Spotter Bytes
SPOTTER BYTES
By Wayne “Muffy” Wildermuth
Stafford Speedway was not good to us again this week with the #94 SK Modified. T
yler was up on the wheel and trying to move forward when IT happened. There are some cars\drivers that you race against who you know are hard to get around. They are either windshield wipers (going from lane to lane) or their car seems to want to be in the lane you’re in when you’re already there. You know that passing them will be tricky and that it will be hard getting by without touching, but what do you do when you are faster and they are holding you up? Well, lets just say that most times it doesn’t work out well. Well, that’s what happened to our effort on Friday. The cars touched and then they touched the wall. We ended up going off in the hammock (one tow truck on each end of the car). We ended up 21st out of 23 cars. Quite a bit of damage to the #94, but repairs are being made and it will be back to race again. Maybe passing some with a different kind of technique this time.
The Late Model race was pretty much uneventful. We Ran the best we could and finished in the 4th spot out of 15 cars. We will keep plugging away and figure out the handling and will be up there fighting for wins before too long. The car can do it and so can the driver, just need to work on it some more. Easy for me to say, I just stand up top and yak in his ear, oh wait, that didn’t work too well Friday. Not sure what the issue was, but he could not hear me or anyone else. I still had to talk though, just as if he could hear me, just in case it started working. Guess we will need to fix it by next week.
The Modified Racing Series was the race of the night. The #19 was not perfect, but after practice and after some line coaching, David seemed to have a handle on the track. He was running respectable times and was doing great. The race was a good one up front for all 80 laps. We were in a couple of incidents, but nothing got bent. Spinning out and bumper tag mostly. We raced hard, but with it being so hard to pass in such a competitive field, a 12th was all we could manage to get out of it. It still felt good for the team as it was the teams best finish to date at the Stafford Motor Speedway. Seekonk Speedway is next on the schedule for the series on June 6th.
I took a road trip to Monadnock Speedway on Saturday to spot for sportmod #11 driver Scott Nordman
. He is learning the track and learning all about the modified. Scott told me that the previous week the car was all over the place and was barely drivable. Well, he hit the track today and the car was a little tight in the center of the corners and loose off the corners. Time for me to play Crew Chief now I guess. We figured out the tire configuration with air pressure and sizes and everything seemed to work out fine. I called for and we made a couple of adjustments to the car and then I crossed my fingers. I guess I made the right call because the driver was happy, whew, that could have been embarrassing. I’m not used to this Crew Chief stuff, I just push a button and talk. We finished 10th in the feature which was a decent finish. When Scott hit his marks and didn’t overdrive the corners, he was fast. I did a lot of coaching and with more seat time, he will be running up front with the best of them. I will be back to help him a few more times this season whenever my schedule allows. I had a good time with them Saturday, even if I did get grease on my hands.