Wedge Racing 2020 Racing Season

P1 - everything was good until the hockey stick (inside the trans) and stuck in 3rd. A bit of work to replace, but no major issue.

Q1- track and Vicki felt great. I got the pole, some 2 seconds ahead of 2nd place in class.

Race 1, Saturday. Had a great race with Charlie Hearn and Chris Jennerjahn. (Chris's first visit here). Chris dropped out of the lead pack near the end and left Charlie and I to battle it out. On the last lap, Charlie led down the long pack straight, but I was able to pass him going into T17 (180 horseshoe) and manged to just hold him off at the finish line.

Race 2, Sunday. The race started off pretty tight, but after a few laps, I managed to get a break and pull away to a substantial lead. In the end, I was about 10 seconds ahead of Chris (who was now starting to get a good handle on the track) and held that gap for the last 5 or 6 laps. In that race, I also set a new Spec Tire track record at 2:39.4

INTRODUCE COVID-19 !! All usual races CANCELLED until June

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Road Atlanta (#1) - March - MAJORS weekend
Cancelled

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VIR (Virginia International Raceway)- April - MAJORS Hoosier Super Tour event

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Road America - Elkhart Lake, WI - 6/13-14

With continuing cancellations of many events, we looked to the great white north.. in the summer.. but it was still just in the low 40's for most of the weekend .. while in the high 80's and 90's at home.

The wind was brutal and the track was COLD. We chased our tails for handling and a new engine, but managed to not crash while not learning much. I still have lots of work to do to get this car where it needs to be. We did scrape up a couple of 9th place finishes and found a whole bunch of things that did NOT improve anything to speak of. The handling and brakes were both FAR from ideal. SOMETHING is seriously wrong .. some where...

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Roebling Road Majors - June 27-28

Finally a race back in SEDIV for us, so we traveled down to Roebling to see what we could do. After quite a few changes to the car, the weekend went pretty well. We were conserving tires for a trip back to Elkhart for the Runoffs, so used what we had left over from previous events. Considering the tires, the car felt pretty good. The brakes were much better and the handling was pretty close to what we were used to. After a so-so run for a distant 2nd in the Saturday race, I decided to go ahead and put on a new set of 'shoes' for the Sunday race. I was very happy to find a MUCH better car on the track Sunday and ran first and second with Mitch for much of it. I was in second with 3 laps to go .. waiting to make the last lap pass for the win on the last lap.. when I made a slight mistake coming into T5 and caught the leading edge of the inside curbing with my left front tire. Wear from previous groups had also created a HOLE about 6" deep in the sand just at the front of that curb. The ensuing BIG BUMP was enough to lift the tire off the ground .. well into the air and I was unable to save it before spinning around into the sand just off track. I recovered quickly, but Mitch was almost 2 turns ahead of me and I didn't have enough time left to run him down. SO.. 2 2nd place finishes for the weekend, but finally feeling like Vicki was getting close to being competitive.

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Mid Ohio - 7/17-19

With so little racing this year, we decided to travel back north again. The weather was decent, but my racing was dismal. I still could not get the car to handle. VERY strange since Vicki was SO GOOD at Sebring. On top of performing poorly, the right rear trailing arm BROKE during the Saturday race .. and I had no spare. Fortunately, the owner of the company that constructs the frames for Vortech's .. and drives one himself, Chris Jennerjahn (yep.. same one as at Sebring), was THERE *AND* he had a spare arm. We installed it and while looking things over, found a loose tie rod end up front. That helped the handling quite a bit for Race 2 .. and we even made it over half way through the laps to get an official FINISH.. *BUT* - this time the LEFT rear trailing arm broke , dropping the car's butt onto the ground coming out of T2 but I was able to drag it off the track and out of the way. As we were loading (with help from the tow truck driver), it occurred to me that Chris MIGHT just have ANOTHER spare. I caught him loading his car and .. wow ... he DID have another. So.. an expensive weekend just got a LOT MORE expensive, but at least I had the spares to fix Vicki when we got home. Had to wonder if the trailing arms were flexing just prior to breaking - causing some or hopefully MOST of the handling issues.

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Road Atlanta - March - MAJORS weekend - moved to 7/28-29 and combined with a double SARRC weekend

A short tow from home, so another TEST for Vicki. Used old tires all weekend.. ran into all kinds of issues. LOST the cap off my oil fill, covering the car in oil from the roll bar back. Spun at T7 and destroyed my engine undertray... seemed to have no power and MANY other issues. ASTOUNDING how many things went wrong. However, at the end of the day, we had 2 wins in class (as the ONLY vee) and discovered a LOT MORE THINGS that needed work. One more shot before the Runoffs...

I was also the ONLY vee at this race.... no matter to me, since I was just there to TEST anyway. We developed NEW transmission issues (unexplained NOISES) during event and could not get it figured out. Following the weekend, I removed the trans and took it to a shop in South Carolina, about 2 and a half hours away. I spent the night and waited for the repair .. several 'bad things' getting found and fixed. At least SOMETHING was going to change. We made another series of 'measurable' changes as well.. rebuilding both front and rear shocks and playing with a number of settings .. still hunting that 'RIGHT ONE'. After the weekend, we found that the engine timing was retarded about 4 degrees (due to my own stupidity, of course)... that helps to explain the lack of power - THREE weekends that engine ran that way!

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Runoffs - Road America (aka Elkhart Lake) - October 7-13

SO.. back up to Wisconsin for a rematch. Not a great week for us, but we are getting closer. The handling still isn't right, but the engine is working decently. Still lots of room for improvement in the braking ..still room to grow handling wise as well. I qualified 15th and could only move up to 12th. On the last lap, there was a small crash ahead of me that relieved 2 cars of their positions... and I inherited a 10th PLACE FINISH! Another top 10 for the team. I was 'down' several MPH on top end and just couldn't get the car to turn. Hoping that we'll get this thing working the way it should before next year at Indianapolis.

Thanks as always to Rollin at ButlerEngines.com, JR at RoxannesHeaders.com and ... Mike, John, Tim and Bruce at Hoosier tires (RaceTire.com) and Dietmar at QuixoteRacing.com . Not to forget my wife, Linda, who travels with me to almost every race, and suffers me the joy of racing for all these years!

Race	Qualified	Finished	Points Majors	notes
Sebring MAJOR#1	1st	1st	25	Tight race with Hearn at the line
Sebring MAJOR#2	1st	1st	25	A walk away for Vicki
VIR MAJOR#1
VIR MAJOR#2
June Sprints MAJOR#1	9	8		out of conference
June Sprints MAJOR#2	9	9
Mid Ohio Majors#1				RR trailing arm broke
Mid Ohio Majors#2				LR trailing arm broke
Roebling MAJOR#1	1	2	21	Ran old tires
Roebling MAJOR#2	2	2	21	Spun with 3 laps to go
Atlanta MAJOR#1	1	1	25	only vee
Atlanta MAJOR#2	1	1	25
Season Total SouthEast			142	1st Place in Conference!