Saturday, August 16, 2008: New Egypt Speedway, NJ
There's no better model of persistence than that found in car owners George and Gary Stevens. The green flag no sooner waved in warm-ups and the Stevens Racing #26 ARDC midget was flipping multiple times. The gremlins of New Egypt Speedway seemed to bite us again! Apparently, just as I was entering turn one, the right rear torsion stop broke (due to wear & tear) and I went for a wild ride. It was all too familiar after a similar accident at County Line, NC on June 22. Fortunately, I walked away without a concussion this time...as far as I know of anyway. I woke up Sunday morning with a very sore neck, but otherwise fine.
The flip is not the end of the story for New Egypt though. My dad and Uncle Gary, crew member Joe, and crew members of other teams worked very quickly to get the car back on the track for the heat race. Damage included an entire front axle assembly, a left front shock, bent rear wheel, rear bumper, rubrails, tail tank, etc... Unfortunately, I did not qualify through the heat race. In the rush to repair the car, the left front brake caliper was not tightened all the way and therefore, I lost brakes. I did qualify through the consi however, and started 23rd in the 26 car feature.
When all was said and done, our official feature finish was 13th. At the end of the night, the car was in one piece and so was I. What a night! The team was so happy the night was over...they were worked extremely hard! We still have our work cut out for us, as we have to restock the used spare parts, set the toe, re-square the car, and repair the damages to body panels and the tail tank. Fortunately we have two weeks to get ready for our next race, which is at Big Diamond, PA on Friday, August 29th.
As always, thank you to our sponsors and fans who support us through thick and thin. It was great seeing some of you again Saturday night-especially when you paid for pit passes just to come check on me after the flip! Thank you also to the other ARDC teams that helped put our car back together. With everyone's help, the night turned out much better than it started.