From Race Night #7 (July 4, 2008) by Andrew Perkins
Uncle Don, Steve Williams, and the Team did a lot of work trying to make our race car better for the Peterbilit Super Stock Showdown, our division's "Daytona 500" event for the season. The Showdown Format included time trials plus 3 race "segments", culminating in a 20-lap finale.
We spent the week prior working on our cross-weight, believing some adjustment there would put us on the right path to a better handling car. We also replaced a right rear tire that was ripped - perhaps offering a bit of an explanation for the extreme loose condition last week.
The car was better in practice. It was entering the corner much smoother but through the apex there was a sudden looseness, the back end snapped around without any throttle (or warning). Uncle Don made a change in the setup to try and fix this for qualifying.
I was one of the last cars out for qualifying. By that time some quick times had been put down, including Ray Morneau (#98) shattering the old track record. I didn't match that but was quick enough to also break the old track record and qualify 4th. Even though I only did two laps it was enough to tell that the suspension change might have been a step in the right direction, the car felt pretty good and the sudden looseness was gone.
As the pole-sitter, Morneau rolled two dice to set the inversion for the first race segment. He rolled an 8, putting me in 4th place on the outside for the first 15-lap segment. Our plan was to stay on the outside as long as possible and try to make the car work up top. We knew if we could get it running on the outside it would pay dividends later. If it didn't and I faded back, oh well, the second segment included a full inversion of the field so I would have a good starting position then.
Once we went green I ended up running quite a few laps on the outside, staying side-by-side with the Kris Lawrence (#28) in third place. About 7 or 8 laps in I threw the car in a little too deep trying to complete the pass on the outside and washed up the track, losing quite a few spots. I settled back in around 8th or 9th where I finished. My tires were too hot from the hard racing on the outside and I couldn't make up any ground. We were still satisfied as we learned a lot about the car's behaviour on the outside line and made a couple adjustments to improve it for the next segment.
With a complete inversion of the finishing order for the second segment I started in 13th place, on the inside. Right off the start the inside line took off, shuffling the outside line to the back. Once this was done I started moving towards the front, making a few solid passes on the outside. After a few cautions and some more passing I found myself in 3rd place with the leaders in sight. However, Morneau in the #98 emerged from the pack and quickly closed on me. Knowing he was a lot faster and probably had a better chance at catching the leaders I moved up and let him by, happy to finish the second segment in 4th place. This gave us some solid points and put me in a good position for the final inversion. The car was still a little loose on the bottom, but was pretty solid on the outside.
The final inversion put me in 3rd place for the final segment, behind the Darrell Lake (#77). We knew that I would have to use the outside to get to the front so rather than try and fix the loose condition on the bottom, we made a slight adjustment to make it work even better on the outside - it paid off!
Right off the start I stayed tight to #77 and cleared the 2nd place car (#9x). Coming down the front stretch on lap 1 I made a move to the outside and threw it really deep into turn 1, putting me door-to-door with #77. The car stuck and I powered off turn 2 and completed the pass to take the lead. Ray Morneau (#98) followed and settled into 2nd place, right on my bumper. For the next 18 laps I raced really hard to keep the #98 behind me. I guarded the bottom line well, even though the car got really loose down there. Morneau was quicker and made quite a few attempts to pass on the outside but he couldn't make it work and I held on to WIN!!! This made me the first repeat winner of the Super Stock Showdown and gave me my first checkered flag of the '08 season - a much needed positive result for both the driver and the Team!
A HUGE THANKS goes out to Ray Morneau and the entire #98 team. They definitely had the best car but Ray raced me clean, even when I made the car "wide" a few times. Ray's the class of our division, both in skill and in sportsmanship. It's a real pleasure to race side-by-side with him.
Also, thanks so much to my entire crew - Uncle Don, Steve Williams, Dad, Steve Baldock, Brian and Kyle Cohoon, Matt Payne. It was a difficult start to the season for us. So much work goes into getting the car ready each week and when things don't go well, that work really starts to feel like ...well, work. To finally get rewarded for your commitment is a welcome relief!!! THANKS!
Submitted by Doug Perkins
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