WOW, talk about a crazy couple of weeks, topped off by a roller coaster night at The Pas last night!
Arriving in pieces, July 5th via Federal Express was a pallet containing "the parts" to build Jake a new XXX chassis - and there was no dilly dallying in putting it together. Assemble the new Moose Mobile to make sure everything went together as it should - dismantle chassis and get it to Kelly at Specialized Powdercoating on Thursday -- the fast and incredible crew at SPC had the chassis back in the crews hands that Saturday!! Put all " the pieces" back together again and the XXX was ready for practice on Sunday the 23rd. Not only did they crew have Jake's new car practice ready, but they had the 92M Victory chassis ready for Jake's buddy, Ronnie Gardner for practice as well!!
Saturday July 30th - with both cars loaded the crew headed to Perris Auto Speedway. Under 100 degree ominous skies from the massive fire and massive wind storms nearby , Jim, Jimmy, Dave, Chris, Gunk, Jake, Ronnie, & Tom unloaded and was ready to tackle the 26 other 410 sprint cars. Pill draw for qualifying always leaves a little speculation - the bingo ball rolls out for Ronnie in the 92M -- he ain't gonna be too happy ( 57th ) and Jake was doing the happy dance -- 11th... After the 26 cars raced against themselves and the clock who would of thought that going out late was gonna set fast time of the night -- Ronnie in the 92M had set the Moosemobile in Quick time and Jake was in the most desired spot of 6th ( as if you qualify 6th and make it through your heat, and so does the 5 ahead of you ) you would sit on the pole of the Main event!!!
Gotta get through the heat races ... Ronnie starting 6th in the 1st Heat Race ... powered forward and got that transfer spot of 4th. Jake's up in the 3rd Heat ... and ran 3rd. Yippie both Moosemobile's are in the Main event, Jake will start on the pole and Ronnie in 6th. Elbows up boys!!!! With Mike Spencer on the outside of the front row next to Jake the green is dropped and Spencer gets the jump, with some how Jake dropping back, getting passed by several cars... don't really know what happened there.. but he wrestled, getting into a rhythm.... and settling into 3rd, putting some pressure on Damion Gardner. When all of a sudden Jake is sitting in the work area.... what the heck!!! Team Moose jumps into action and Jake is back on the track, this was lap 19 -- Ronnie who had started 6th, dropped back some and was back up to seeing his number on the scoreboard in 5th. Jake starts picking off cars one by one -- when the leader Damion Gardner pulls to the X - out of fuel, then it's R. Vanderweerd ( running 3rd) is on the X, out of fuel and then Spencer... what the heck!! Ronnie is now 3rd - Jake is up to 6th,,, USAC has a rule - if the race has gone 50 minutes they throw a red flag to refuel. With the top 3 cars already out of fuel the restart order was set -- Ronnie 3rd - Jake up to 6th. Green flag and Jake gets a jump and is running 4th - so it's Matt Mitchell, Austin Williams, Ronnie Gardner, and Jake, Jake and Ronnie wheel to wheel for the last 2 laps.... nail biting!! When the checkers fell it was Matt ( who was subbing for Stevie Sussex ) Austin Williams, Ronnie and Jake!!!! WOWY!!!!!
Coming on board with Ronnie and Jake is http://www.lightuptheworldbeverages.com/ water bottles -- Daren Hagen and Ronnie such made Daren proud as the proudly carried the purple light up bottle onto the podium!!!!
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Matt Mitchell, 2. Austin Williams, 3. Ronnie Gardner, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Cody Williams, 6. Logan Williams, 7. Mike Spencer, 8. Tommy Malcolm, 9. Damion Gardner, 10. Matt Stewart, 11. Verne Sweeney, 12. Richard Vander Weerd, 13. Chris Gansen, 14. Andrew Sweeney, 15. Max Adams, 16. Kenny Perkins, 17. Brody Roa, 18. Jace Vander Weerd, 19. Danny Faria Jr., 20. A.J. Bender, 21. Parker Colston, 22. Jeremy Ellertson. NT
- Laurie Sertich on Jul 31, 2016
- Article Date: 7/31/2016