all the way to 5^th. There is no room to race on the high side at Grand Bend, so I had to let all three cars go by. I fell back a few car lengths, but stayed ahead of the next pack of cars. Rycenga, Mahoney and Perry really got to battling each other and with a few laps to go Mahoney and Perry got together, ending Perry's night. Mahoney had to go to the back of the pack. I inherited 3^rd place and held off Randy Gallagher to end the night with a podium finish. I really had about a 5^th place car, but as we have seen this season, sometimes you finish better than you should and sometimes you finish worse than you should. I was happy with the result and enjoyed being interviewed on the front stretch after the race. Next week we head to Toledo Speedway for what really is a crap shoot of a race. The track is bumpy and slick and really tight. Hopefully we can have a good night and post a good finish without getting into trouble. We'll see you at the track!—MT August 4^th, 2008—Auto City, Owendale and Dixie Race Summary: I haven't updated the website in a while. Thanks to everyone who has been checking it and asking why I haven't—it makes me happy that some of you are checking it regularly. I wish I could say I hadn't updated because I have been enjoying the spoils of victory, but victory certainly hasn't come over the past three weeks. First of all, the Kalamazoo race scheduled for July 19^th was cancelled due to the poor economic conditions of the track. Tracks have been cutting back on the traveling race series that they bring in and we had fallen victim of that. Next up was Auto City Speedway for the Great Lakes Nationals 50 lapper. I was looking forward to this race because I figured my patience would certainly pay off with the higher lap count. Unfortunately I was plagued by an ill handling race car all day. I finished second in my heat race and started third in the feature, but I dropped back quickly with handling trouble. It was the same problem I had at Spartan, but much worse. I labored around 5^th through 8^th for most of the race and came home in 7^th position. I was pretty disappointed in this especially since I was unable to adjust out of the handling problems I had. I went over the car after the race and found a loose bolt in the front end to be the culprit of my handling problems. This was gratifying and disappointing at the same time because I had found the problem, but didn't find it when it would have really helped me. I feel like I would have had a top 5 car for sure at Auto City had I found the problem at the track. With the handling problem out of the way, I looked forward to Dixie Speedway and another 50 lapper. I was lightning quick there in July before a wreck ruined my day, so I was excited to return there to give it another shot. But first I had to deal with the final dirt race of the season at Owendale Speedway. Randy Gallagher has been able to race with us the last few weeks and we were able to work out a deal for me to drive one of his cars at Owendale. I want to thank Randy for accommodating my request for a ride! The car drove well in practice when the track was wet, but I had a tougher go in the heat race. I started on the outside of row one and took the lead for the first 5 or 6 laps of the race. The track had tightened up a bit from practice and I slid back to second while struggling to figure out the track. Those struggles came to a head when I spun out coming out of turn two with two laps to go. I finished in the back of the heat race and thus started in the back of the feature race. By the time the feature rolled around the track was really hard and slick and those conditions were not conducive to my driving style and the set up of the car. Randy certainly had things figured out in his car with the same set up and he drove right to the lead. I struggled to get the car turn going into the corners and essentially rode around at the back to avoid trouble in a car that was not mine. As luck this season would have it, trouble found me when Cody Mahoney got into my left rear in turn three. I spun off the track and suffered a flat left rear tire and a broken shock. Despite this damage, I kept racing the car and brought it home with an 8^th place finish. Randy looked like he was going to pick up his first ever feature win, but spun out with two laps to go. Tyler Rycenga, who had been giving him all he could handle for the top sot, picked up lead and the feature win—the first of his young career. Congratulations to Tyler and the entire RyBex Racing crew on the victory. With the dirt racing over and done with (thankfully) I put my full focus towards Dixie Speedway. I made a few changes to the car during the week after I fixed my loose bolt issue and was sure I was in for a good run. Unfortunately, things just didn't go my way on Sunday either. The changes I had made didn't really help the car and I struggled to get off the corners all day long. My car was turning like it should, but I just didn't have any grip from the center of the corner off. That made it darn near impossible to drive underneath anyone under racing conditions. The car wasn't that slow, but I just couldn't drive underneath anyone. I started 5^th in my heat race that was chocked full of good cars and finished 5^th. This left me with a very poor starting position of 17^th out of 25 cars—easily our largest starting field of the year. The car responded to some adjustments I had made, but still didn't have any grip off the corners in the feature. I passed one or two cars, but there was about 7 of us that just rode nose to tail for almost the entire race. It was just hard to drive underneath anyone with my car on this day. I was riding in 10^th and was attempting to pass for 9^th with four laps to go when my muffler fell off the car. The engine began making a really nasty sound and I was fearful that the worst was about to happen—a blown engine. Luckily the motor was okay and it was just the broken muffler that caused the sound. But, I was not familiar with that sound, so I assumed the motor was about to blow. I slowed way down and lost all my positions in an attempt to save the motor and nurse the car home for a lead lap finish. I wound up finishing an underwhelming 16^th place—a very disappointing result to end a very disappointing two weeks of racing. Now it is time to pick up the pieces from two lousy weeks and figure out how to finish the season on a positive note. I still feel like I have a top 5 car, but I have been struggling with the setup the past few weeks. I think my engineering mindset may be clouding the more conventional racing approach of "grip it and rip it." It is very disappointing because the guys I was racing have progressed over the last three races and I have regressed over the last three races. I have to figure out what works best for me and stick to it. Whatever it is I hope I can find it and find it soon. I badly want to finish the season on a good note and stay in the top 5 in points. Hopefully, things will turn around for us this week at Flat Rock and we can come away with a good finish. Thanks for checking in and we'll see you at the track—MT July 12^th, 2008—Spartan Post Race Report: I was glad to get to Spartan for another Friday night show after last weeks rotten luck at Dixie. I was looking forward to the opportunity to get things turned around with a good run at Spartan! It was really hot Friday afternoon and that certainly had an effect on track conditions. The track was about 3 tenths slower this time around compared to our last visit in May. I was struggling to keep my car from pushing up just after the middle of the corner. The car just didn't want to continue rotating after the middle of the corner. I made several adjustments before the heat race to try and help this condition. I started 2^nd in the 3^rd heat on the outside of Brandon Mahoney. Spartan is really a one groove racetrack for our cars, so on the start he had the preferred line, so I tucked in behind him going into turn one. The adjustments I had made helped the car and the car was running pretty good. Mahoney's car was good as well and our cars were pretty equal. I stayed right on his bumper and got several runs on him coming off of turn two, but didn't have enough to pull along side of him. I stayed tucked right behind him and waited for him to make a mistake, but he drove a good race and I had to settle for second. That was Mahoney's first win in a Legends car—congrats to him and his team! My car felt pretty good in the heat race, so I decided not to make any adjustments on it for the feature. I started 3^rd in the feature as a result of the invert, so I was happy about being able to start up front. Bryan Knuckles from Columbus, OH was on the pole and on the start he took off. I grabbed second on the start and Mahoney was behind me in third. Knuckles car was fast and he pulled away from Mahoney and I. Just like the heat race, Mahoney and I had pretty equal cars. I was able to keep my car in front of his like he was able to stay in front of me in the heat race. Our cars needed to run the same line to be fast, so I was able to stay in front of him. Levi Rouster made his way up through the field and passed me for second place. I tucked in behind him and he chased down Knuckles for the lead. Rouster caught him and got a run on the inside of him coming out of turn two. They raced down the backstraight and Knuckles came down on Rouster going into turn three. The made contact and almost kept the cars straight, but the two spun and I scooted by on the outside to take the lead. The caution came out because of the spin and a subsequent spin that happened behind the first spin. I was excited in the car because this was the first time I had ever lead a feature race in a Legends car. I was a little nervous too because I had never restarted a race as the leader. I led the field down for the restart and hit the gas coming out of turn three. I got a great start and pulled away by two or three car lengths. I led for several laps and had a good rhythm going. Chance Rice, who has dominated Spartan Speedway, worked his way up to my rear bumper. His car was unbelievably fast, and I really couldn't put up much of a fight for the lead. Rice got by me going into turn three with about ten laps to go. I saw Mahoney trying to follow Rice by so I tried to get down right behind Rice as he passed me. Rice's car drifted up and I came down and our bumpers made contact getting both of us a little loose. That was what Mahoney needed and he got by me and almost got by Rice. Rice's car was too strong for Mahoney as well and Mahoney took second and I was back to third. I had a good lead on Chris Perry in 4^th with only a few laps to go, but we started getting into some heavy lapped traffic. With two to go, I had to pass two lap cars going into turn three and my low corner entry location really slowed me down. Perry got to my bumper and on the last lap gave me a tap coming out of turn two. It was enough of a tap that he was able to get his right front wheel to my left rear wheel. I didn't give him any room going into three, but he kept his wheel in there and we made contact. I got loose and he got by me coming to the checkered flag. I was pretty mad about getting passed like that on the last lap, so I guess I owe Perry one for that. The lapped cars really hurt me there at the end and my car wasn't handling as good at the end of the race, but I felt like third was where I should have finished. I had to settle for fourth place due to the contact with Perry. After thinking about it though, I was happy to have a complete night without tearing up my car. The Flat Rock and Dixie races really had gotten me down and this good run at Spartan has me feeling much better. I feel like I have a top five car every week and the lower finishes at Flat Rock and Dixie (especially Dixie) really hurt my spirits along with my points position. I have slipped from 3^rd to 5^th in points because of the problems, but I am hoping that this good run at Spartan is a sign that our luck is turning around for the better! Congrats to Rice and his team on another feature win! The July 19^th race at Kalamazoo has been cancelled due to economic conditions of the track. John Turnbull, our series promoter, is working to get a race scheduled for Springport or Galesburg Speedway for the same date. I hope he is able to get something scheduled. The Kalamazoo cancellation is disappointing because I was looking forward to going back to the fast 3/8ths mile track. The big tracks are my favorites and that is two big track races that have been cancelled. If we can't get any thing scheduled for the 19^th, our next race will be at Auto City Speedway on July 26^th. We'll see you at the track!—MT July 10, 2008—Dixie Post Race Report: It has been a few weeks since I have updated the news section and a lot has happened. The national qualifier race at M40 on June 27^th was rained out and will not be rescheduled. This is disappointing because I was looking forward to racing at M40. The qualifier will now be the August 3^rd race at Dixie Speedway. My parents were in town for their annual July 4^th week trip and it was good to have them at the July 5^th race at Dixie Speedway. The day started out with great promise, but didn't turn out as well as we had hoped. We unloaded at Dixie and the car was quick right off the trailer. I tried something new in the first two practices and the car was quick, but I didn't like the way the car felt so I made some other changes to get it back like I wanted. The car felt really good in the third practice, so I felt good about our prospects for the night. There was only one other class of cars racing at Dixie, so there was some available time between the end of practice and the start of racing. With this extra time, the track gave our series the opportunity to qualify to set our heat race starting positions. This was a first for the Michigan Legends as we have never gone through qualifying before—our heat race positions are normally determined via number draw. My car was handling very well and when qualifying was over I was fastest with a time of 16.47 seconds. That time was 2 tenths quicker than second place. I was very pleased with this and was feeling very good about my chances for the night. The next move however pretty much sealed my fate for the night. Our series director decided to start the fast qualifiers in the back of the heat race and the slow cars at the front of the heat races. I started 6^th in my heat race. When the heat race started, the 1^st and 2^nd place cars drove around the track side by side for the first four laps of the race which kept the rest of us really bottled up behind them. Tony Monge was fourth and was trying hard to get around Kenton Taylor for third place. Chris Perry was in 5^th and I was riding behind him with essentially nowhere to go. The field went into turn three on the 5^th lap or so and someone got to their brakes really hard. This stacked everyone up and I had to get into my brakes really hard to avoid making heavy contact with Monge. I got to my brakes too hard and locked the front wheels up. When this happened I slid into Perry's left rear. He spun out and I suffered a broken right front spindle. I was very upset because I essentially had nowhere to go and felt I was the victim poor circumstances. The fastest car in the field was now wrecked in turn four—certainly not what I had envisioned when the race started. Monge went on to win the heat race—his first win in a Legends car. Congrats to him and his team! I was towed back to the garage and we began working on the car. Dan Mahoney and Bob Rice both came over and helped me get the car back together in what had to be record time. The track decided to race us almost immediately after our heat races, so we had only about 30 minutes to replace the right front spindle. We were very rushed, but with everyone helping out we got the car in line for the feature with no time to spare. I would not have made the feature without their help! I took the track and immediately found out I had little to no front brakes. The brake pads were hung up in the right front caliper. This really hurt my ability to race hard because at Dixie you have to get into the brakes really hard on corner entry. Without brakes, I wasn't able to really drive in underneath other cars. I tucked behind Rick Kilbourn and followed him to the front. I made it to 7^th place and that was about as far as I could go with the car not handling well and not having brakes. I was trying to make a run on Tyler Rycenga coming out of turn four when he came down on me a bit. I had to jump out of the throttle to avoid contact and Jerry Warden