We were back at CNS again this week.  It was a crazy week because there was a big 150 lap race with K&N Touring Late Models so they cut out one of our practice sessions this week.  That meant we were going to get one less practice session than normal so we just left the same setup on the car as the week before.  We were fast the week before so this seemed like a good idea.  We were also getting to the track pretty late because Lauren had a ice skating competition the same day.  My Dad and Clay took the car to the track and got it all set up while I was at Lauren’s competition.  I rushed to the track and got in the car for practice just as it started.  We cut it pretty close but were able to get the practice in.  The car and setup was still pretty good, like the week before.

We started in the middle of our heat race and it was still pretty early so the track was still hot.  The car doesn’t handle near as good when it is hot but it still felt pretty good in the heat race.  We finished third in this heat race which was pretty good since there was some fast cars in the race.  The car was still a little loose in the heat race so we decided we would tighten it up just a little bit with tire pressure changes only.

CNS inverts the top 3 from each heat race pretty regularly and they did that again this week.  That meant that we started on the pole.  This has been a tough spot for me this year.  Even though you are supposed to set the pace before the green flag drops, I still seem to get started late.  The start was much better this time though.  I was able to jump out to a early lead and actually lead a couple of laps.  There were some super fast cars in this race though and a couple passed me to drop me to third.  I ran in third for quite a while but the car started to get unstable.  It would feel loose going into the corner but tight coming out.  Eventually, I drove it too far into turn 3 and got it really sideways in the middle of the corner.  I dropped to 4^th at this point.  With about 5 laps left, Chris Cooper ran up next to me to make a past but I worked hard at staying up with him.  We raced side by side for the last 4 or 5 laps.  It was some of the closest and most fun racing of the year for me.  Chris would pull ahead about a half car going into the corner but then I would pull a half car ahead in the straights.  At the finish line, Chris was ahead by .017 seconds.  It was a great finish and a ton of fun.  We have raced close with Chris a lot over the last two years and it has always been clean and fun.

We ended up with a 5^th place finish which was good points.  We are still in second in RMLRA points and third in CNS points.

Our next race isn’t until 8/27 so we have lots of time to get the car ready for the next race.



Hopefully we see you at the track then.