Wednesday, May 28, 2008

SHAW MOTORSPORTS: Flamboro Speedway May 24, 2008

GUELPH, ON - Nothing but sunshine greeted the Shaw crew as they headed to Flamboro Speedway to hopefully ride the success they had been having with the setup in the car that was producing good results and very fast lap times.

The first practice session ended with Jason not being happy with the cars performance as the car did not feel comfortable with a new set of shocks compared to the previous week. The crew changed all four shocks back to the ones run last week and Jason went out for the second and final practice. The car was reported as being better, however it still had a push in the centre and a loose off condition for some reason.

The crew made a pan-hard bar adjustment to hopefully cure the handling problem prior to Jason lining up the Fleet Image Ford to start 3rd in the heat race. On the first lap, Jason got to the inside of the #3 who had cut down a left rear tire and quickly fell back through the field where he would eventually spin out causing a caution.

Restarting second, the #82 along, with the other top four cars, pulled away more on each lap staying nose to tail to finish in the same order with the #36 taking the win followed by the #82, #8 and #56. Despite the good finish, Jason complained of a bad push in the centre of the corner and a very loose off condition that the car did not have the previous week. The crew went to work to put the pan-hard bar back to were it was, check the stagger and then started an investigation to see if anything else may have been the source of the unstable handling condition of the car.

A larger than normal crowd brought out by the great weather, greeted the #82 Del Metals Ford as it lined up 6th for the 25 lap feature. Running in the outside lane for the start, Jason was quick to ask spotter, Dave Hagedorn to assist in getting him down to the inside line as soon as possible as the outside lane looked like it would be very slow after taking the green flag.

After just half a lap, Jason was cleared to move down and immediately moved forward into 5th. On lap 3, the #56 spun while trying to pass the #37 for the lead, however, he did manage to hang on and straighten out the car to keep the caution from coming out. Just one lap later, the caution did come out for the #07 and #86 who got together in turn 4.

Jason lined up behind the #37, #36, #27 and #42 and during the restart, got a nose inside of the #42 to eventually take the position into 4th. The top four would run nose to tail past the half way mark and it wasn’t until there were only 6 laps to go that the caution came out for the #86 who got into the #29 in turn 4. Only 16 cars took the green flag for the restart and the #8 got a good jump to take a position away from the #82 just prior to the caution for hard contact between the #44 and #56.

Jason restarted outside of the #8 and despite dialing in some rear brake to help a push on entry condition, was not able to get a run past the #8. The #10 spun on his own causing a chain reaction that put the #44 & #86 into a hard wreck that would bring out the red flag until the two cars were separated. On the restart, Jason once again got up on the outside of the #8, however with the loose condition, ended up in the marbles that caused him to back down and fall in behind the #8 where he would run to the finish and be awarded the 5th position.

In other racing news, the #88 Spira Racing mini-stock did not have a good night as the #88 driven by Ken Spira was black flagged for mechanical difficulties (leaking fuel). Ken had to leave the track for repairs after just 7 laps and then returned to run the final 7 laps at the back of the field to take 27th out of a 29 car field.

Next up for the Shaw team is a return trip to Flamboro Speedway despite being scheduled for the Margarita Ice Strawberry 150 at Sauble Speedway. A strong forecast for rain along with conflicts in schedules played a role in ultimately making the decision to stay closer to home and continue the local series at Flamboro Speedway. The pits open at 4:00pm, the main gates at 5:00 and racing is scheduled to begin at 6:30.

From Ken Spira // Spira Fire Protection Ltd. // Shaw Motorsports

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