got by me on the outside. Warden worked to get around Rycenga for a few laps and got a run on him coming out of turn two. Warden was inside of Rycenga and Rycenga came down on him. They made contact and Rycenga had to go up the track to collect his car. I snuck by on the inside of Rycenga. That was the last move I was able to make. I rode behind Warden, but just couldn't get inside of him without having brakes to keep the car down in the corners. I came home in 7^th place. Levi Rouster won the feature--congrats to him and his team on another win. Coming from the back to finish 7^th with a wrecked car was pretty good, but it was very hard to be positive about this considering I was fast qualifier and had such a good car before the heat race wreck. Getting in another wreck was also very discouraging. I just can't seem to catch a break this year in the heat races. I always seem to start in the back of the heats and that has led to trouble in the last four races as I have hit somebody or someone has hit me in all four races. Then I have to start in the back of the feature can't make up the ground to get to the front. I just want to have a race where I don't hit anything and nobody hits me. I have been hit or hit something at every race this year except Grand Bend. I hope this trend can stop soon. Hopefully things will turn around this week at Spartan Speedway. I had a good run there at the end of May and am looking forward to going back there and having a good run this Friday night. We'll see you at the track—MT June 22, 2008—Crystal Post Race Report: The week leading up to the Crystal race was full of drama. With Randy Gallagher deciding to quit racing for the rest of the year, I was left without a ride for the Crystal dirt race. I talked to Jerry Warden and Gary Joppich about renting one of their cars, but nothing materialized. At the last minute, I was able to work something out with two time series champion Levi Rouster to rent his 2^nd car and make the race at Crystal. I was excited to be able to drive this car because Rouster's cars are fast and I felt I would have the opportunity to have a good run on the dirt. We only had 11 cars show up for this race. Those of us that made the race were surprised since this race was a dirt national qualifying race, but nobody in our series really enjoys racing on the dirt tracks and thus the low car turnout. As we have come to expect at Crystal, we only got 4 laps of "practice," if you want to call it that. I made good use of the limited amount of time and made an adjustment to the car to help it get off the corners better. I lined up 4^th out of 5 in the second heat race. The track was totally different than any dirt surface I have experienced in my limited time in Legends. In May, the track was soft and muddy. This time out the track was hard and dry and was almost like driving on ice during the heat race. With the track being in the condition it was in It didn't take us long to have an issue. Kenton Taylor was leading the race coming off of turn two when he got loose and spun in front of myself and Chance Rice. I went low to avoid him, but he spun right in front of me and I had nowhere to go. He got the worst of the contact with a broken spindle and I ended up with a broken bumper. That left myself, Levi Rouster and Chance Rice to duke it out for the win. Rice led on the restart, but spun out in front of us in turn two. Everyone kept going and I inherited the lead. I led a lap and then spun out in turn four all by myself. Rouster took the lead and he kept it for the remainder of the race. Rice and I battled for second with both of us nearly spinning out in every corner. Rice spun out in turn four coming to the checkers and I snuck by on the low side to take 2^nd place. That was the wildest heat race I have ever been a part of! The track was very difficult and everyone had a difficult time keeping the car underneath them. I was happy to come home 2^nd. The other heat race was exactly the same way with several cars spinning out several times, so the feature was shaping up to be interesting for sure. I made another adjustment after the heat race to help the car get off the corners better. I anticipated that the track was going to remain hard and dry for the feature and it did. The invert yielded me an 8^th place start in the feature and I was glad to be on the outside. On the start of the race, everyone stayed in line and we all got started without incident. I began moving up quickly and found myself in third place by lap 10. The car was really good and I found a good line on the high side of the track. Rice and Jerry Warden and I were jockeying for the lead when Warden went for a lazy spin off of turn two. It was really hard to pass because the track was very slick down low and there was no grip there. Rouster had made his way up to third place by this time and on the restart I let him go on the inside. I tucked behind him and watched he and Rice battle for the lead. Rouster took the lead and by that time the top three cars had a good lead on the rest of the field. I was pretty steady on the outside groove and had the car running well up there. Rouster and Rice were battling when Rouster had an engine problem that took him out of the race. That gave Rice the lead and I inherited second. Brandon Mahoney was behind me. I had been moving my groove up ever so slightly and a few laps later I got the car too high going into turn one. I came off the gas and the car just snapped side ways on me. I saved it by taking it up the track and just over the banking. I got back on the track but was well behind the pack. As I was coming back on the track, Warden had trouble on the frontstraight and brought out the caution. The lineup reverts to the last completed lap and because I did not cause the caution, I was given back my third place position. I was pretty lucky! We got back going again and not two laps later, the exact same thing happened again. I went down into turn one and the car just snapped around on me. I went up the track again to save it and lost all my spots—again. This time, Tony Monge spun trying to avoid me and was not immediately able to get his car back going again. The track threw the caution for Monge and just like before, I was given back the third place position because I was not the cause of the caution. Talk about luck! We got started again and I would not make the same mistake again. I kept the car lower getting into the corners and was able to distance myself from Mahoney a bit. Rice had about the same distance on me and that was how we finished the race. Congratulations to Rice on his fourth feature win of the year. Brandon Mahoney and I celebrated career high finishes with 3^rd and 2^nd place, respectively. After the race there was a lot of discussion in the pits about the track giving me my spot back twice. Of course it was from the guys who finished behind me, but the track made the call that I was not the cause of the caution either time (Warden the first time and Monge the second time) and that I should be given my spot back. What was I supposed to do—not take my spot back? I was just lucky that other things happened both times I made a mistake during the race. After last weeks hard luck, I was more than willing to take some good luck this week! It has been a season of ups and downs, and this week was no different. It didn't look like I was going to be able to race at the beginning of the week, and by the end of the week I had my highest career finish on a dirt track no less! I want to thank Levi for allowing me to drive his car—it was a pleasure! Next weeks race is at M40 Speedway in Jones, MI. M40 is a super fast, high banked 3/8ths mile track. Corner entry speeds approach 100 mph there so the racing will be fast and furious! I am looking forward to taking the MTR #8 car there and hopefully coming away with another good finish. We'll see you at the track—MT June 15^th, 2008—Flat Rock Race Recap: Let me start by wishing my Dad and father in law Happy Father's Day! We had a very eventful night at Flat Rock Speedway. The school bus figure 8 race had the stands packed and we easily had our largest crowd of the year at the track. In the crowd were several of my friends and coworkers who I had come to cheer me on and get their fill of destruction with the school bus race. It was great to have a pack of fans in the stands and even greater to come around to start the feature and see them standing and cheering for me. My father in law was also in town from Tennessee and it was great to have him there. Thanks to everyone who attended! We unloaded the car and it was very fast in the first practice. I had worked and studied all week on some new things with the car and it paid off immediately. I adjusted on the car and got even faster in the second and third practice sessions. I was in the top three cars during practice so I felt great about my prospects for the night. Unfortunately things wouldn't turn out so great in the heat race. I lined up fourth in third heat race behind Jerry Warden. Butch Polson, who was racing for the first time this season, started on the pole and Tom Lovern was on my inside. Coming to the green, I gave Warden a bump in the rear and he shot forward to take the lead into turn one. I went to the outside of Polson in turn one and was making the pass coming out two when we made heavy contact. How the contact happened was a great subject for debate. I felt I had given Polson plenty of racing room at the time and was very upset with the contact. After watching the replay in slow motion for about 30 minutes, I think it was just a case of two cars trying to go for the same space on the track. I had moved down the track a bit and Polson was bringing his car up the track and we got together. I feel like I had still given him room to race despite bringing my line down and that the contact could have been avoided, but there was not much room for error as close as we were running by the time we got to the exit of the corner. When the contact was made, Polson's throttle stuck and he drove us hard into the outside wall. Polson took the brunt of the wall contact with his right front and with this throttle stuck, he continued to push us both down the back straightaway wall for about 30 yards after we first hit it. My car had turned in front of his after the contact and I hit the wall with the rear of my car. We finally came to a stop and the safety crews got to us very quickly. I was fine and Polson was okay as well. The left side of my car from the door forward was pretty beat up and I was unable to get out of my car. I sat in it as it was towed back to the pit area. I was beyond disappointed but what happened next was truly remarkable. Before I could get out of my car and figure out what the heck had just happened, several of my fellow racers began working on my car figuring out what was broken and how to get it fixed. People always talk about the fellowship and generosity that is part of Legends racing, and I am here to tell you that it is very real. I want to thank everyone that had a part in working on my car last night! Remarkably, the biggest thing that was broken was the left front spindle. Gary Joppich went to work on that and got it fixed. The rear frame horns folded over at an angle and my left rear tire was cut down. That was the extent of the damage in the rear. We knocked the frame horns back into place with a sledge hammer and I got a tire from Dan Mahoney. My door has some holes in it where Polson's tire went into my door and my left front fender was destroyed, so I had some pretty bad body damage. We taped up the door, and I was allowed to race without a left front fender. In the end, the car was back in racing condition and ready in time for the feature. This is only because of the fantastic group of people I race with and I am truly grateful for everyone's help. I started in the back for the feature and was a little nervous about what might happen when I went down into turn one at speed. I drove the car easy for the first couple of laps to make sure every thing was okay and it was. I started making my way through the pack. The car was pretty good, but my lap times weren't quite as good as my fast practice laps. I passed 6 or 7 cars and made my way up to about 9^th or 10^th spot with about 10 laps to go. There was a big gap between me and Brandon Mahoney and I was gaining on him when the caution came out on lap 27. For some reason that is beyond me, Flat Rock is one of those tracks that lines up the cars according to their position on the track at the last completed lap. This means that cars that are a lap down are jumbled throughout the pack. This isn't fair to the cars that are battling for position or the lapped cars because they can't race each other for position either. So, on the restart there were several lapped cars between the 5^th through 10^th place cars. On the restart I knew that the lapped cars were going to be an issue, so I started early and went to the high side to try and get around Mahoney. This move worked for about a lap and a half, until the lapped cars had all moved to the high side before I could get down. As a result, I got caught on the high side and lost a couple of positions before the race was over. I should have just stayed low because Mahoney did and he got up to 5^th place. If I had stayed behind him I would have finished 6^th, instead I crossed the line 10^th. I guess that is what I get for trying to jump the restart. I wasn't really happy with 10^th place because I know I had a better car than that even after the wreck in the heat race. Starting in the back, I didn't get to race the people I normally race with and that was disappointing as well. I got over all that pretty quickly and realized how lucky I was to even be racing after what happened in the heat race. As I said, it was a pretty interesting night at Flat Rock. I got into the worst wreck of my career and still was able to race in the feature race and pick up a top 10 finish. I owe that to all the people who helped me in the pits. I was pretty distraught after the wreck and watching them jump on my car to get it fixed was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me. It really meant a lot to me that everyone came over to help and I really appreciated it. Next week is a dirt race at Crystal and I may or may not be there. I am supposed to rent one of Randy Gallagher's cars, but he may be done racing this season. I hope I can get something figured out and make the race. If I don't race next weekend, the next event is the big race at M40 Speedway. That track is super fast and that race is an INEX National Qualifying race so some big guns will be there. We'll see you at the track!—MT June 3^rd, 2008—Michigan Legends Footage on YouTube: I thought I was special for having put the Grand Bend heat race win on YouTube, but that is nothing compared to the videography that Tony Monge has put together and displayed on YouTube. There is great footage of the entire races from Grand Bend and Toledo on there. Just type in "Tony Monge" in the YouTube search box and look for the Michigan Legends racing action. Check it out! Great work, fellas!