Spotter Bytes

SPOTTER BYTES

By Wayne “Muffy” Wildermuth

Stafford Speedway was a little better to us this week with the Hines Motorsports #94 SK modified. Remember that for 2 weeks in a row the car got wrecked and was taken off the track hammock style. Those guys did a great job of putting it back together and setting it up for battle. We started the day out with a little seat time for Tyler, bleacher seat time that is; I had him sit with me in the bleachers during first round of practice so I could show him how others were running the track and what line he needed to be running. We then went out and ran some laps. He was able to follow Woody Pitkat for a few laps and really got to see the proper way to run the track. All that paid off as we were 4^th fastest on the board after practice and we all felt like we had a pretty good piece. We finished 2^nd in our heat and that gave us a front row starting spot for the feature. We raced hard in the feature and Tyler did a great job racing with the veterans of the series. The car was just a bit loose off the corners, so we made a pitstop and made an adjustment. The steering started to get stiff in the car and the brakes stated to pulsate intermittently. We still rode as hard as we could with what we had and ended up finishing 15^th, again for the 3^rd time thins season. All in all it was a good night of learning for the driver. Running side-by-side with those guys gave Tyler valuable experience and it was a good confidence builder for him and the team. We are looking forward to next week.

Stafford Speedway was not so kind to us in the Late Model series. The Rafferty Fine Grading #32 Late Model was fast and after fading a bit, we were working our way back up to the front when off of turn four and while racing hard for position, we got together with another car causing him to hit the wall. He was still rolling and turned down in front of the field and got hit again. That made the whole incident worse then it should have been. We continued on with minor damage, but that would mean nothing to us as it turned out. A call was made by Race Control for us to park the car behind the wall. Not sure why a penalty so severe was given, but we did what we were told and parked the car. Maybe it was the magnitude of the crash, maybe it had something to do with the fact that the car that crashed was the point leader, I don’t know. We were 2^nd in points at the time so maybe they thought we wanted the point lead that bad, who knows. Usually when you get into someone and cause them to spin or wreck, they put you to the read or hand you some sort of penalty and allow you to continue racing, they parked us. We will be back to battle some more and make the best of a bad situation.

Saturday was the Mr. Rooter 161 Whelen Modified Tour (WMT) race at the New London Waterford Speedbowl. Yes, I went to the Speedowl even though I didn’t want too, but I had to as my team was racing there. This is the first race I would be spotting with my new team. Over the break from our last WMT race, I moved to a new team and this was our first event together. The new WMT team is the Mr. Rooter/Cape Cod Aggregates #13 team with driver Ted Christopher. I have spotted for Ted in the Sunoco Modified series and the P.A.S.S. series in the past and we have even won together as well, so I was familiar with him, but not the rest of the team. Was I nervous? You bet I was. I hung out at the trailer most of the day and kind of kept to myself. I was encouraged after practice by some good comments on my information I gave Ted and the team during the practice session, so I felt a little less nervous after that. Ok, then it was race time and it was time to just do what I do, without nerves. We qualified a disappointing 20^th and that’s where we started in the 33 car field. We definitely had our work cut out for us at the Shoreline Oval. We went to work and charged our way through the field, passing a lot of cars on the way. Little by little, inch by inch we made our way to 3^rd place. We thought we had a chance at the win as we had a good car and maybe equal to or slightly better then the cars in 1^st and 2^nd, but a late race caution came out and the yellow pace laps ate up the green flag laps we needed to make a run at the win. We finished 3^rd and were pretty happy with that. I would think our first race together was successful and I am looking forward to Stafford Speedway next week where TC should be geared up for another good run at a track where he has many laps and lots of success.

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