Week 7 – Trucks @ Lowe’s (for the second time in 09 Season 1)

Chevy Silverado Race Results

My Chevy Silverado

The Chevy Silverado (Truck) series returned to Lowe’s, which was good as it meant I already had a setup made from earlier in the season. I joined a three race split and was rated 7th of the 15th entrants (decent SOF then!)

I took my usual approach of keeping out of trouble whilst still trying to hang onto the lead pack (e.g. I took two tyres on an early stop for track position which worked well) and generally the race was going OK. I still picked up the inevitable 4x incident points from a spin in front of me but luckily it was a ‘ghost’ hit, i.e. I didn’t hit the car so my car wasn’t damaged. Still took a 4x though :(

My broken sequential shifter reared its ugly head on a restart near the end of the race – accelerating from 1st my truck immediately shifted into 3rd. Obviously that screwed my progress and I almost caused a huge crash behind me (luckily we all managed OK). Gonna have to seriously think about sorting this out, it’s affecting a lot of races now….

I also had a potential disaster in pit road. I was on the outside/fast pit lane line and there was a car immediately inside me. My pit box was approaching and I thought all cars in the pitlane were ghosts (i.e. you can drive through them) so I turned into him, to try and line up with my pit crew. Completely unexpectedly I nudged his rear quarter panel which took me by surprise! Minor damage, but could have been much much worse. Not sure I understand how the pit lane ghost cars actually work after this incident, can’t make any assumptions I guess.

Race was going well at the end, and I was holding on for a 4th place finish. Inside the last 20 laps things started getting very tight and aggressive and there was a moment when we were getting 3-wide. I was the bottom car so hugged the apron as much as possible but looped my truck exiting turn 4. Luckily no damage or yellow but I pottered home for a 5th place finish, which is my best Lowe’s result to date. 112 points.

Amazingly I find myself in a very strong position in division 3. Currently holding second position, and that is with one or two poor results in my season which I am hoping to improve upon in weeks 8 – 12. I might be looking good for a second place finish in my division this season :)

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