—MT June 2^nd, 2008—Angola Post Race Report: I was really looking forward to going to Angola this week. Angola is one of our 3/8 mile tracks and I really like those tracks because they provide fast speeds and plenty of racing room. I sure wish we had more of them on the schedule. I logged one top 5 and three top 10 finishes in our 3/8 mile track races last year, so I was looking to back that up at Angola this time around. We had great racing weather for the second weekend in a row. The winds were a little gusty, but there was no chance of rain. We unloaded the car and I put a new set of right side tires on the car. The track at Toldeo shredded my right side tires and I knew I would need the corner grip at Angola, so I made the change. Once I got up to speed in practice the car was pretty good. I adjusted on it some and got it handling even better. I started 4^th in the 1^st heat. We only had about 15 cars show up for the race, so it was a pretty light field. On the start of the heat race, I got a good run in turns 1 and 2 on the high side and passed Jerry Warden coming out of turn 2. I cleared him, moved down the track and tucked in behind second place Brandon Mahoney. We get to turn three and Warden takes his entire car onto the apron below the white line in I guess what was an attempt to pass me, and nails me in the left rear. He and I both spun out. I was pretty upset in the car because I made absolutely sure I was clear of Jerry before I came down the track. I guess the left rear of my car has a big target on it this year. I am not sure why this is, but this is the third time in three races I have been hit in the left rear. We had a complete restart after the incident. On the restart I didn't get as good a run on the high side through turns 1 and 2 and I had to tuck behind Warden in 4^th place. We stayed that way until about 4 laps to go when the field got bottled up in turn 3. Warden bumped Mahoney and I bumped Warden. This slowed me down and Chris Perry jumped to my inside. I gave him room and I lost a spot. I battled back and was able to get back by him on the last lap to reclaim 4^th spot. After the race, Jerry and I discussed what happened and were able to watch the replay on the video camera and Jerry apologized for getting into me. Alison's video skills are really becoming a big asset! I started 7^th in the feature race. I got a good start, but after a few laps myself and Perry were bottled up behind the 7 car of Tyler Rycenga. We raced pretty hard for about 10 laps and I was able to got by him. By the time we got around him the top 6 cars had about a straightaway lead on us. Perry tucked right behind me and we ran down the 92 car of Tony Monge. When we caught Monge we caught the lapped car of Skip Krassa at the same time. Krassa was having a hard time keeping his car down and Monge went high to pass him coming off of turn 4. Krassa's car washed up and I scooted by the both of them on the inside. It got Monge bottled up because Perry followed me and when Krassa saw us going by him on the inside he checked up to give us room. I think we would have gotten by Tony anyway, but I hated that Tony got caught behind Krassa trying to pass him on the outside like we are supposed to when we approach lapped cars. I saw Krassa push up so I just dove to the inside to pass. I knew that if I didn't make the move, I risked losing a spot to Perry. Once we got by Monge, we still had about another straightaway before we could get to Mahoney and Warden who were running 3^rd and 4^th. Perry stayed right with me and our cars were pretty equal. He would make up ground on me going into the corners, but I was able to pull him a bit coming off the corners. He drove a good race. We ran down Mahoney and Warden with about 2 laps to go. By that time, there wasn't enough time to make a challenge, so I had to settle for another 5^th place finish. If we had had about 5 more laps I think I could have gotten by both of them. A caution sure would have helped my cause but we never had one. I could not believe we went caution free the entire race. Without any cautions, we ran off all 30 laps in about 9 minutes! I think I had about a 3^rd place car on this day, but just ran out of time. Chance Rice won the feature by a healthy margin—it was his third feature win of the year. Congrats to him and his team on the victory. Congrats to Mahoney as well on a good finish—I believe that was his first top 5 run in our series. Other than the incident in the heat race, the Legends cars went incident free for the night. We are off this coming weekend and our next race is at Flat Rock on June 14^th. We are at Flat Rock the night of the Marco's Pizza School Bus Figure 8 Race which is always a big event. If you are looking to attend that race, I suggest purchasing tickets ahead of time as this event usually sells out the day of the race. Get the details at www.arcaracing.com. Flat Rock is a good track for us and I am looking forward to that event. I think I have gotten 5^th place mastered with 3 5^th place finishes in a row! I hope I can improve at Flat Rock and have a good race there. We'll see you at The Rock!!—MT May 29^th, 2008—Spartan and Toledo Post Race Report: We headed into this weekend's double header with a good weather forecast so it was nice not to have to worry about rain leading up to the races. My dad flew up for the weekend and it was great to have him at the track and the house helping with the car. He was anxious to see if we would be able to back up last week's 3rd place feature finish. Off to Spartan we went! We had about 20 cars show up for the Spartan race. I felt pretty good about the car headed into the event because I had tested there before the season started. In practice, the car was a little tight, so we made some adjustments to free it up and by the end of practice the car was really good. I drew a good number for the heat race and started 2nd on the outside of Tom Lovern in the 1st heat. On the start of the race, I was able to hang on the outside of Tom for the first lap. I was starting nose ahead in turn 1 on the second lap when Tom pushed up and got into my left rear a little bit. I kept it straight, but the field had to scatter to avoid further contact. I tucked in behind Levi Rouster in third. He and I both got by Brandon Mahoney and then Rouster set sail. He pulled to about a 4 or 5 car length lead and that was how we finished the race. Randy Gallagher finished third behind me. The car was pretty good in the heat race, but I didn't have enough for Rouster. I made some adjustments after the heat race to make the car handle good on long runs for the feature. Last year at Spartan we had two long runs, so I was hoping the trend would follow to this year. I started 8th for the feature after the invert. At some point, I hope to start on the inside because the outside lane has not been the place to be so far this year. This held true at Spartan on lap 1. Coming off turn 4 on lap 1 there was a big pileup. Rouster had left a hole on the inside on the backstraight on lap 1 so I was able to get down to the inside. All the guys on the outside lane in front of me got swept up in the wreck. I didn't come out completely unscathed either. In trying to avoid the wreck by going low, I had to really jerk the wheel to the left. I avoided the mess but spun out in the infield grass. The car was fine and we had a complete restart. I restarted in the 4th place after the wreck--again on the outside. On the start I was behind Skip Krassa and I lost a spot to Chris Perry before I was able to get by. I settled into 5th place behind Chance Rice, Brian Knuckles, Rouster, and Perry. By the middle of the race I had lost some ground to the top 4, and Jerry Warden was closing in on me from 6th place. My car was tight to start the race, but was starting to handle better. Warden got a run on my inside coming out of 4 down the front straight. I gave him room but stayed on his outside through turns 1 and 2. I tucked in right behind him going into turn three. I was closer than I thought and going into turn 3 I got into him enough to run him up the track. I am not sure if he got a little loose or he just hit the brakes before I did getting into the corner. I didn't hit him hard because neither my front bumper nor his rear bumper showed any signs of contact. Nonetheless, I got into him and it was my fault. He did a nice job saving his car, and I retook 5th place. He wasn't too happy about it and under the next caution he showed me what heavy contact was by flattening my rear bumper. I felt I had a faster car and I was able to stay in front of him for the rest of the race. We had a couple more cautions near the end of the race. On the last caution I thought I might be able to make a run at Perry who was still running 4th, but I was never able to mount a serious charge for the spot. I finished 5th. I was pretty pleased with the finish. I was disappointed that we didn't have more long runs like I had anticipated because my car was tight on all the restarts and I think that hurt me a little. Congrats to Chance Rice and his team on winning the feature--he led every lap. Sunday we headed to Toledo. I wasn't looking very forward to racing there because the track is tight and with the way the rookies and the younger guys have been racing this year the carnage was likely to be very high. We would end up being both the victim and benefactor of this by the time the night was over. Toledo is hard to drive because there really is no groove or official race track/surface like you would expect a race track to have. You can pretty much drive anywhere as long as you don't hit a boundary tire or go inside a boundary tire. Check out the pictures on the Michigan Legends website to see what I mean. It is hard, at least for me, to diagnose how the car is handling because of this. My car felt really loose in practice, so I adjusted accordingly. I started 2nd (again) for my heat race on the outside of Chris Perry. I was able to get to the bottom of the track behind Perry on the start. I stayed right with him and another rookie, Tyler Rycenga, was right behind me. You could have thrown a blanket around the three of us. Rycenga was able to get by me, but then I got back by him. I was making a run at Perry going into turn 3 and he cut down on me. I had to hit the brakes really hard to avoid contact and when I did that my front tires locked up and I slid up the track a bit. Rycenga got back by me when this happened and he made a run at Perry. I stayed in third and Rycenga was able to get by Perry on the last lap to pick up his first heat race win. Congratulations to him and his team. I made some further adjustments after the heat race and started 3rd for the feature. I was glad of that because I felt much more comfortable starting on the inside for the feature. Having never really figured the track and how to run the track out, I washed up a bit on the start. Rick Kilbourn and eventual winner in the 37 car was able to get by on my inside. I tried to tuck in behind them and was able to stay with them until the caution came out. On the restart, I got bottled up behind Rick coming out of turn 4 and Rouster got a run on my inside. I saw him and gave him room to the inside. Next thing I know, we make heavy contact and both of us are spun out in turn one. I was really upset in the car because I felt I had given Rouster plenty of room to get by with out running me over. Turns out, and I didn't find this out until after the race, that Perry had tried to go inside of Rouster at the same time Rouster was passing me. Three wide at Toledo does not work and Perry got into Rouster who in turn got into me. That certainly was not the move for Perry to make at that point in the race. There is probably never a right time to make that move at Toledo. I was able to continue on, but had to go to the back of the 20 car field. Rouster broke something and was not able to continue. It is weird to say, but getting wrecked early was a blessing in disguise, because like I said at the beginning, the carnage continued. There was a caution about every 3 to 5 laps for the remainder of the event. Like I said before, Toledo is a hard track to race because there is no official groove or track and contact is going to happen whether guys are being aggressive or not. I was able to pass a few cars under green along the way but the cautions and carnage really helped me. By the time we got to 5 laps to go, I was back up in 6th place. On the restart, the 5th place car from out of town jumped the start. That jumbled third, fourth and fifth place. I sat back and waited for another wreck but it didn't happen. I tucked in behind Chance Rice in 5th. He got by the car who jumped the start in turn four and I was able to squeak by the same car at the line to take home 5th place. If you had told me I would finish 5th after getting wrecked early in the race, I would have though you were crazy. I really didn't know what to think about 5th place because I don't think I had a 5th place car, but sometimes you don't finish where you should. I would like to think I drove a smart race by not wrecking anyone or myself and being patient and 5th place was my reward for doing so. Yeah, let's go with that version of the story! All in all it was a great weekend for us. I logged two more top 5 finishes and now stand 3rd in points. If I hadn't gotten dumped on lap one in the first race of the year, I would probably be second in points. Right now there are a lot of torn up cars and some hurt feelings in our series. My car has the same straight front bumper that I installed in March and it has one small crack on the left rear fender from someone else hitting me. I have been through three rear bumpers so far in three races with the new car--I don't have much control over its condition. This should illustrate to some others that you don't have to drive over and through people to have good finishes. Hopefully, some others will settle down and start using a little more patience on the track. There is always a sense of urgency when you are racing, but the number of early race and big crashes that we are having this year is very unnecessary. Some of the guys that have big aspirations should listen to who they aspire to be and realize that they can't win the race in the first 10 laps. I hope cooler heads and smart racing will prevail in the coming weeks and we can get back to clean, fun racing in our series. Enough with my novel--We'll see you this Satuday at Angola!--MT May 18^th, 2008—Grand Bend Post Race Report: It wouldn't be a 2008 race weekend if rain wasn't the story leading up to race day. The forecast all week was for rain on Saturday. There was even talk of canceling the event because of the bad forecast. By Friday night and Saturday morning, the forecast had changed to a lesser chance of rain, so the race was on and Alison and I loaded up and headed for Oh Canada. After last week's debacle, I was really anxious to get back in my car and have a good race. At this point, I still hadn't raced my brand new race car in an actual race. We got across the border without issue and unloaded at Grand Bend under sunny blue skies, which was a very welcome sight. The field that made it to Canada was light—we only had 12 cars make the trip. The car was good right off the trailer. It was pretty quick in practice and I only needed to make a few small adjustments to get it ready for the heat race. The track was pretty tricky and there was little to no outside groove. This meant that there was going to have to be a lot of give and take during the races since there was really only one groove for us to race. I started 2^nd in the second heat on the outside of defending race champion Jerry Warden. I got a good start, but had to fall behind Jerry because the inside was the way to go. Jerry jumped out to a lead, but I reeled him in after a few laps. My car was really working well and I was in a good rhythm. I got to Jerry's bumper and made the pass for the lead with about 4 laps to go. Jerry raced me very clean and gave me plenty of room to get by him. Unfortunately before we could get back to the start finish line, there was a single car spin, so I had to give Jerry back the lead under the caution. When we got back to green I was right on him again, but Jerry was fast and I couldn't quite get by him. On the last lap, I got a really good run off of turn two down the backstraight. We got to three and Jerry went up the track just a bit, but with the run I had it was enough to get under him coming off of turn four. I got by him just before the finish line to take the victory. It felt really good to pick up a win, especially in the first race with the new car. I thought back to last year and how I won my first heat race in last years new car and how ironic it was that I was able to do the same thing again with the new car. It also felt good to have my fellow competitors congratulate me on the win as I pulled back into the pits. That really meant a lot to me. After the invert draw, I got the 6^th starting spot for the feature. I had my work cut out for me starting on the outside. Getting to the bottom was my priority. Unfortunately, when the race started, I lost a couple of spots before I could get there. I was pretty frustrated in the car and the car wasn't handling as well as it did in the heat race. The car was much looser getting into the corners which was hampering ability to get through the corners with speed. I finally got back into somewhat of a rhythm and was ready to start making my way up when there was a big wreck going into turn one. Jerry Warden and Brandon Mahoney got together with Jerry taking the brunt of the collision. All cars behind them, including me, had to take evasive action. I was able to get woahed up on the high side and avoid the mess. I restarted 6th^th, but more importantly in front of all the other cars involved in the incident. Jerry was the only one who couldn't continue. On the restart, I quickly got by 5^th and 4^th place. After a few more laps, I was able to get by Randy Gallagher for 3^rd place. Chris Perry, a rookie in our series, was running 2^nd and Chance Rice, last week's winner, was running 1^st. All three of us were right together, but passing was difficult and all three of our cars were pretty quick. I knew I was going to have a tough time making a pass on either car with mine being so loose, so I decided to stay close and hope one of them made a mistake. With about 4 laps to go Rice got loose and slid up the track in turn four. Perry was right there and scooted by him. I tired to get under Rice but didn't have enough grip to do so. Rice quickly got back to Perry but the caution came out. We started the race with three laps to go. All three of us got good starts and Rice made a charge at Perry. Perry was able to hold him off. We got back to the line and they showed us two laps to go. Rice was unable to get by Perry and when we got back to the line, the flagman inexplicably threw the checkered flag! I don't know if he picked up the wrong flag or if he gave us two to go on the white flag lap, but that was a pretty big screw up on the track's part. I saw the checkered flag, but Rice thought the race was still going and almost ran over Perry on the backstraight. Congrats to Perry on getting the feature win in only his second start—he drove a very good race. I was proud of my third place finish as it was the highest feature finish of my career. All three of us were interviewed at the finish line after the race, which was pretty cool! It was a great Saturday for us at Grand Bend Speedway. To pick up a heat race win and a third place feature finish in the first race with the new car is really encouraging! I hope we can keep it going! I want to thank Alison for being there for me at the track. She does a great job helping me and taking pictures and video. It has been really helpful and neat to be able to watch video of the races right after they happen. Thanks also to my parents for giving it for us for Christmas. When I figure out how to post the videos you'll be the first to know! I am looking forward to our doubleheader this weekend at Spartan on Friday and Toledo on Sunday. We'll see you at the track!