Team Crown

Thank You

I just want to take the time to thank everyone for the positive comments we've received.  Our friends and fans are simply the best!  While it doesn't change what happened Monday night, it does make us feel better though.

I was able to talk to Loren Barstad again yesterday, and we're pretty square with him.  I still feel the worst for him, because he's in the same position I'm in....we pay the bills.  He is what makes racing fun....he's the most kind and gentle person you'll ever meet, and I respect him more every day that I know him.  I would loan him the shirt off my back, and I know he'd still do the same for me today.  That's what matters to me the most in this whole deal, is the fact that the two teams involved in this unfortunate situation that we caused are still friends.

Again, thank you to everyone for the continued support!

Labor Day Weekend

We decided on Saturday afternoon to go and race in Jackson, and we're fairly pleased with the way things turned out.  We started the heat in the 3rd row, and ran 4th....so we made the invert, which gave us an outside front row starting spot.  We ended up with the lead after about a lap, and were running ok, but Wade Nygaard blew by us, and he set sail for the win.  We held on for 2nd....and although we had nothing for Wade, we ran decent we feel.

Sunday night at Husets we won the heat, and started 12th in the feature.  We had a good car, and reeled in the leaders, but couldn't find any way around them the last few laps and settled for 3rd.

Monday at Husets was a disaster.  We ended up crashing Robbie Wolfgang on the last lap, and won the race as a result.  Now we're taking the blame....full responsibility.  It's unfortunate that things happen like this, but everyone will end up in something along the course of a year.  We felt pretty good about not getting into, nor causing wrecks over there this year, and this one really felt bad.  We've apologized to the people who deserve it, and we'll leave it at that.

I'll leave comments up for now....but if it gets like I think it will, they'll be down.

A few things that I need to add....in the confusion I forgot to say last night.  We want to thank the fine folks at 212 the Boiling Point for helping us with a room for the night after Sunday's races.  They're first class in every way when it comes to the racers!  We managed to make our way in there on Monday afternoon for lunch as well, and the food is excellent as was the service both Sunday night and Monday afternoon!  I would HIGHLY recommend paying a visit there if you've not yet been!

Husets Results 8-24

It wasn't really the night we looked for, but it's in the books none the less!  We started 4th in the heat race, and Jody accidentally hit the switch in the car going into the first turn and the car turned off!  That saw us playing catch up and Jody driving hard to make the transfer spot in the invert.  It's funny in hindsight, but it could have been pretty bad because the car just wants to drive straight to the wall when that happens, but he did a good job of getting it turned on quickly again!  We started 12th in the feature on yet another narrow, hard to pass race track.  It was pretty tough to get through some of the traffic, and we finally managed to work our way up to 4th place.  We may have done better if we'd gotten a caution, but everyone did a fine job keeping their cars straight, and no problems for anyone.  Jody did well given the track, so we're not disappointed with our performance by any means.  We are a little disappointed in the track lately though.  It's been pretty narrow and heavy for about a month now, and we wished they'd put a little less water on it.  But, it is what it is and everyone races on it!

Want to congratulate Eric McGillivary on a nice run last night.  He looked strong in the feature and did a nice job taking the win in a non stop feature!

We're not sure if we'll be in Jackson this weekend with one of our engines still down, but we'll see what happens between now and then.  Otherwise, it's a double header at Husets this weekend!

Weekend Results

I'll break this down to Jody and Travis in separate parts, and then on to Husets so I can keep all this straight!

Friday night Jody had no luck whatsoever.  We were chasing engine troubles and finally in the heat the thing just died.....which it turns out the mag box had been going bad, and finally just gave way.  He had to start last in the B, and ran up to 5th which was one spot from transferring.  Saturday he had the worst draw at the track, and had to start 9th in the last heat.  He did a great job running up to 4th, and that gave him a spot in the top 8 in points.  We ended up with the pole for the dash and we ran 2nd to Brian Brown so we were able to start on the front row for the feature.  Something must have galled up our torque tube during the dash (we find this Sunday afternoon), because immediately he knew the car wasn't right.  The whole rear end was bound up due to the torque tube problem, and the car just wouldn't drive off the corner like it should at all.  That left him pretty much a sitting duck and he held on for 7th in the finale.  All in all it wasn't bad, but a little disappointing knowing we could have been much better.

