We had an AWESOME truck. Quailified 9th, which is great considering the last time we were at New Smyrna, Whitney quailfied 17th. At tech they made us add 100 lbs since the crate motor was Not factory sealed, and that didn’t seem to bother the truck at all during the race. (BTW – the motor has been sent to be worked on and this time we’ll pay for the factory seals!). Great job goes out to Eddie, Bob, Brian Sr, Brian Jr, Darrel and Sean for all of the great work on the truck over the off-season. Whitney kept telling us how wonderful the truck felt. She was ready to race and wanted to prove to everyone that she not only had what it takes, but she could do it on a limited budget!!
At the start of the race the inside line didn’t move quickly and Whitney fell three spots to 12th. By lap #4 she was on the move forward. Passing trucks pretty much where ever she felt like. On lap #11 she caught the seventh place truck and passed him, then started working on the sixth place truck on lap #12. It was taken a little bit of time to get pass this truck. On lap #14 the number 24 truck (who was now eight place) forgot where he was and tried to go three wide (with Whitney on the inside) coming out of turn 4. Everyone knows that you DO NOT go three wide at New Smyrna, and especially on turn 4, but he’s a kid and has to learn the hard way. The only problem is that the hard way cost us a truck.
He got into the back of Whitney and spun her out. She was fine until she hit the wet grass just off the inside of the track. She picked up speed and then pancaked the wall with the passenger side of the truck. She was done for the night. We’ll be replacing the rear clip, rear end, front bumper, majority of the suspension and a couple of tires and rims.
I always try to keep my personal oppinions out of this blog, but I have to make this statement. When we started racing with FASCAR, Whitney was 14 years old. I stand behind FASCAR and their beliefs that when a Teen wants to move up into stock car racing they will give them the opportutinaty. I don’t generally make any comments about young drivers because Whitney was one and we respected the experianced drivers. BUT, and here’s the BIG BUT! We started Whitney in the back of the pack for the first season so she could get seat time. I’m not saying she didn’t know how to race, I’m saying we respected the other racers enough to put her in the back of the field to learn how to handle a larger, heavier race vehicle. She has four championships under her belt in Go-karting alone and one Mini-Championship in a Sportsman.
We didn’t allow her to start in the pill position until the other, let me repeat, OTHER DRIVERS came to us and told us they felt confortable racing with Whitney. We showed them respect and they showed Whitney respect. Give and take. It’s the only way to learn how to race.
These kids that are moving up from Quarter-Midgets do not show any respect for the other racers on the track. They only know how they raced in Quater-midgets and I’ve watched some of their races. They can only pass if they move racers out of the way. Ya know, that might work on a quarter-midget track, but let me tell you, eventually on the “Big Racers” track your going to do some major damage to yourself with this attitude. Racers remember who respects them and who doesn’t. What goes around will come back around. Oh, and don’t think you can lie your way out of taking responsibility,