—MT May 10^th, 2008—Crystal Post Race Report: It has been a couple of weeks since I have been able to update the news section. I didn't really want to update it last week after the bad luck we had with weather at Auto City. The April 27^th race was rescheduled for the following weekend, May 3^rd. I, as well as several other drivers and teams, had made other plans. Alison and I were supposed to fly down to Alabama for a weekend visit with our families. Well, I decided to skip the trip and go to the race. Alison wasn't too thrilled, but she understood that I wanted to race the first race after having worked so hard for the last 6 months in preparation. Only 14 cars showed up to Auto City on the 3^rd and that was mostly likely because the forecast for rain and the fact that this was to be an off weekend. As you might have guessed, the race was indeed cancelled because of rain. We got one practice session in and were lined up for the second one when the rain game and the event was cancelled. That made for a pretty crappy weekend since I had skipped on the trip home to stay and race. Now, on to last night's events at Crystal. I have reached an agreement with fellow racer Randy Gallagher and his Bishop Performance race team to rent one of his cars for this year's three dirt races. I have no desire to take my brand new car to the dirt tracks and have it beat up by the track and get absolutely filthy at the same time. The opportunity with Randy gives me a good car to compete with so I don't have to miss out on the race and the points. We finally had a Saturday with decent weather, so we were able to race at Crystal last night. My goal was to stay out of trouble, come home with a decent finish, and not tear up Randy's car. I started third in my heat race and stayed there for the duration of the event. I made a run and second place but just wasn't brave enough to really stick my nose in there and go for the spot. I could really drive the car down into the corners and it turned well. I finished second to out of town racer Brian Sloan. I felt pretty good about third place. The car was running well, and nothing bad happened. Because of the invert drawn for the feature, I started the race in third spot. I was excited about this because I felt I could keep the car up in the top 5 and get out of Crystal with a great finish. Randy had put a lower gear in the car, so I was having trouble getting going on the race starts. On the first start of the feature, we got down to the end of the straightaway and the top two cars got into each other. I ducked low to avoid the mess. Everyone kept going, but the incident created a bottle neck at the back of the field and the caution was put out. Since we didn't get a lap in, we had to have a double file restart. This would prove costly for me. Since I wasn't getting real good starts, I gave up some ground to Brian Sloan who was on the outside of me in fourth. We got down to the end of the front straightaway and he drove down right into me. At the same time, the 92 car was shoving me down the front straightaway. When Sloan it me it got me sideways and the 92 finished me off. Sloan must have thought he was clear, but clearly he wasn't because he got into me. The 92 was just being a little too anxious on the start considering it was lap one. This was exactly what I had hoped would not happen. I got the car back going, but something was obviously wrong with the car. Since it wasn't my car, and I didn't want to tear anything up unnecessarily, I pulled off into the pits after driving around the track under caution for a few laps. I got back to the pits and found that the left rear axle shaft had broken, so I only had power going to the right rear wheel. Perhaps I could have nursed the car around on asphalt, but with less traction on dirt, I had no chance of doing that. My night was done. I was, and still am, very disappointed with this result. Getting taken out in turn one of lap one was not how I had envisioned the season starting. At this point, all I can be happy about is not having to clean my car up this week. Of course, Brian Sloan went on to finish second behind Chance Rice. Congrats to Chance and his team on the win and I am glad that Sloan didn't win. I really felt like I could have finished in the top 5 had I not been wrecked. I am sure the Sloans will be back at Crystal in a month for the INEX National Dirt Qualifier race and I'll be sure to thank Brian for starting the mess when I see him. Next weeks race is at Grand Bend Speedway in Canada. I'll be back in my car and I am really looking forward to getting back to an asphalt track. Grand Bend is a tricky track, so it will be an interesting race for sure. Hopefully, we will have a better day next Saturday then we did this week—it can't get much worse. I headed to California this week for work and will be back on Friday in time to change the gear and get the car ready. Hopefully, the forecast will cooperate and we can have a weekend were we don't have to worry about rain. We'll see you at the track!—MT April 27^th, 2008—Auto City Report: What an unexpected turn of events! We had a beautiful day yesterday here in SE MI. It was sunny and 65 degrees all afternoon. Somehow yesterday that wasn't good enough weather for Auto City Speedway to hold an event. They inexplicably cancelled last nights scheduled event due to "weather." I will admit—it was windy during the day yesterday which made it feel a little cool. But, the forecast was for the wind to stop around 6pm (which it did) and the forecast low of 47 degrees wasn't to be reached until midnight or later. We raced in cooler conditions than that last year! I was pretty frustrated as I didn't event find out about this until I was halfway to the track at about 1pm. All the preparation and packing went down the drain! Right now, the word is that John Turnbull, our series director, has been able to reschedule the event for next Saturday night. That really messes me up because I have a trip to Birmingham planned for this weekend. I'll have to figure out how to manage that and make the race this weekend. Looking at this positively, it does give me an extra week to prepare the car and check all the settings. I could always use more time for that! It still is disappointing to have the race cancelled when the weather was about as perfect as you could hope for a late April day in MI. Canceling due to rain is one thing, but this was certainly another. I have updated the pictures page with some pictures of the car from Saturday as we were loading up. The graphics that Ron did turned out really well. I think the new outline will definitely show up better at night! I also was able to get the 2007 season pictures from Karen Krassa posted on the pictures page, so be sure to check those never before seen pictures out as well. We'll see you at the track next week!—MT April 23^rd, 2008: The snow has finally stopped! The car has been completed and was on the racetrack last Thursday, Saturday and Sunday for break in and hot laps. You can check out the pictures page for some updated pictures. I went to Auto City on Thursday to turn the first laps in the new car. I took it easy of course, and everything seemed to work fine. Nothing broke and nothing fell off, so that was good! Then I went to Flat Rock on Saturday for more shakedown and to start running the car at race pace. I was the only Legends car out of 72 cars that showed up for practice that day. Talk about being a small fish in a big pond! The car was okay, but not as good as I had hoped. When I got it back home I made some small adjustments to help it out. Then I went to Spartan Speedway on Sunday afternoon for more practice. The car felt really good at Spartan which has me excited for opening day this weekend. So far so good with the new motor. Everything seems to be working fine. Hopefully it will be a good one for us. Today, the car is in Saginaw at Speedway Grafix getting lettered by Ron and his team. I am sure Ron is tired of me calling to ask questions and discuss decals, but I want the car to look good J I am excited about this weekend. I am expecting there to be a huge field of Legends car on hand for this opening race. I expect excess of 30 cars. With 8 new rookies this year it is going to be an interesting year for the Michigan Legends Series! We'll see you at the track--MT March 21^st 2008: Is the snow ever going to stop? We are getting pounded again today! It better stop in time for the season opener on April 26^th at Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI! Things have been coming along well with putting the new car together. Most of the heavy lifting has been done. You can check out the progress on the brand new MTR pictures page. My dad is coming up next weekend to help me finish the car. We still need to start and finish all the wiring/electrical work, finish installing the oil cooling system, install the body and complete all the other finishing touches. Thanks to Jerry Warden for finding me a body shop that would paint my car. Jerry took care of everything and all I had to do was pickup and drop off the body with him. The body has been painted gloss black, of course! I went up and saw the nice folks at PDQ signs in Commerce Township today to discuss some changes I want to make to my decals. They were great to work with and I am looking forward to the finished product! The changes are subtle—the MTR logo and #8 will remain the same style, but I am doing some different things with the red and slivers to help them stand out more on the car. Hopefully the decals will stand out better at night! The Northern Ohio Legends Series is having a race at Lorain County Speedway in Lorain, OH on April 19^th. I plan on racing in that event if all goes well with finishing up the car. That should be a good warmup for the Michigan Legends Series season opener on the 26^th! Check back here often to keep up with what is going on with MTR!—MT January 28^th 2008: It has been a long time since I provided an update on the race team! The off season has been filled with a lot of excitement and a ton of stuff has been happening! After wrapping up last season's Michigan Legends Series, I went on to race two more times—once at Lorain County Speedway and once at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, TN. I made wholesale changes to the car looking for something to jumpstart the 2008 season. The changes were exactly what I had been missing with the car all year. The changes I made allowed the car to grip 100 times better in the middle and off the corners. At Lorain, I passed our series champion a few laps into the race. The car felt really good! So good that I got too excited and I spun out mid way through the race! I battled back to finish 8^th in that race. The Nashville race was chocked full of competitive cars. We had to qualify for the first time all year. I started the race 18^th out of 26 cars. Through patience, defensive driving, and attrition, I was able to bring home a 10^th place finish. The results didn't indicate a huge difference in performance, but I could tell the car was handling completely different than it had all year. That was exactly what I wanted! After those races were over I had to decide how I wanted to approach the 2008 season—optimize the car I had or start fresh with a new car and a "no excuses" mentality. We ended up deciding to start fresh. We purchased a new Coupe chassis, a 1934 Ford Coupe body, and a new sealed motor from 600 Racing. We will be starting the 2008 season with what will essentially be a brand new car. All the chassis components are common between the Sedan and Coupe cars, so those parts I can reuse. Since we are essentially starting over, there is a TON of work to do. I have been very busy getting everything going and preparing for the 2008 season. The first thing I did was get the new chassis powder coated. Powdercoating Services Inc in Greenville, MI did a fantastic job and the chassis and interior sheet metal look great! I choose a red color for the power coat—it should look really good underneath the black body. Check the picture pages to see how it looks. Since the Christmas and NYE holidays, I have been busy getting everything else going. I have a lot of irons in the fire right now! We are really excited about the 2008 season and what lies ahead for us. There are more races on the schedule this year, so the summer is going to be full of racing action! Check the schedule page for all the race dates, and check back here to see how we are progressing towards opening night on April 26^th at Auto City Speedway!—MT -----------------------------------------------------------------------------2007 Updates Below------------------------------------------------------------------------ October 2^nd—2007 Michigan Legends Season Recap: The 2007 season has come to an end and what a season it was for us! When we started the season, we had no idea what things would be like or how things would go, so our expectations were all over the place. Having never raced anything before or even attended a Michigan Legends race, we really had no idea what was coming. In the beginning, I thought a top 15 finish in points and a threat to finish in the top 15 each race would be good. As the season progressed and things came together, that turned into top 10 in points and top 10 in each race. We were able to accomplish this goal by finishing 9^th in overall points (3^rd in Semi Pro points) and logging 8 top 10 finishes and 1 top 5 finish in 15 series races. If not for a bad finish at Flat Rock to start the season and getting crashed by a lapped car in the middle of the season at Auto City, we would have averaged a top 10 finish for the season and most likely finished 8^th in points. Those two races were our only finishes worse than 11^th all year. With the average race having 20 cars, the 11^th place average finish is right there with our goal of being a top 10 car each week. We also averaged a 13^th place start, so we improved upon our starting position as well. Considering that we had never been to any of these tracks and I had never driven a race car at all, much less in competition, these numbers are a success to us. We had hoped in the beginning of the year and during the middle of the year that we could win Rookie of the Year honors, but we weren't able to quite keep up with our main competition for that title, Chance Rice, from the middle of the season to the end. Congratulations to Chance for winning Rookie of the Year. Levi Rouster won the overall series championship, Scott Menlen was the Semi Pro Champion, Randy Gallagher was the Masters Champion, and Rick Kilbourn was the Golden Masters Champion. Congratulations to all the champions—they are all well deserving! There are several people I want to thank for making this season possible and for making it a success. First of all I want to thank my wife, Alison, for her work, effort, support, understanding, and patience as I have chased my dream this season. I enjoyed doing this with her by my side! I also want to thank my parents, Martin and Sandra, for all their support as well. They were the ones who made this and continue to make this dream possible. I hope I have made them proud! I want to thank my fellow racers Rick Kilbourn and Bill Meldrum for all their help during the season. I would not have had the success I had without their help. I want to thank all my friends who came out and supported and cheered for me during the season. There are a lot of things going on during the summer in Michigan and I appreciate your support! I want to thank John Turnbull and Bob Kyostia, the men who run the Michigan Legends Series, for giving all of us racers the opportunity to race in a great series at great race tracks all over southeast Michigan. I also want to thank all the other Michigan Legends competitors for welcoming us into the series and creating a fun and competitive racing environment. I am already counting down the days to next season's opening race! All in all it has been a great season for us. We ran well during the season, kept the car and driver in one piece (for the most part), and had a blast doing it! Racing this season was a really great experience and I enjoyed every minute of it. There were a lot blood, sweat, tears and there were a lot of long days and longer nights, but it was all worth it in the end. We are looking forward to returning next year and improving upon the results we had this year!