The newly configured Merced Speedway welcomed the Western Racesaver Series for their weather-delayed Opening Day on Saturday, April 6th. We were excited to be there with the 18S Lucas Oil / Stark Naked / LeftTurn sprint car along with 14 other sprinters, and were looking forward to running after finding a few significant chassis issues last week following the Hanford show.
When we got started with hotlaps, we discovered the chassis was indeed working better than ever, but with a crazy 14" of stagger it was pretty tough to get a handle on the car - I even managed to put it over the top of Turn 2 just for a little added excitement, though I don't think the guys appreciated it much...
We made a few changes (including cutting the stagger WAY back) and got ready for qualifying; WRS uses a group qualifying procedure and we, of course, were in Group 1 - I can't seem to get anything else at pill draw these days...jeez. Anyway, we got out on track and the car was immediately 10 times better than it has been all season. The KW shocks were perfect and stagger had come in much better, producing a P7 result; our best effort of the season so far. However, the track looked like it was going to be headed to dry-slick for the rest of the night and we have had some trouble getting that setup sorted out (duh).
A bunch of changes were in place for the heat race, but I couldn't get ahold of the track and went right back from P1 on the start to P5 at the finish...we were decent in the corner, but man - we just lit 'em up down the straights... Our finish in the heat race positioned us in P8 for the Main Event with a track that was definitely on the "dry" side.
After the green dropped for the main, I got into a scuffle in Turn 1 on lap 2 and ended up with a flat RF tire which sent us to the work area. We weren't able to get the car checked out and tire changed in time and ended up waiting for another yellow...we were able to get back on track about 5 laps down, but we got out and got some laps! The car was decent and predictable and I got to work on running the bottom as well as running the top. We managed to keep out of trouble and bring the car back to the trailer in 10th place! ....and we are continuing to make progress with this crazy dirt racing thing! Of course, many thinks to our sponsors and our crew; Todd Walters, Jeff Sanchez, Dave Keyser, Travis Stark (Mr. Stark Naked), and thanks to Scott Meisner for coming to hang out!
Congratulations to Grant Champlin on his first WRS win, as well as Grant Duinkerken(2nd) and Kyle Rasmussen(3rd), and we will see everyone back at the Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford on April 20th!!
- administrator on Apr 08, 2019
- Article Date: 4/7/2019 by Lance Jackson