7/28/2013
Joshua Hodges
HMS Update - Knoxville Raceway
Last night didn’t go quite as planned but nonetheless it was a good learning night to get the bugs worked out before the Knoxville 360 Nationals this upcoming weekend. It started off by qualifying 23rd which put us on the pole of the heat race. I didn’t feel comfortable qualifying and we made some changes thinking that we could make it better but instead we went the wrong way. In the heat I dropped from 1st to 6th and it was probably my worst race of the season. I just struggled to get the car where I wanted it and do what I thought it was supposed to. We took a big swing at it starting 6th in the B Main and on the start I didn’t feel too bad, making my way to 4th and a transfer position. After the first lap the car started to get evil again and it felt really unpredictable. The cushion was also just about a car width off the high fence that surrounds Knoxville Raceway which didn’t help matters. We held on for the final transfer spot and started the A Feature last. Once again we took another big swing and unfortunately this one did not work either. For the first 15 laps I was just holding on and trying different things to get some laps. Finally, about the last 5 laps the car started feeling a little bit better and I found enough courage to bury the car in the cushion next to the fence. It didn’t feel good or look pretty but we were faster the last few laps and passed a few cars, ultimately finishing 19th. Like I said before, it was one of our worse nights on the year but after analyzing everything a day after we feel like we have a good idea how to cure most of our problems and I am looking forward to our qualifying night on Friday!
Submitted By: Jack Hodges