Travis on Friday said the engine was pretty flat right away and we fooled around with it quite a bit to get it as good as we could, and he ran pretty well......then he lost the brakes and couldn't really run up there any further than he did.  Starting 13th and running 5th for the night with no brakes isn't too bad.  Saturday he ran 2nd in the first heat and started 9th in the feature.  Immediately you could see he might have a car to contend with, but about 4 laps into the race he lost a cylinder and ran the rest of the race on 7 cylinders.  He felt we were good enough to contend with the top 3, but being way down on power it was all he could do to come home in an 8th place finish.

All in all, considering the issues we had at Jackson, we'll call it an alright weekend, but know it could have been better possibly.

Now on to Husets......we're going to get raked over the coals on this one I'm sure!  We won the first heat and drew a 1 for the invert meaning we'd start on the pole.  After some haggling with a few people who put up some bonus money for us to win from the back, we agreed to the challenge.  This is where it gets shaky for most people!  Apparently there was some miscommunication between the announcer and the pit steward, and we were told we couldn't do it.  I walked over and asked the pit steward what was going on.  I asked him if we were able to do this or not.  Needless to say he was not a happy person, and it seemed like a big problem for all of this to happen I guess.  I told him if it was that big a problem, then fine we'd start where we were supposed to.  If it wasn't a problem we'd like to take the challenge.  He still seemed a bit upset (a bit would be an understatement), so we said to heck with it, we'll follow what he wishes and start on the pole.  We DID NOT turn down the challenge.  I'm told that the announcer made an issue of it, and made it look like we turned it down and the crowd was never informed of the real situation.  It's unfortunate that we're the ones that look stupid in this situation, and nobody will fess up to the truth.  Speaking of the "challenge".....I want to thank Scott Bolte Sanitation and 212 the Boiling Point for the offer.  We'd love to have tried.  I'm also told later after the races that someone else had put up $1000 more for us to do it.  We certainly got alot of boos when Jody climbed from the car for what they thought was us turning it down.  Hopefully an opportunity like this will come again, and we'll be able to attempt to win it!

That's it for now.....hope everyone in the stands at Husets reads this and gets the real story!  See everyone next week at Husets!

An Update Finally

It's been a while since I've been able to get here to update you on Knoxville, but here goes.....

We ended up with the worst draw possible and had to go out second to last in qualifying due to another car showing up late, otherwise we were supposed to be the last car out.....Don obviously knowing the track well was able to time in at 21st out of 61 cars which is pretty good.  We felt the engine needed a little help for the heat race, so we tried to play a little with the fuel which ended up being a bad idea and we went backwards in our heat to 4th from the outside front row.  The feature we started somewhere in the 7th row and that about where we finished as well with a 13th place finish.  Not a great night for us, but not terrible either.

Saturday we started 12th in the B feature and had the best car overall we had all weekend.  We were running pretty well, and had picked off some cars quickly.  We were closing in on transfer positions and ended up with contact on the backstretch with another car which just about flipped our car.  That allowed 4 several cars to get by us and left us with a 10th place run in the B feature.  We were really good enough to transfer out of that B feature, and probably make some noise in the A feature, but it wasn't to be.  Overall I'd grade our performance as a B.  The engine we fought the sweet spot just a little, but got it better as we went.

Sunday in the Brodix Tournament of Champions we qualified towards the end of time trials again, and had a time that gave us the front row....which was good, because the track was very narrow during the heats.  We won the heat handily and started the feature 6th.  We were a good car, but not a stellar car for the feature and passed a few cars, but were passed by a few cars as well.  We ended up getting passed late when the engine started to get a little warm for 4th....but a 5th place finish was a decent night for us.

This Sunday Husets was a fast and narrow track.  It was very hard to pass on, and we started the feature from 8th place.  We made a few passes and had one car drop out in front of us to move us into 2nd place by the last 1/3 of the feature.  We were unable to pass for the lead, but showed our nose a few times.  On the 2nd to the last lap we blew a power steering line, and that really made the car a hand full for Jody, and we settled in for a 2nd place finish.

Up next.....the Jackson Nationals with Jody in a car and Travis Whitney in a car!

Weekend Results

It certainly wasn't the type of weekend we were hoping for, but it wasn't terrible none the less.