—MT September 30^th—Auto City Post Race Report: After last weeks decent run, I was looking forward to heading back to Auto City to close out the season on a positive note. I went to the track again on Thursday hoping to fine tune the setup and get the car dialed in. Practice went well, and as the track got cooler the car got better, so I was excited about Saturday night. I made a few minor changes to the car on Friday and changed the oil. When I was changing the oil, the drain plug stripped out, so I was in panic mode Saturday morning trying to get that fixed. I got it all buttoned up and Alison and I headed for the track. During practice the car was pushing which was causing me to be loose off the corners. I made some adjustments and went out for the third practice. I got to the end of the front straightaway and my hood blew off! I forgot to put the hood pin back in the front of the hood. When the hood flew off if ripped out the rear fasteners for the hood and broke by hood fan. Luckily, that was the only damage to the car. My ego took a much bigger hit and I didn't get to try the adjustments I had made. I started 4^th out of 6 in the third heat. We had 29 cars show up for this race, so we had to have an A main and a B main feature. I stayed put in the heat and finished 4^th to transfer to the A main. Finishing 4^th in the heat put me starting 14^th for the 20 car feature event, so I had some work to do to get to a good finish. I was mulling over the car before the feature and found my wheelbases to be off what they are supposed to be. I am not sure how this happened, but it is a problem I have been battling all year. Things seem to just change without me even doing anything. I don't know how this is happening, but I plan to work on this over the off season and figure out how to stop it. The left side was shorter than the right side which meant the car would be loose going into the corners. Knowing this was distracting me as I prepared for the race, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I strapped in and lined up for the feature. I started the race and moved up the track to a higher line to fight the loose in condition I was having. It actually was a good line for me and the car was not too bad. The first few laps were a dog fight, as cars were flying all over the track jockeying for position. We were bumping and banging all over the track! After a few laps we got separated a bit, and I started passing a few cars. With about 12 laps to go, I was looking on the inside of the 03 car going into turn 3. I stuck my nose in there and he came down more than I expected him to. I had to get on the brakes hard to keep from hitting him and when I did that I spun the car out. I lost two positions and quickly got back in line as the last car on the lead lap. On the restart the 03 and the 88 tangled together and I got by them. Then I passed the 22 car and the caution came out for a spin by the 34 car. I was behind my buddy Rick KIlbourn on the restart and went to work on the high side to pass him. I worked the high side for about 3 laps and was able to get by him to finish 9^th. I was able to work the high line to my advantage which is what the car needed with the way it was handling. Considering where I started, how the car was handling and that I spun out with 12 laps to go, I was pretty content with finishing 9^th. After the feature, we had the wives and mechanics race. Alison had debated all night about whether or not she wanted to do it, but in the end she decided to give it a shot. She suited up, strapped in, lined up 4^th for the five lap event. The field had trouble getting going with some of the drivers not knowing how to drive a manual shift car, so the cars that were able to take off began to circle the track. No one really knew they were supposed to lineup and the track could not get the cars into formation for a formal start, so they just dropped the green flag at a random moment. Alison happened to be circling on the back straight when this happened, so she had no idea the green was out. The "mechanics" that were in the race and were driving much faster than the ladies who were out there came whizzing by on the outside. At that point, Alison had the car in 4^th gear and decided she would just stay to the inside and out of the way, which was the smart thing to do. She made a few laps and brought the car home in one piece. I am not sure if she will participate in that race next year or not!! All in all it was a pretty good night for us. The car wasn't handling that great and we still got another top 10 finish to end the season. Auburn beat Florida on a last second field goal and Alabama lost to Florida State, so that made the night even sweeter! Thanks to Joe Torres and his girlfriend Jenny for coming out to the track and hanging out with us. It was good to have them there!—MT September 24^th—Kalamazoo Post Race Report: After last weeks disappointing run and no solid ideas on what caused the problems, I wasn't sure what Kalamazoo would hold for us. During the off week, I found the rear brakes to be slightly out of adjustment and I also decided to replace the front brake pads. Alison and I loaded up and left around noon on what would be the best weather day we have had all season. We arrived at the track and I started checking over the car to see if I could find something, anything that might be wrong. With some help from my fellow racer Rick Kilbourn, I found what was probably causing my problems from the previous week. We found that the left front lower A arm was binding on the front cross member when the suspension would begin to jounce. This was preventing proper weight transfer to the front end, which was causing the car to push entering the corner. How the lower A arm got into this position was beyond me, but it may have had something to do with the problem I had at Auto City in practice before the Grand Bend race. We found this right before practice began, so I didn't have time to fix it until after practice was over. Kalamazoo is a really nice track. It is a wide track with long sweeping corners, so the speeds were pretty fast. It did not have as much banking as I had hoped. I still think M40 is my favorite big track despite the crazy turn 3 at that track. As usual, I spent most of practice just trying to find the line and the pace of the track. The long corners really wanted a loose car, so I was nervous about setting the car up to be too loose off. I finally drew a good number for my heat race, and started on the pole. That didn't last long on lap one as I have struggled at the big tracks on restarts with the gear I have been using this year. I drove deep into turn one, but Jerry Warden passed me on the outside. I hung in second place for a few laps and then was passed by eventual feature race winner Frank Jiovanni. I ended with a solid third place run in the heat. The car was pretty good during the heat race, I was just giving up a little in the turns which has been my story all year. I chose not to make any adjustments after the heat race because after fixing the car before the heat race, the car was much better. The good starting spots would keep on coming as the feature field was inverted such that I started 3^rd out of 24 cars for the feature. The only problem was I was behind a slower car that was on the pole due to the invert. I knew that I would be in trouble on the inside on the start and I was right. On the start I was freight-trained and had no opportunity to get to the outside to pass the car in front. I fell back to about 6^th place before I could make the pass. Right as I got around, a caution came out. I was shifting on the restarts to try and keep from getting beat by the cars behind me. On the restart, I shifted into fifth gear and going into the corner and felt my foot on still both pedals. This distracted me for a second and I blew my corner entry, allowing 2 or 3 more cars to get by. I ended up in about 10^th place. We made some laps and had a good battle for 10^th with the 92 of Tony Monge, who has really improved over the course of the season. We caught 8^th and 9^th place and while I was trying to get around the 54 car for 9th, Tony was trying to get around me, and the 03 of Butch Polson was trying to get around him. I was beating the 54 into the corners but would lose ground coming off which was keeping me from passing. I went into turn one with about 5 to go and gave the 54 of Rick Kilbourn a good shot in the rear. The 54 got loose, but was able to keep it in the groove and I couldn’t get by. After that, I tried to pass him outside, but there was not much grip on the outside coming off the corners. Trying the outside almost cost me 10^th, so I decided to stay where I was and hold onto to a top 10 finish. We all crossed the line in that order and I finished 10^th. I felt like I had a car that could have run 8^th, but just couldn't quite make it happen off the corners with the gear I had. The car was handling much better than the week before, so I was content with another top 10 finish and a car that was handling pretty well. I am hoping that as I get more experience and laps on these tracks, that I can get my lap times down and break into those top 7-8 cars that I just can't compete with right now. The problem is I don't know if it is me or the car that is lacking. All in all, it was a decent day. We finished well in the heat race, and did fairly well in the feature. The car was back to handling well, which is really good. Next week we head to Auto City Speedway for our final race this season. It has been a fun and exciting year being a part of this series. We are currently 9^th in points with 1 top 5 and 7 top 10 finishes. Hopefully we can go out on a positive note in our final race of the year. We'll see you at the track!—MT September 19^th—Grand Bend Post Race Report: After just over a month off, I was ready to get back going again. I went to Auto City the Thursday before the Grand Bend race to shake the car down and break in some new tires. The car was handling good at Auto City, so I was upbeat about our chances heading into Grand Bend. Alison and I headed for Canada early Saturday morning. The track was opening early to let us have some extra practice time. Unfortunately, it started raining as we crossed into Canada and it didn't stop until around 2pm—so much for extra practice. Grand Bend was a challenging track. Their normal divisions are smaller scale cars, so the track is narrower than most tracks we race on. The track was a true D shape. It was a little bigger than Toledo, but maybe not quite as big as Flat Rock. Turns 1 and 4 were really tight and sharp and turns 2 and 3 and the back straight were really all one big curve. That made it difficult to get into the gas hard coming out of 2 because you were turning all the way down the back straight. I was able to get three practice sessions in before our heat races began. The car was handling pretty good, but I never really found a good line going down the backstraight and getting into turn three that got me through turn 4 well. I was good into and out of one and two. During practice we all discovered that it was going to be really hard to pass on this track because of the tight turns and narrow track. I didn't make any changes during practice because the car felt pretty good and I didn't anticipate the track changing much between practice and race time. I lined up 4^th out of 5 cars for the first heat race. The inside line was preferred and I got down to the inside as quick as I could. I stayed with the top three for a few laps, but they inched away on me as I was still struggling getting into turn three. I finished 4^th which put me starting 10^th out of 15 cars for the feature. The car was handling okay and I was convinced that I just needed to figure out how to get into and out of 3 and 4 to get my lap times down. The feature race started fine and after 10 or so laps I had gotten up to 7^th place. Unfortunately that didn't last. During the feature race I was really struggling to find a good front to rear brake balance. I was adjusting my bias valve during the race, but I wasn't able to find a position that felt right. Too much to the front and the car pushed up going into the corner, too much to the rear and the car wanted to spin out braking into the corner. I was getting beat really badly getting into turn three and four and I fell back to 11^th place to finish the race. It was a really disappointing finish for me because the car was handling fine during practice and I didn't really pick up the braking problem until I got into the race. I got really loose getting into turn three during the middle of the race and two cars passed me. After that, the car never was the same and I struggled. I think some of it had to do with the fact that I got frustrated with the cars handling and lost my concentration. I'll tell you, it is hard to concentrate on hitting marks when you have 2 or 3 cars right on your bumper and you are trying to hold your position and your car is handling poorly! Our races are so short that you really don't have time to be patient when getting around the car in front of you. If you get to patient, you will run out of time! And I knew what was coming since the guys behind me were beating me into turn three and four. So between the car's handling under corner entry braking and me losing my cool behind the wheel, we wound up 11^th. That is tough because I feel like I had a better car than 11^th. But, like we saw at Angola, you don't always finish where you necessarily should. All in all it was a pretty crappy weekend—we listened to Auburn lose on the radio before the race, MTR didn't run well, and then we listed to Alabama win on the ride home. Talk about salt in the wound! I don't know if a late summer day can get any worse than that! We are off to Kalamazoo this week for a rain date from May. We are the only cars racing that night. The rest of the action will be part of the Night of Destruction at the speedway. It should be pretty fun! Kzoo is a fast 3/8 mile track, so hopefully we can keep up the good finishes we have had on that size track. I want to recognize my grandfather J. Paul Todd this week. He reads the news section every week and has been contributing to the team! Thanks, Papa! August 12^th—Angola Post Race Report: I spent a lot of time this week going over the setup of the car and making sure everything was the way it is supposed to be. I wanted to get everything grounded so I would know the car was where it was supposed to be. I headed out for Angola and arrived in plenty of time to get unloaded and prepared for practice. I spent all my time before practice double checking the car making sure everything was correct. It was a hot day down in Indiana and the track was slick during practice. Angola is a very nice facility. The track had pretty tight turns with good banking, so the track was pretty fast. We had several cars from out of town show up