5/22/2006 Five Races And Only One Repeat Winner At Trail Way Speedway.

Congratulations to Mike Bittinger for a great win Friday night at Trail-Way Speedway and Brad McClelland for his big win a Lincoln Speedway Saturday night.

Three steps forward and one back may describe our Friday night. Not a bad night, just not the same progress we had been making the last several weeks. It was pretty much a nondescript night.

We started 2nd of 8 in the heat and finished 5th. There were some great drivers in our heat. In fact the whole 358 field in the region has stepped it up this year. There are 124 different 358 drivers running the four PA tracks that run the 358 regularly. Billy Dietrich spoke of having to pick up the power in his motor program last week in Area Auto News and Brad McClelland said pretty much the same thing Saturday night after his win at Lincoln Speedway.

Jessie started 13th of 22 in the feature. The car pushed real bad in turn one and two on the start and took her back pretty far in the field. She never really recovered finished 17th.

After the race she was talking to one of best 358 drivers about the start, always looking for some help or a pointer or two. Jessie described the start this way: “I went into 3 and 4 pretty hard before the start to get a feel for the car and it stuck pretty good. So I went hard into one and two on the green. Then on middle to exit the car headed straight for the wall. I had to check up and thought for sure I was going to T-bone the guy on the outside. I was really relieved that whoever was behind me did not run right up the back of my car.” This driver after asking where she started said “that was me” with a grin.

He told her there was real wet spot down in the bottom and she wasn’t the only car to have the problem. It dried up after about 3 laps. It was obvious that about lap 10 she got her confidence in the car back and ran much better the last 10 or 15 laps.

Saturday night we made our first trip to Lincoln Speedway. 39 great cars showed up for 24 spots. Jessie had the privilege of starting last as it was her first time this year at the track. Not sure, but you may have to run twice before you participate in normal handicap process. Again her heat had some great drivers in it. She started 10th and finished 9th. Still a good run for her third heat race at Lincoln (two last year).

The Consi was just as tough. Three of the top five in points were among the 12 cars in her Consi. The car came in great. She had a strong run finishing 7th and looking like she was having fun.



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