Well, we have a ton of changes after the poor performance at the Billy Maynard Memorial race for the NY-Penn IMCA Modified Series. Luckily, I had a couple secret weapons that provided a great run at the Sean Lias Memorial race at Penn Can Speedway.

I made a post on a dirt modified Facebook group out of desperation to figure out why the car would not turn at The Hill Speedway. A bunch of people reached out to me from the post, offering their help. One guy, Clint Parsons, ended up selling me a left rear shock and a left rear spring for cheap. I had been running a 150lb spring, now I am running a 100lb spring. The new shock is a Bilstein 2/9 shock.

Another fellow, Brian Orvis also reached out to me. He has a ton of experience with Harris cars and is a crew chief for a driver out in the midwest. This guy, ended up single handedly changing EVERYTHING for me. Quite literally actually. He suggested many changes and sent me two front springs and the correct length ball joint stud for the RF.

We switched from a 650lb left front spring and a 600lb right front spring to a 450lb and a 400lb. I swapped the right front ball joint out. I swapped the left rear shock and spring and I also went from a 225lb right rear spring to a 200lb. I ran new ride heights, new bar angles, new bar holes, new everything. I was so unsure about the soft front spring rates.

I loaded up the truck and trailer and headed to Penn Can Speedway with a couple of my other secret weapons, Camber and Michelle. We got to the track a little late so we drew our chip for the heat race. Camber drew for me and picked the #2 chip. This would put me on pole in heat 2, but I elected to start last (7th) because I was unsure about all the new changes.

The first time I threw the car into the corner in the heat race on lap 1, I knew we had something. The car, handled so good! So good that I was able to drive up to 4th position. I didn’t know this at the time, but the top 4 were redraw positions. Camber and I were sitting on the trailer and the series photographer came down to our pit and said “you know, when you place in a redraw spot, usually you redraw right?”

I had no idea. Michael also told me they gave me the final chip which was again, the #2 chip which put me on the outside pole for the feature. This was huge. This was my opportunity. This was the best chance I had of winning my first race and I knew it.

Unfortunately, I would only run a handful of laps in the feature before I had a parts failure. While running in the second position, I bent the pull bar rod which pulled the driveshaft out of the transmission. This would end our night. Such high’s, to such low’s. I was devastated but also was so happy that we found speed. Two more races left for us which is a Friday and Saturday night show at Skyline Raceway.