for this race, which made for 24 cars total. We were able to get four practice sessions which was really good for me. The car was bad in the first practice, was good in the second and really good in the third. The car was probably as good as it has ever been in the third practice. By the time we had a fourth practice, the track had changed and the car wasn't as good. I ended up with a really tough draw for my heat race. I was in the third heat and started 6^th. 5 of the top 7 cars in points were in my heat race. The car was a little loose during the heat race and I settled into 6^th place. A caution came out with 2 laps to go, and on the restart the 92 car jumped to my inside and was able to get by me. The rules regarding passing before the start finish line were really liberal at this track. I ended up finishing 7^th, which put me in the 20^th starting place for the feature race. I was really disappointed to be starting so far back for the feature and I knew I had my work cut out for me. I passed a couple of cars on the high side on the start and then dove to the inside to avoid the first caution and passed a couple more cars. Little did I know this would be the first of many cautions. On the next restart, I passed a couple more cars and settled in behind the 96 car. Going into turn one, the 00 lapped car was on the inside. We went to pass him and he drifted up and he and the 96 got together right in front of me. They touched wheels which triggered a pretty big wreck. Luckily, I was able to drive right between them and avoid them. This put me in about 12^th place behind my good buddy Rick Kilbourn in the 54 car. I tucked in behind him on the restart and figured he and I would go to the front. Coming off of turn 2 the 22 car got loose and spun out right in front of the 54. Not having a clear sightline of what was happening, I had to take serious evasive action to avoid the 22 car. That was two close calls before we even got halfway through the race! On the restart, something happened to the 54 car heading into turn 3. I had to check up and still got into the back of him a little bit. I got by, but the 1 car behind me was able to get a run on my inside. We battled side by side for a lap and a half and then coming out of turn four, I got back to the gas too hard and my car just snapped around on me and I spun out. Luckily, no one else hit me. I was able to get the car going, but I had to restart the race at the back of the pack. I was really mad at myself for losing the car! On the restart, I passed two or three cars on the high side very quickly. Another caution came out after that. On the next restart, I was able to pass a couple more cars on the outside. This got me back up to about 12^th place. Then another caution came out. On the next restart I was able to pass a couple more cars to get up to 10^th place. Then another caution came out with about 5 or 6 laps to go. As I got closer to the front, I could tell there was some trickery going on by the leaders on the restart. The leaders would accelerate down the backstraight then slow way down in turn three and then hit the gas at some point in turn four. This was causing a lot of trouble because all the cars were stacking up behind the leaders in anticipation of the start. This is what happened on the restart with 5 to go. With all the cars stacked up, 5^th through 7^th place got together heading into turn 1. This put me up to 7^th place. On the next restart, the 23 and the 38 got together coming to take the green, and that moved me to 5^th place with two laps to go. I couldn't believe that after starting 20^th, spinning out and going to the back, and then fighting my way back that I was in 5^th with two laps to go! Everything went well on the next restart, and I finished the race to collect my first career top 5 finish. In racing you don't always earn the spot you finish. I don't think I was the 5^th fastest car, but that was where I ended up at the finish and I will take it for sure! After the bad luck during the heat race and in the previous weeks, I guess I got some good luck to pick up the top 5 finish! It was a wild and crazy night at Angola!! The Michigan Legends series takes a well deserved break for the next few weeks. The Angola race was the 7^th race in the last 5 weeks. A lot has happened over the last month—that's for sure! It has been filled with good and bad. The bookends were a 7^th place finish M-40 and the 5^th at Angola, so it started and finished well! We head to "Oh, Canada" on September 15^th for an event at Grand Bend Speedway in Ontario. It is a track like Toledo, so it should be an interesting race! We'll see you at the track—MT August 6^th—Dixie Post Race Report: After last weeks bad luck, I was ready to get back to the track to make up for what should have been another top 10 finish. The weather was awful Sunday morning in Canton. It was raining so hard I could barely get everything loaded. I called the track and they assured me it was not raining there, so I headed out and arrived at the track just in time for the first practice. I worked really hard all week getting the car put back together correctly and making sure I had all my settings just right. The car was really tight in the first practice—probably as tight as it has been all year. I made some adjustments and got the car looser during the next two practices. I started 4^th out of 6^th in my heat race that was filled with me and three top 5 drivers. I stayed where I was and finished 4^th. The car was a little tight in the middle of the corners and I just couldn't get off the corners as aggressively as the faster cars (that should sound familiar). I made some more adjustments after the heat race and lined up 10^th for the feature, of course just missing the invert that would have put me on the front row! We started the feature without incident and I lost a spot on the start. Perhaps I need to be a little more aggressive on the starts, but I am still hesitant to get really aggressive with all the cars bunched up like that—the consequences of a mistake are just too high. I spent the rest of the race chasing two cars in front of me. I was able to get by the 10^th place car halfway through the race, but then got passed by another car coming from the back. With two laps to go I grabbed another spot. As I took the white flag, Rick Kilbourn's car had broken a trailing arm bolt and he was limping around the track. I got by him and posted an 9^th place finish. The adjustments I made after the heat race were a little too aggressive and the car was loose in the middle of the corners. The car felt a tick tight getting in, and then was loose in the middle. The traction was okay off the corners, but the car was getting loose before I could get back to the gas and could not be as aggressive on my corner exits. A top ten finish was good and I finished about where I should have, but I still am missing something that those top 7-8 cars have. The car was handling differently than it has all season, and I just couldn't find the right adjustments to get what I needed. After last week's debacle at Auto City, I will take another top ten finish! Be looking for a race to be added to the schedule at Auto City Speedway on either the 18^th or 25^th of August. This Saturday we head to Angola Motor Speedway, which is just south of the Michigan and Indiana border on I-69. Angola is a 3/8 mile track with some good banking, so it should be another fast, exciting race for us. With only 5 races left, the season is getting down to the nitty gritty! We'll see you at the track—MT August 2^nd—Spartan and Auto City Post Race Report: I was ready to get back to the track this week to show that last week was an anomaly for us. I had some special guests up this weekend for the races. My father, Martin Todd, and my college roommate, James Watkins, were here to serve as interim crew chiefs. It was great to have them up for the weekend! We arrived at Spartan and spent the first two practice sessions breaking in the new tires. I could tell a positive difference pretty quickly with the new tires. Spartan is a really tight track compared to the other tracks we have been to. Coming out of turn four is really tight, and the wall is right there to get you if you make a mistake. I was able to get a third session to really go hard on the new tires, and the car was pretty loose when I started pushing it. I made an adjustment to tighten it up before the heat race. I started the heat race on the outside pole, with Rick Kilbourn on the inside. I lost one spot as Rick and Scott Menlen battled for the win. I hung in for a third place finish, besting the charging 4^th place car at the line. I lined up 8^th for the feature, and just missed the invert that would have put me on the front row for the feature. The car drove pretty good in the feature. Lapped traffic was a big issue for this race as we were constantly passing cars. I dropped one position during the feature and finished 9^th. There was a pretty clear gap between the top 8 cars and my car. I just didn't have anything for that group of cars. My car got loose at the end, but I was never in any real danger of losing 9^th spot. The big news for the night was that Chance Rice in the #38 won the feature. Chance and I have been battling for the Rookie of the Year throughout the season, exchanging the lead several times. Chance took a big step forward Friday night with the feature win. Congratulations to him and his team! Saturday afternoon we headed off to Auto City Speedway. This was our first trip back there since the first event of the season. I was looking very forward to going back there and racing in the big 50 lap race, which is our feature event for the year. The car was pretty good in practice. We made some slight adjustments to make it better. The new tires were definitely making a positive difference in the cars handling. I lined up 5^th for my heat race. I quickly made my way to 4^th spot and spent most of the race challenging for 3^rd. On lap 7, I got a good run off of turn 2 and got my nose just far enough inside third place to race for the spot when the caution came out for a spin. After the restart, I wasn't able to get back in there, so I settled for 4^th. We made some major adjustments to the car after the heat race, hoping to really help the car get off the turns better. I lined up 11^th for the feature race and was looking forward to the long race and making my way up through the field. The race started cleanly and I settled into 8^th spot and spent the first 20 laps or so challenging for 7^th place. I could get a run off the 2^nd turn and get my nose inside for the spot, but the 7^th place car was a tad faster than me on the straights, so I couldn't get far enough inside to race for the spot. This went on for several laps and we started making our way through lapped traffic around the middle of the race. The lapped traffic was pretty heavy and I was being very conscious to stay out of trouble. Coming off of turn 4 I drove underneath the #9 lapped car when something happened to his car and he drove across the right front of my car. I have no idea what happened, but he basically just turned left as we exited the corner and destroyed the right front of my car. The contact broke the spindle, steering link, upper link, front bumper, and my right front wheel and tire. I was unable to continue racing with that amount of damage. It was very disappointing to be taken out like that, especially during our biggest race of the year that awarded double points. I ended up with a 19^th place finish out of 20 cars. My Dad, James, and I worked on the car on Sunday and Monday and got everything put back together, and I have been working this week to get all the settings back in the right spots. Thanks to Dad and James for all their help over the weekend—it was great to have them! We are a part of the "Eve of Destruction" show at Dixie Motor Speedway this Sunday, so it should be a very wild and entertaining day of racing. We'll see you there!!—MT July 24^th—Toledo and Owendale Post Race Report: After last week's good run at M40, I was looking forward to another busy weekend of racing. Unfortunately, the weekend did not go well at all. It started badly at Toledo on Friday night. Toledo is a really tough track because it is really small and tight—it was almost like racing in a parking lot. During the week, I had found some suspension settings were off, so we unloaded the car and began working to get them corrected. Those changes did not do anything to make the car handle better as the car was really bad in practice. I did not have traction anywhere on the track, and I could not establish a rhythm or a good line around the track for having to fight the wheel all the way around the track. I tightened the car up quite a bit to try to help the problem for the heat race, but it did not help any. I started last and finished last in the heat. I wanted to try some more changes after the heat, but as soon as we got back to the garage after the heat, the track called us up for our feature! I had no opportunity to even think about what changes I could make to help the car. Starting in the back for the feature certainly didn't help anything either. I struggled for the entire race and ended up finishing 11^th out of 16 cars. I never could get a handle on the car or the track. I am glad we only race there once this year—I am already not looking forward to going back next year! I spent all morning Saturday checking the car over to see if something was wrong that would make the car so bad the night before. Unfortunately I did not find anything big wrong with the car, so I loaded it up and headed for the dirt at Owendale. I sort of looking forward to the dirt this time because of the good run I had at Crystal in June. Owendale was a good three hours away, so I had to hustle to get there on time after working on the car all morning. I unloaded the car and got out on what was a slick and wet track for practice. The car was sliding all over the place. I made some adjustments to tighten the car up, but by the time we had our heat race the track had been run in by the other divisions and had become relatively hard. The changes did not go well with the track conditions and I struggled to a 5^th place finish in my heat race. Traction was very limited and I was not getting off the corners well at all, which was the same problem I had the night before at Toledo. After the heat race, I loosened the car up for the feature race. We only had 12 cars so for this dirt race, so starting in the back again wasn't really too far back. The changes really did not help the car, and I spent the entire race spinning my tires and struggling to get through the corners. I was getting in the corners okay, but not getting off the corners was really killing my ability to make good complete laps. To make things worse, I spun out on the last corner of the last lap while running 8^th trying to make a pass for 7^th. As a result of that, I lost two spots and finished 10^th. And as my luck this weekend would have it, my competition for Rookie of the Year had his best race of the year on Saturday, posting a heat race win, and a 2^nd place finish in the feature. That was great for him, but bad for me since I ran so poorly on Saturday! He has opened up a pretty good lead on me now in the rookie race, so I have some work to do to get back in the game. All in all, it was a terrible weekend at the track for us. We ran really poorly on Friday and Saturday—as Dale Earnhardt Jr. would put it, "Ran like crap!" Hopefully, we can bounce back this weekend. I am getting new tires this week, so I hope that will help the traction and handling of the car. My current tires were new with the car, but they were purchased in early 2006, so they are well over one year old at this point. I plan to practice the car on Thursday at Auto City to break the tires in and hopefully get back on track with the way the car needs to be handling to be competitive. We are at Spartan Speedway on Friday and Auto City Speedway on Saturday night for our BIG 50 lap, double point event. We'll see you at the track—MT July 16^th—M40 Speedway Post Race Report: Having not raced again for three weeks was really getting to me, so I was anxious to get to M40 Speedway on Friday night. I headed out around noon and Alison followed after she got out of work around 3:30. I arrived around 2:30, and was forced to park in the infield pits. This would make communication with other the competitors and our series director very difficult. There was about 10 or 12 other Legends cars in the infield pits, so it wasn't all that bad, but some coordination to have us all in the same area would have