In Jackson we started on the front row of the heat, and the engine just wouldn't take off like it should.  We ended up running 2nd in the heat which we'll take due to the engine.  We started 3rd in the feature and once again the engine just wouldn't take off like it should.  Luckily we were able to maintain our position and wind up 3rd for the night.  Congrats to Wade Nygaard....he was bad fast and nobody had anything for him!

We went into Husets hoping to cure our engine taking off, and by the end of the night we were successful thankfully.  We won our heat race, and started 11th in the feature.  We knew the feature would be a tough road because the track was narrow and heavy at the start of the feature.  By the middle of the race though the track had worked itself into a nice racy track.  We managed to work our way up to 2nd, and the red came out....and we were put back to 3rd for some reason and couldn't get around them in the last 3 laps.  I just want to congratulate Robby Wolfgang on his first feature win.  The first of many I'm sure.  Overall for the fans it was a great night of racing, and we're proud to be a part of it!

Next up the 360 Nationals with Don Droud Jr.  Here's hoping for a decent showing!

Quick Note

We're seriously thinking of racing in Jackson this Saturday.  We really need to get this motor on a half mile again and see if we can get the thing to run like it really should before the 360 Nationals.  Not that it's running bad, but it's just not in that "sweet spot" yet.

So I guess it's more than likely Jackson this Saturday and then Husets on Sunday.  Then it's off to the 360 Nationals next week!  We qualify on Friday night, and all features are on Saturday.  Sunday night we're entered into the Brodix Tournament of Champions for another night of racing in Knoxville.  Let's hope for the best!  See everyone at the races!

News

Just wanted to let everyone know, surprising to me KSFY did a story on Jody and it aired tonight (Thursday) at 6:00.  Here's a link if you didn't catch it, and were interested in seeing the story.

http://www.ksfy.com/home/video/25597559.html?video=pop&t=a

See everyone at the races on Sunday at Husets!

Mighty Kids 2008

We have a number of kids whose names we either don't know or have unfortunately mixed up their pictures with the names we have.  If you are one of those kids or their parent, please email us with the number of their picture and their first name and we will get it fixed.  Thanks! 

A quick reflection

Just looking back on the season so far, and we're still in awe of the accomplishments so far.  We've been very fortunate and lucky at the same time to be able to run as well as we have so far this year.  Even on nights when we haven't put a "W" in the column, we've been pretty darn good.  Thinking back to the race in Jackson where we dnf'd with Travis....that was a show we could have won with the car we had that night.  The three different races we finished 2nd at Husets.....we were easily the fastest car on the track all of those nights, but ran out of laps or the track was not conducive to passing once we'd gotten to 2nd place.  A pair of 8th place runs at Spencer and Huron were both decent days for us as well.  Spencer we started last on a track that was horrible, and managed to look pretty good, and Huron was a good showing with the big boys in town.

So many people to thank at this point.  All of the guys that have helped us work on the car up to now....Joe Vosburgh especially.  He's the one who has stuck with this team the entire time, and is always ready for the next challenge we face.  Dalton has come along nicely this year and is a valuable person in all phases of our operation.  Jake Leighty has been around us some again this year, and his help is appreciated immensely.  Trolly and Jody have been making their weekly trips us to help with whatever we need during the week.  TJ and Zack have helped at the track anytime we've needed them.  They're a riot to be around...and you just never know what they're going to say next!  Certainly we appreciate everything Jody has done behind the wheel of the car.  He's simply driven the wheels off of the car every time he's been in it!  Travis did a great job the first race of the year as well.....and he easily could have won that race.

Of course we couldn't do any of this without all our sponsors.  Tri State Truck Wash, AHT, Steve's Truck Repair, Tritz Pallet, 95.1 the Eagle, B&J Oil, Pro Shocks, Weld Wheels, Robison Racing Products, Rosy's Raceland, Maxim Chassis, and Ringers Gloves.  We've also had a few bonuses put up for us to win this year which we've been able to collect.......and we need to thank Bernie (Brian Woizeschke) from Windom, and Pat and Kendall from Applied Software in Beresford, SD.  Every little bit we're able to collect to help with the finances of running a race team helps!

Most of all, we want to thank the fans!  The feedback we (and everyone else that races) gets when the races are over is priceless!  There's no better feeling than having people come down and tell us how much they like your race car, or how cool they thought it was that you won.  There isn't better feeling in the world than after you've worked hard all week, and raced on the weekend to have the people come and show their appreciation when it's all over with!

Here's hoping to a successful 2nd half of the year!