With the Knoxville Raceway season coming to a close, Josh Schneiderman and the Deuce Motorsports #49 team have much to build on for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, mechanical problems and Mother Nature put a damper on their Knoxville Nationals run, but they came back to run strong in last Saturday night’s Season championship. The West Burlington, Iowa driver plans to pull double duty in 410’s (MOWA) and 305’s at the 34 Raceway in his hometown September 6. When the Outlaws visited earlier this season, Josh was able to run well with them, and win the 305 feature.
Unfortunately at the Nationals, Josh’s qualifying chances ended before they began. “It was unfortunate, but we had the rear-end issues,” he says. “We had put a new piece in to avoid it. We had a set of quick-change gears blow up at the ‘Capitani Classic’. We decided to put a new rear-end in, and when the car got under load, it would pop the rear-end out of gear.”
The team went to work, but the swap took too long to get time trials in, relegating Josh to the C main. “Doug (Brown) and Bob (Thompson) from Jocko’s came over and swapped us back out,” he says. “That got us going, but we had already missed qualifying. We were way behind the 8-ball by the time we got to race.”
Josh passed fifteen cars in the C and B mains combined that night, but it wasn’t enough. With a rainout, the old Nationals format was used, locking in the top fifty in points to Saturday’s program. The new format would have given the team a fresh start. “We had a beautiful car when we got to race,” says Josh. “We had a brand new motor in. It ran great, and the car was amazing. We just got started a little later than everyone else. We definitely could have used the regular Friday night format for a redo for sure.”
After starting in the back of a heat race on Saturday afternoon, Josh would start the B 13th. “We were up to sixth,” he says. “We passed a lot of cars running the bottom. For some reason, the driver decided to go to the top on a restart, and got passed by a couple cars and ended up eighth. The motor was there and the car was there, but the driver wasn’t. We should have qualified into the A there.”
Saturday night, Josh went from 18th to 14th in the D. “We were able to pass a few cars, but at that time of night, the track is narrow,” he says. “You need the track to slick off if you’re going to make any kind of move. You’re not going to get that in the D main. It was just one of those years. We worked hard all week. That’s what they make the 55th Nationals for.”
Last Saturday night, Season Championship saw Josh draw a two pill for qualifying. Usually, that is a good draw, but not on Saturday. “That was unfortunate,” he says. “We were really good in hot laps. I haven’t seen the track get better as qualifying goes on this year. The quick times were coming out at the end of the session.”
Twentieth quick saw Josh start seventh in his heat. He was able to advance to the sixth and final transfer spot. “We put the old motor back in and it was running strong,” he says. “The car was running well. It was a confidence thing for us to come from outside the invert and get in a transfer spot for the feature.”
Starting seventeenth in the always tough 410 feature, he would move up to 15th at the checkers. “We were up to thirteenth or so on the restart (with six to go), and lost a few spots,” says Josh. “We were excited about the car. (Brian) Brown had come up to lap us, and we followed him for six or eight laps until the red flag on the frontstretch. There are some positive things to build on. We could just use a little luck at Knoxville.”
Josh on Twitter and Facebook
Be sure to keep up with Josh and the Deuce Motorsports #49 team…
Twitter: @JSRACING49
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jsracing49?fref=ts
Josh’s Weekly Releases
If you’d like to be added to Josh’s e-mail list for weekly releases, e-mail sprntcar@hotmail.com with “Josh” in the Subject Line.
Deuce Motorsports would like to extend thanks to all of their partners for the 2014 Season: World of Wheels, Universal Therapy, MD Orthopaedics, Morning Sun Farm Implement, Kubota, Gear Heads for God, Trinity Archery, Ideal Ready Mix, Automotive Machine, J&J Auto Racing, Engler Injection, Hoosier Tire, Coors, Grand Strand Salon, SignTec, Weld Wheels, Hepfner Race Products, ButlerBuilt, and Mountain Dew Kick Start.
- administrator on Aug 27, 2014
- Article Date: 8/27/2014 by Bill Wright