been nice. M40 is a pretty unique and fast track. It was nicely banked in the corners and straightaways, which made for some fast lap times. By the end of the night, I was running lap times in the high 14 second range, which equates to an average speed just above 90 mph. Corner entry speeds were likely toping 100 mph! We had two practice sessions, and the car was handling pretty well. I made some adjustments after practice one, but didn't like them in practice two, so I undid the adjustments for the heat race. I no longer have to start in the back for heats or features anymore, so I lined up according to the prerace draw, which was 3^rd in the second heat race. We had 27 cars show up for this national qualifying event, so the field was chocked full of good cars. We had 8 cars from out of town. My heat race started without incident, but I quickly lost one spot. That was where I would stay the rest of the race, to pick up a 4^th place finish. The heat race went well because I didn't have any cars around me and I was able to learn the track a little more prior to the feature event. I made one slight adjustment to loosen the car up prior to the feature, anticipating the track would tighten up with the cooler conditions. I lined up 11^th for the feature, just outside the invert draw of 10. I was pretty nervous before the feature, because this was my first time to start in the middle of the pack on the inside line with no where to go if trouble happened in front of me. We started the race okay, but sure enough, trouble occurred coming out of turn two on lap one with the 2^nd and 4^th place cars. Jerry Warden tangled with Rick Kilbourn to bring out a lengthy caution. Both cars hit the outside wall hard and they were done for the night. We finally got back going again and this time we were able to log some green flag laps without issue. The car was handling pretty well and I was battling for position with all the cars around me—it was intense! We had another caution around lap 12. When we went back green the cars were sliding all over the place because our tires had picked up debris from being hot under the previous green conditions. I slipped up in turn three and four a few laps later and #186 was able to get by me for 7^th place. We had another caution shortly after that and I plotted how I was going to get back around him. We took the green and I tried to slip back by on the inside. I think I was a tick faster than he was, but I could not get enough of a run off the corner to get inside of him before another caution came out on lap 22. While trying to get by the #186, I had the #911 right behind me waiting for a mistake, so I was being careful not to overdrive the car and loose another spot. We went back green and I took to the high side to pass the #186. I got along side of him going into a couple of corners, but the car was pushing on the high side of the corners, so I couldn't make the outside work. All of a sudden as we came around to complete lap 25, the checkered flag was waving! I was just about to try to make another move on the #186, when the race inexplicably ended! Come to find out (after the race of course), the track had cut our race short by 5 laps due to time issues. We normally have one way communication with our series director who can relay information like this to us via radio, but the track told us not to use our radio because it was interfering with their system. Cutting the race short with no communication to the drivers was pretty bush league, and a very unprofessional thing to do on the part of the track and our series management for not insisting the information be communicated to us. How the heck am I supposed to race someone if the race can unexpectedly end at any given lap? I wasn't the only driver who was upset about this after the race either! Another debacle the track allowed was to let lapped cars keep their position in line on restarts. For the two restarts near the end of the race, me and the #186 had to start behind 3 lapped cars, making it impossible to challenge the cars ahead of us for position on the restart. Hopefully something can be done by our series management to prevent these things from occurring in the future. Regardless of all this nonsense, I finished 8^th out of 26 cars for my second consecutive top ten finish. All in all it wasn't a bad night—I got a top ten and didn't tear up the car. But, the way the race ended left a bad taste in everyone's mouth that is for certain! Our next race is at Toledo Speedway on July 20^th. We then go to Crystal Speedway for another dirt show on July 21^st,so it is going to be a busy weekend for sure. Hopefully we can keep up the good finishes! We'll see you at the track!!—MT June 28^th, 2007—Auto City July 3^rd race cancelled: The July 3^rd event at Auto City Speedway has been cancelled. This is very disappointing for me and my parents who were hoping to see me race while they are here for the July 4^th week. We are looking at going down to Kentucky Speedway for the Summer National event there, but there are some logistics issues that make that trip difficult. I am pretty bummed about this. I am off all week next week on mandatory vacation, and I do not have a race to go to. Hopefully, something will change or an event will get scheduled. If not, our next event will be on July 13^th and M-40 Speedway in Jones, Michigan. Check back for the latest info! June 23^rd, 2007—Crystal Post Race Report: After a week of agonizing about whether or not to race on the dirt, I decided to do it. I knew if I wanted to compete for Rookie of the Year, I would have to go. Plus, I figured I could not like it that bad, if I had never been or tried it. The ride to Crystal was enjoyable—there was some great country side scenery on the way. I made the trip solo and arrived a little after 4pm. Apparently with dirt tracks, we don't get much practice as all was had was one 5 lap session. That certainly didn't help to ease my fears about how the racing would turn out. My biggest fear was going into the corners and wondering how the car would behave. The track was doing all they could to get us a smooth track by having the other divisions do most of the track packing after they would water it. I lined up 5^th out of 5 for my heat race. The track was still pretty moist for our race, and traction was limited to the middle of the straights. I tried some of my winter driving techniques when getting through the corners, but I couldn't really make any of them work any better than just trying to drive through the corners normally and just control the car when it got loose or started to slide. I finished 4^th in my heat. The mud on the car wasn't too bad after the race. It really was just restricted to under the fenders and behind the tires. There weren't many cars on the track for the heat race, so there really wasn't any mud on the front of the car. As a result, I took one of my layers of screen off the front of the car. Since this was a dirt national qualifying race, there were five cars from out of town--2 from Pennsylvania, 2 from Ohio, and 1 from Minnesota. They were fast too—I guess you could call them "dirt ringers!" I lined up 12^th out of 17 cars for the 30 lap feature race. I was glad to be starting on the outside because I knew I had plenty of room to go high if someone pulled a "Jerry Warden" going into turn one. Thankfully, that didn't happen, and we got going just fine. It took me a few laps to get the car going, but once I got it "wound up" it was actually pretty fast. I was catching and passing cars in front of me, so I was gaining confidence as the race went on. I opened up a decent lead on the cars behind me, so I was able to concentrate on going fast and getting through the corners. With about 5 laps to go, I had worked my way up to 7^th place. I had passed some cars and some had fallen out of the race. My good buddy Rick Kilbourn was in 6^th place. I was a little bit faster than him and it took me a couple laps to find a clean line around him. I certainly didn't want to risk anything being inside the top 10 right at the end of the race. With 2 laps to go, I passed Rick on the outside going into turn one and two. Unfortunately, the caution came out right as I cleared Rick coming off turn 2. The field reverts back to the last completed lap, so I had to get back in line behind Rick while we were under caution. The caution really hurt me because (1) it cost me 6^th place, and (2) it got all the guys behind me, who were about a straightaway behind me, right back up to my bumper. And, I knew that the car would not be good with one lap to go, because it took it awhile to get "wound up" at the start of the race. We took the green and white flag at the same time and everyone just stuck to the bottom of the track. Traction was really tough, just like I thought it would be, but I made it around okay and finished 7^th. I certainly didn't expect to get my first top ten finish on the dirt, but I will definitely take it! It was an exciting race with lots of action all over the track! All in all, it was a good night. I didn't tear the car up (that I know of) and I walked away with my first top ten finish and a good points night. Now I get to go spend 10 hours cleaning and inspecting the car!! The next race is on July 3^rd at Auto City Speedway. This will be our first trip back to Auto City since our very first race. I ran pretty well at Auto City, so I am looking forward to it. My parents will be in town the week of the 4^th, so they will be in attendance to watch me race for the first time. I am really looking forward to having them here and be a part of all this. We'll see you at the track!!—MT June 16^th, 2007—Flat Rock Post Race Report: I was really excited to return to "The Rock" following our good run on Friday night at Dixie Speedway. When we raced at Flat Rock in May, the car didn't handle very good, but after adjusting on the car during the week, I was confident we would have a better run. Alison and I unloaded the car and it was fast in the first practice. I was already a couple tenths faster this time than last time we were there. I tried some things with my line and corner entry points in the second practice, but didn't find anything useful. I left the car alone since it was still handling good with the adjustments from Dixie. With only four rookies present, there was not a rookie heat race, so I started 7^th out of 7 cars in the second 8 lap heat race, just like the night before at Dixie. The car was handling good during the race. Flat Rock is a fast track and I wasn't using the brakes in the corners. The #28 and #22 both fell out of the race with mechanical issues, and I was able to finish 3^rd in the race which granted me a trip to the tech barn for post race inspection. I passed tech fine and we looked forward to the feature, where I would start 19^th out of 21 cars. I will be glad when I don't have to start in the back for every race, but when you start in the back, you can only improve your position! A HUGE crowd was on hand for the event because Flat Rock was hosting School Bus Figure 8 racing after our event. It was great to be able to race in front of so many people for the second night in a row! The feature race started without any issues and I started working my way through the pack. I was able to make good progress as the car continued to handle really well. We had a caution on about lap 10 and that bunched us all up again. Restarts are pretty nerve racking. You have to look several cars up to see what is developing in front of you, and pay attention to the cars right by you to make sure they are good as well. We got going again and passed some more cars when the red flag came out for the #17 blowing an engine. Ryan got out of the car okay, but he was done for the night. That was the 3^rd blown engine in our series in two nights. We got back going again and I worked my way up to 11^th place. I chased the #25 car for several laps, but wasn't able to get by for that coveted first top 10 finish. The last couple of laps were pretty intense and on the final corner, I got down on the apron in the dirt trying to get a run on the #25, and I got the car really sideways. I kept my foot to the floor and crossed the finish line as out of control-sideways as it gets without losing it (for me anyways), beating the #03 car to the line. I would have been really upset with myself if I had given that spot away at the end. I was pretty happy with my 11^th place finish. I was able to work the traffic and pass cars without any issues, and that is good progress in my book! Congrats to Scott Menlen for picking up his first ever Legends feature win! Thanks to all the fans that came out to see us race—I think we put on a good show for them! The next race is on the dirt at Crystal Speedway. I haven't made up my mind on whether or not I am going. I know it is going to be one heck of a mess go clean up, and those that know me know that I don't like a messy car, including my race car. The Northern Ohio series is at Lorain again, so I may go down there instead. Either way we'll see you at the track!!—MT June 15^th 2007—Dixie Speedway Post Race Report: We returned to the track for the first time since the Lorain race on the 28^th of May. Alison and I went to Dixie Speedway on Wednesday for open practice to prepare for Friday's event. The practice went really well, and I was able to get the car handling really well. We unloaded the car on Friday and practiced really well, which had me excited for the night ahead. I made some adjustments to loosen the car up after practice. We made it tight during Wednesday's practice, so loosening it up a bit made it just right. I was able to turn through the middle of the corners well, and still have good traction off the corners, something I hadn't had all season. With only four rookies present, there was not a rookie heat race, so I started 7^th out 7 cars for the second 10 lap heat race. The car was handling good and I was making my way up through the pack when I got together with the #34 heading into turn one. We both went for the same real estate, and he got into my right front. He spun in front of me and I ended up driving over his left rear wheel, getting airborne in the process. Luckily my car wasn't damaged too much—just a cracked fender and some scratches. The #34's left rear fender came off and he had a flat tire, so he could not continue. I had to go to the back as a result of the wreck. The car was still driving fine and I got back up to 4^th place to finish the heat. We looked the car over after the race, and everything checked out okay, so we looked ahead to the 30 lap feature, where we were starting 16^th out of 18 cars. A huge crowd was on hand for the event because Dixie was hosting a 100 lap Dixie Cup event featuring Late Model cars. It was really cool to be able to race in front of a large crowd! On lap 2 of the feature, the #03 and the #38 got together in turn one, stacking up all us cars behind them. The 38 spun, but there was no caution, which I think most of us behind the incident were expecting. As a result, it split the field into two packs—those in front of the spin, and those behind it. The car was handling great and I was able to work my way up through the pack to 11^th. By the time I got to 11^th, 10^th place was over a straightaway ahead, and I didn't have enough laps left to catch him. We finished the feature in 11^th place, and I was pretty content with that. The car handled great during the race, and we didn't get into any trouble in the feature, so the night ended pretty well! Congrats to Levi Rouster for winning the feature, his first feature victory this year. Thanks to all the fans at Dixie for sticking around to watch the Michigan Legends!—MT June 3^rd, 2007—Website Update: I updated the website today. There are several new links on the links page, and I also updated the schedule with the Kzoo rain date and some more Northern Ohio Series races. I am also playing with the guestbook feature our web server provides, but am having some technical difficulties with it. Look for it on the Contact Us page. Enjoy!!