The Life’s Good Racing!TM team has just completed two days of qualifying races. Dave is competing in Camaro-Mustang Challenge 2 (CMC2) and I am in Performance Touring B (PTB). The format for this event is that the starting grid for the National Championship race is established by the finish positions achieved in the two qualifying races, which were completed Thursday and Friday. Today (Saturday) at 10:45am (Rocky Mountain Time) Dave Brown will compete in the CMC2 National Championship race. I will compete tomorrow, Sunday, at 1:20pm in the PTB National Championship race.
You can tune in to each of these races and watch live webcast TV coverage on SpeedCastTV.com. Go to speedcasttv.com and in Member Login, enter: lifesgoodracing, password: karl. I have set this up for unlimited user access.
A recap of the last two days’ racing:
CMC2 (Dave):
Thursday’s Qualifying Race. Dave battled early with Nick Steel but was unable to run with Nick, and fought hard to achieve his second place finish as he battled with Jeremiah Kellam up to the checkered flag. In the end, Dave took second in an exciting, hard fought battle. It was a good showing for the The Life’s Good Racing!TM 33x Camaro, however there was cause for concern as it was clear that Nick Steel possessed more top end speed than we were able to achieve
Friday’s Qualifying Race. Early in the race Jeremiah Kellam took an early lead and ran away from the field as Dave and Nick battled for second. It was clear that neither Dave, nor Nick had the top end speed Jeremiah had found in his Mustang. Nick passed Dave for second with two laps remaining, resulting in Dave taking a third. It was clear once again that our car lacks in top end power compared to the other two top competitors. We are attributing this to our brand new motor which went into the car after blowing at the last race weekend at Auto Club Speedway. We are just unable to achieve the kind of horsepower required to stay up and will need to rely on Dave’s driving prowess to be competitive and bring the trophy home for the team.
The combination of Dave’s second and third finishes positions Dave to start the The Life’s Good Racing!TM Camaro on the front row in second, a good starting position for the National Championship race.
PTB (Karl):
Thursday’s Qualifying Race. I started in the fourth row in this race and was working my way through the field when, in the second lap of the race, I took a hard hit going into the “Attitudes” series of turns, forcing me to spin and go off track. It was quite exciting to watch the entire field coming at me at speeds of up to 100mph, braking hard and making sharp left turns into this tricky series of corners. I was able to restart the car, however the body damage that was sustained was only the smaller of the series of issues that resulted from the impact. Throughout the course of the race, I realized that the front end was thrown badly out of alignment, and that my power steering unit was badly damaged. I limped the car home to a 5th place finish.
The team, led by Charles Roberts, worked through the night to repair the power steering unit, re-align the car and make other repairs in order to have the car back on the track early Friday morning. Great job Charles and Chris!
Saturday’s Qualifying Race. I started this race in 16th position, deep in the field. When the flag dropped, I was able to power my way through the crowded field and found myself in 3rd place (overall), second in my race group by the end of the front straight!!! I was able to hold off most attackers from behind and ended the race in 2nd in my race group.
I am awaiting the final grid position notification from the officials on where I will start Sunday’s National Championship race and will advise as soon as I know. We are hoping that the combination of the 5th and the 2nd in the two races positions me either on the front row, or at least close to the front row.
As you can see from the pictures above, our new wrap came out fantastic. Claudia’s design has been praised by everyone at the track and has been photographed by many. We certainly have the best looking car at this event. Allan Verret Design stepped up and assisted us in making this wrap come to fruition as our previous wrap sponsor pulled out at the very last minute.
The wrap proudly displays the logos of all of our key contributing sponsors, Hawk Performance, AIP Electronics, ClutchMasters and Bridgelux. Without their assistance and support, we certainly would not be where we are right now going into the most critical and exciting races of the season.
More to come!
Karl Chicca, Campbell, CA