12/9/2018
Riley Baldwin
Ending season strong, Shell Shocked Racing looks to continue climb during off-season
The 2018 USAC .25 season was Shell Shocked Racing's first full season on pavement. Coming from dirt, the transition was rough for driver and crew. As the season started, laps were being made at our home track to get used to a line, that was found during only 5 events last season. Last season was not much help for the new surface with the limited schedule ran by the team. Late in the off-season, to compound the difficulties, the teams moved its race shop into its current Hancock County location.
As the calendar pages turned, the driver of the Shell Shocked Racing Nervo/Honda 120 was finding his line, but was still struggling with speed. It was determined, that at some point during the season, a new power-plant would be put into the car, thus removing the chance a faulty engine could be blamed for the lack of speed. At the same time, a newer Nervo chassis would be put to the test as well.
With about 6 weeks left in the season, after the driver felt comfortable with his part of the equation, the team replaced the aged engine with a new Baker Racing Engines engine and went ahead and installed it in the newer Nervo G7 chassis. Hitting the track with this combination, an instant advance was felt, but we were still off. Continuing to work hard, driver and crew made some strides in the last weeks of the 2018 season.
Transferring out of a B-main was like a win to the team, and they celebrated like so. A couple of mid-pack finishes also were celebrated as wins also, showing the team in true turtle fashion was "creeping up on it". The highlight of the season was the 2nd place finish in Kokomo's Wiley Gordon Memorial 100 lap race.
During the off-season, the hard work will continue for the crew. Obvious detailed maintenance of the car will be completed early in 2019, along with introduction of some different components on the car that will produce results the team desires and know they can achieve.
Submitted By: Charles Baldwin
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