—MT May 28^th, 2007—Kalamazoo Rained Out and Lorain County Post Race Report: Expectations for a fun Memorial Day weekend were lost with a torrential downpour here in Michigan that began early Saturday morning and didn't really let up until Sunday afternoon. As a result, the Auto Value Bumper to Bumper Michigan Legends Series race at Kalamazoo was rained out on Saturday. The call was made early in the day, so at least we didn't have to drive out there and sit in the rain all day. That makes three scheduled events and two rainouts for the Michigan Legends Series—not a good start to the season! The Kalamazoo race is supposed to be rescheduled, so check back for the latest info on us heading out to the nice 3/8 mile track. Itching to get some seat time, I headed down to Lorain, OH with fellow Michigan Legends Series drivers Rick Kilbourn, Ryan Meldrum, Levi Rouster, and Jerry Warden for a special Memorial Day race at Lorain County Speedway, a few miles west of Cleveland. This was a Northern Ohio Legends Series race. Lorain County is a 3/8 mile track with 12 degrees of banking, which made for some fast racing. The weather was beautiful and stayed perfect all day long. We started the day with two practice sessions. During the first practice I spent my time trying to find the line and see how the car would handle. I made a couple of tweaks and went out for the second practice. I was having trouble getting the car through the corners with speed. I would go in deep and the front end would slide up the track. I would go in easy and get back to the throttle and the car would oversteer. Through adjustments, I got the car to the point were it would turn well going into the corner, but I still couldn't find the speed through the corners. I was the only rookie at this race, so I had to start at the back of my heat race, and I had to start at the back of the feature. When the heat started, I realized I was in fast company with the other racers. I stayed at the back and just logged laps finishing 6^th out of 6^th. It really ended up just being another practice session since my finishing position didn't really matter. The other Michigan Legends Series racers fared well in the heat races with Jerry Warden and Levi Rouster finishing 1^st and 2^nd, respectively, in heat 2, and Rick Kilbourn taking the checkers in heat 3. I lined up 18^th out of 18 cars for the 25 lap feature. When the feature started I stayed with the pack, but it didn't take long for three or four of us in the back to get behind. I battled the #22 of Wendell Napper for most of the race and was able to get by him with about 5 laps to go. About the same time, I got lapped by the leaders. The car felt okay, I just couldn't find the line or the grip to get through the corners with the speed I needed to be fast. It would turn okay, but when I got back to the gas it would oversteer and my straightaway speed suffered. The car may have been too loose, but I had to get it that way so that it would turn in the center of the corner. I still have a lot of learning to do! The race was caution free until about 3 laps to go when someone spun out. We lined back up, and on the restart, Ryan Meldrum and Jerry Warden somehow got tangled up and spun out, spoiling their chances of a good finish. I crossed the finish line 16^th out of 18 cars. I did finish better than where I started, but overall it was a tough day as it was pretty obvious I was off the fast pace of the leaders. I didn't expect to be super fast at a track I had never seen racing against guys who race there all the time, but I was hoping for better than I got. I did make some adjustments between each time on the track and felt those adjustments, so that was good progress. I had a lot of fun being out there on the track, and that is what it is all about! The Northern Ohio Legends Series races at Lorain County again on June 23^rd, so I may go back there again since that is a dirt track weekend for the Michigan Legends Series. Thanks to Dennis Knox who runs the Northern Ohio series for making us feel welcome! Unless the Kalamazoo race is rescheduled soon, we probably won't race again until Father's Day weekend. We have a doubleheader that weekend—Friday at Dixie Speedway and Saturday at Flat Rock. The NASCAR Nextel Cup race at Michigan International Speedway is also that weekend and we have tickets to that so it will be a busy, busy weekend! We'll see you at the track!—MT May 15^th, 2007—Flat Rock Post Race Report: Alison and my good buddy Jeremy headed off to "The Rock" this weekend for race number two. We started out with a couple of practice sessions. The first practice I was just trying to get a feel for the track, and by the second I had picked up over a half second on my lap times, and was starting to get a little more comfortable with the track. The Rock was about two seconds faster than Auto City, so the speeds were much higher this week. I started the rookie heat race in second on the outside of the #38. At the start, we stayed side by side for a lap or two, and then I tucked in behind him since he had the preferred line. I stayed right on his bumper for the next five laps trying to get a run off the corner to get my nose underneath him, but I just couldn't get enough grip off the corner to get inside of him. I went for it on the last lap going into one. I drove in real deep to try to get a good run off of turn two, but the back of the car came out and I went around for a lazy spin. I wound up third in the heat after that. I felt like I was faster than him, but I just couldn’t' get the run off the corner to get inside of him to take the lead. I wanted to tighten up the car after the spin so we made a spring adjustment before the feature. Since the rookies have to start in the back for the feature, I started 20^th out of 21 cars. As we were lining up to begin the feature, the lights went out at the track, and the track decided to shorten the feature from 30 to 20 laps. I started behind the #38 and tucked in behind him again, this time to let him do the dirty work of getting us through the pack. Unfortunately, the spring adjustment hurt the cars handling, and I wasn't getting through the turns well at all. I passed a few cars and wound up 17^th at the checkered flag, right as the lights came back on at the track. Racing in a pack of cars for the first time was definitely a challenge, but I passed the cars cleanly. I think if I had another 10 laps, I could have picked up a couple more spots. It sure was fun and exciting to be out there running with the pack! In two weeks we head off to Kalamazoo to the 3/8 mile track there. The speeds will be faster there too with the bigger track size. We'll see you there!!—MT May 3^rd. 2007—Pictures update: I added some pictures from the Auto City Race on 4/28/07 to the pictures page. Special thanks to Rich Clark who took them. Rich did a fantastic job!—MT April 30^th, 2007—Auto City Post Race Report: Alison and my good buddy Dave Simon and I headed off to Auto City Speedway on Saturday for the Michigan Legends season opener. Got to the track around 2:30 and got set up and ready to go. Practice was around 3pm, and I was a little disappointed I only was able to get about 12 laps of practice before the heat race. The car handled much differently from the way it handled at the driving school last week—as was expected due to all the changes we made during the week. The car was much looser and free in the turns, so it took some getting used to. I was getting through 1 and 2 well, but 3 and 4 were somewhat of a struggle. Needless to say, more practice time would have been really nice since seat time is what we lack and need more of at this time. It was pretty crazy the first time someone went underneath me in turn one for the first time! We left the car alone after practice and looked towards the heat race. There were 5 rookies present for the first race and we all raced together in our own heat race. I was awarded the pole, I think because of the draw we did before the drivers meeting. I was glad to draw the pole because the inside line is usually faster. We lined up for the heat race and I soon realized I forgot to change my helmet visor to the clear one from the smoke one, so I could hardly see as darkness had set in at the track. Rookie mistake I guess! I began the heat race with the #38 of Chance Rice on my outside. I was able to clear the 38 coming off turn 2 and opened a small lead, but that only lasted a couple of laps. The 38 was fast and he was on my bumper for the entire race. On lap 7 or 8, we came up on a lapped car and got around him without issue. That left 2 laps to battle for the win. The 38 looked high and looked low, but couldn't quite find a line he could use to complete the pass. The last lap was pretty intense in the car having never been in the lead coming to take the checkered flag. The car got a little loose coming off turn 4, but we were able to hold on and take the win by a car length! It was a great race and I was glad the 38 raced me clean. It looks like it is going to be a good battle between myself and the 38 for rookie of the year. I hope I can keep the car and one piece and put up a good fight! The crowd was appreciative of our race and they cheered as I got my picture made at the start finish line. It was a pretty big moment for me having grown up and seen that scene a million times from the stands. For me to be down there on the track as the winner was something I'll never forget, even if it was just a rookie heat race! Unfortunately, right after the heat race, it started raining for the second time and the feature race was cancelled. I was really bummed because I was just starting to get the hang of the car and the way it felt on the track. I need all the seat time I can get! All in all it was a great night. To get our first heat race win in our first heat race was pretty special. Thanks to Dave Simon for serving as crew chief on Saturday. It was great to have his knowledge and experience on hand to help get me through the day. I hope he can make all the races!! Thanks to everyone else who has helped make all this happen—you know who you are! The next race is at "The Rock" also known as Flat Rock Speedway on May 12^th. Hopefully, we can have as good a night as we had at Auto City! See you at the track!!—MT April 23^rd, 2007: It has been a busy two weeks!! I have been working feverishly on the car and the trailer. I have been getting the trailer ready for race action. I have outfitted it with some interior accessories for holding things and securing things and I also bought a new generator. I ended up going with the Yamaha EF2400iS inverter type generator. The capacity is not that much, but man, it is super quiet and light enough for me to pick up and carry around with out a problem. I got the trailer and car lettered at Speedway Grafix in Saginaw. Ron did an excellent job creating the number and MTR logo. He was able to get the number and letters applied very quickly despite being covered up with other cars. I finally got my 3.30 gear repaired by RC Trans and Gear in Royal Oak and got it put in the car right before I took it up to Ron's. My buddy Dave Simon came over to the house and helped me get the car ready to go on Saturday morning. We wrapped everything up and got the car ready to race on Sunday. Alison and I headed up to Auto City on Sunday morning to participate in the Michigan Legends Series driving school. John Turnbull and his son, John Jr., were there to introduce us to the cars and show us how to get around the track. The participants were me and fellow rookie Christopher Porco. John Jr. led us around the track in series participant Bob Parker's car, showing us the proper line and getting us up to speed a bit. Then they turned us loose to run hot laps for the rest of the afternoon. We did two sessions of about 50 laps, taking turns on the track about every 12 or so laps. I was able to turn in some decent lap times by the end of the day and felt real comfortable in the car the whole time. Hopefully, I will be fast enough to at least stay out of the way next weekend! Despite not having any setup done on the car beyond what Jim left me with when he dropped the car off, the car felt really good to me on the track. I had a BLAST driving the car and am looking very forward to next weekend!!! Check the photos page for pictures Alison took during the day. All the rookies will race together in a heat race for the first 5 races and we will have to start in the back for the first 5 races too. Check back here next week for the first post race report!! We'll see you at Auto City next week!!! --MT April 9^th, 2007: Things are starting to come together! I picked up my trailer today from Team Spirit Custom Trailers in Elkhart, IN today. There were a couple of small issues with it at delivery, but the guys at Team Spirit took care of everything in short order and I got it back to Canton without any issues. All that we need now is a generator and we are ready to go to the track. Of course all that was possible because my buddy James Watkins took over my Sport Trac lease enabling me to lease an F150 to pull the trailer. Thanks, BDJ! The car body has been painted and reattached to the car. Maaco Collision in Garden City did a pretty good job with the paint for the price, and I am happy with it so far. Hopefully the black will stay sharp for awhile! I was able to get a great looking logo done by Ron at Speedway Grafix. Ron is going to letter the car and the trailer sometime before the first race. I will post the artwork on the webpage when it is available. My buddy Dave Simon came over to give me a hand with changing my oil and checking over some things with the engine. We found the camshafts to be in not so great shape, so there may be some work to do there. I plan to consult with HSR to see what Hank says about the camshafts. I finally got my 3.30 gear up to RC Trans and Gear in Royal Oak. They should have it fixed by the end of this week and I should be able to get the car back on the ground with all four wheels attached by the end of the weekend. Then the neighborhood hotlaps can begin! Looks like the first on track action will be at the Legends Driving School on the 22^nd at Auto City and then the first race will follow on the 28^th at Auto City. It'll be here before we know it! –MT February 27, 2007: I have spent two more weeks in the Michigan UP and it looks like there still could be some more work to do up there. I got the seat installed and man, it is a tight fit in there. I think I have it situated, but there may still be some work to do there. I got the axle housings back from Mike at CMG and everything looks great. I also ordered a couple of his gear set holders/carriers and they are quite nice as well. It looks like my 3.30 gearset will have to be rebuilt—I suspect bad bearings. I have been to several different body shops inquiring about painting the car. I haven't chosen one yet, but will soon. I got some initial graphics artwork from Ron at Speedway Graphics in Saginaw, MI. He has put together some cool looking numbers and lettering schemes for me. The trailer is still on track for the middle of March. I have been working with Joe Schmall at B&L Trailers in Minnesota, www.bltrailers.com, to finalize the drawings for the factory in Indiana. Joe has been great to work with on ordering the trailer and taking care of everything. The Michigan Legends Series is hosting a driving clinic at Auto City Speedway a week before the first race at Auto City Speedway, so I think that will be the first chance for some track time before the season starts, unless you call driving around the neighborhood "track time", HA HA!! Stay tuned for more updates as things progress!! --MT February 2, 2007: Two weeks in the Michigan UP is a long time to be away from a new race car! The trailer was ordered this week. We ended up going with a 20' Team Spirit Track Champ. We ordered a lot of custom things and are looking forward to picking up the trailer mid March in Indiana. I bought a seat from my fellow racer Rick Kilbourn. Rick has been a really big help on a lot of Legends questions, and I want to thank him for his time and help. Give him a shout at 4th Street Auto Care Center in Royal Oak! I have taken off the body, so I can get it painted somewhere, sometime. The rear axle has also been removed and sent to Mike at CMG Motorsports in Virginia in place of a new unit. Work has been getting done, but there is still a lot more to do, so stay tuned! --MT January 9, 2007: The car was delivered Saturday and everything went really well. The car looks good but a lot of work has to be done between now and the first race. A trailer has to be purchased, the car needs paint, and the car needs a new seat. Those are just a few of the many things that have to get done! --MT January 5, 2007:  We are looking forward to the 2007 season and hope you will check back here for updates on how our race team is doing!  The car is being delivered tomorrow morning by Jim Matthews of Enon, Ohio.  Jim has been really nice and helpful throughout the car acquisition process.  I hope everything goes smooth in the morning!  The request for #8 was fulfilled by the Michigan Legends Series yesterday, so I am excited about that! --MT
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