It's a new year and while we've had some uncertainty with our beloved Speedbowl, (with the help of others) we haven't stopped chasing races.
Over the winter, we were offered a ride in an ice racer. So on a cold morning in February, we set out for a pond in New Hampshire to take on a new challenge. It was different, but a very fun experience. The heat race went pretty well, (I can't remember exactly at this point but) we finished around 4th. The feature however didn't go so well. While we started last and took it easy into turn 1, the visibility was so bad from all the snow spray, and that's where everything went wrong. After reviewing our footage, we had 1.5 seconds to react from seeing the car that spun in the corner, to the point of impact hitting him head on. That's where we decided to retire from ice racing. However a month later, the car was repaired for another driver, and we were allowed to take it out in the mechanics race. We fared much better, with much less snow spray, to finish 2nd on the tail of a "Street Stock" with our little Nissan Sentra. Big thanks to the Cavallaro family for this opportunity to try something new.
After that, up next was another potential once in a lifetime experience. A trip to Virginia to compete with the 
Mini Stocks at Richmond Raceway. What was the first of a few races in the #54 Clavette owned Integra, proved to be a good learning experience. Unable to make the trip, the crew had to learn almost everything about the car on the fly. Most of the scheduled practice day was spent chasing oil leaks, and chasing an "overheating" problem that was never actually a problem (just a faulty gauge). There was some issues with the tune that was in the car too, which we didn't get a chance to modify until race day. We made a change from heat to feature to try and clear up the fuel delivery issue, but we overshot it. Under the first caution, the crew learned how to tune it, live! We tried to split the difference but were still off on our guess. So the whole race we were never really under full throttle. After going a lap down and with a transmission that was leaking all over the right side tires, we ended up 19th in a field of nearly 40.
With the Speedbowl plans still not clear, and with the drive to compete, Mitch and Tim paired up again to take on the Oxford opener on 4/28, then again this past weekend. The first race the car was out to lunch the whole day. We got slower with every adjustment made as the day went on. Thanks to attrition, we ended up hanging on to a 12th place finish. This past weekend however, we were on to something. We changed a bunch of stuff in the shop to try and improve this next outing. Starting the day almost where we left off in lap times. But the car felt much better. After the last round, and before the heat race, Tim changed a couple more things on the car and it made a world of difference. Thanks to Pops drawing nearly last place for lineups again, we picked up about .6/.7 of a second in the heat race. The car was able to keep up, and even be faster than those in front of us, but was still a little on the loose end so we couldn't make any moves. Come the feature, after another change, we simply missed the mark on it making it so loose it was nearly undriveable. We went a first lap, but on the first caution we came in to change it back to where we were in the heat. Well, the race went back green almost immediately giving us no time to even jack the car up and we went down a few more laps during that. Re entering the track, we were fast again, and keeping up with the competitors, once again faster than some. But at that point it was all about staying out of trouble and just finishing the race. We finished 13th, but now have something to work with for next time.
Up next, we get to take out the #54 Integra again to White Mountain Motorsports Park in NH. This checks another track off our list to cover all of New England. This leaves just Spud Speedway on our list to complete this, if anyone has any leads to be able to compete there in anything it would be appreciated.
**Andover Used Auto Parts, Biggins’ Auto Repair, So Sorry, Lucky Strike Lanes, Thirty Marketing. **
Mitch Bombard, driver of the #10CT Super X, X Car, and Enduro, or #54 Mini Stock, is the writer of the weekly recaps, and expresses the views of his own from his viewpoint behind the wheel, and after watching video (if available).
Starting last in the field, we were only after some valuable seat time. Out the gate the car wasn't sounding too healthy. Come to find out 2 of our spark plug wires fell off at some point, not really sure as to when exactly. Nonetheless it was still a good experience as the sensation is nothing like the Saturn was. About 10 laps in, the car started to overheat so we pulled it off the track to cool down. In an effort for more seat time, we went back to complete the race running 17 laps total, of the 25 scheduled. 
We were pretty excited to be able to race semi-local under the jurisdiction of someone who respects his drivers. Little did we know, we would be a fierce contender during a tour event. The North East Mini Stock Tour invaded Massachusetts for a 50 lap event, and we were equipped with a questionable Twin Cam motor (for good reason). We picked up a motor that had various visible issues, and without investing too much money we addressed them. These included a front crank seal, thermostat, water pump, oil pan, tensioner, it goes on. After the track refused to mount our new tire, and some creativity with tire placement, we were at a very respectable position on the speed charts in practice. But the car was overheating. Bad head gasket ended up being the case. We ran the race hoodless and it seemed to keep the temps down, in the heat we were fairly dicey with our 
competitors for once and it really got us excited for the feature. That picture up there? That's battling for position and not getting freight trained. Come the feature, we were running about 6th at halfway, when all of a sudden the car was slowing down and we were losing track position heavily. The yellow flew for someone in Turn 1, our our motor grenaded on the back straight. Eventually the fire crew drove down the hill to tend to the fire, luckily it was only a small lingering one. So again, we blew up in a Tour race with Thompson a few days away. We officially finished 16th.
We ended up missing first round of practice at the one mile oval, and this proved to be a little painful as we needed to test out our mechanical setup we brought to the event. (Right: Tachneedle Photo). After a few laps in round 2 we knew we needed to perform a transmission swap in order to get a more appropriate gear ratio. Big thanks to our pit neighbor Jeremy Carter for all his help during the process.
We started the feature on the outside pole, our best starting spot in our short career up there. With a little help going into turn 1, and again going into turn 3, we were able to take the lead and lead our first career lap as a NASCAR Mini Stock at the Big T. After that we were quickly overtaken by the 87 car, and he checked out. Meanwhile we were running a solid 3rd for much of the race in a clean and exciting side by side battle with Doug Curry. The car started to drift off in the closing laps and the 2 car was pulling away from us in 4th. That's when the 16 and 21 cars ended up overtaking us also in a tight battle at the line where we walked away 6th. This was an exciting day for us and it was good to see our hard work pay off. We hope to carry this momentum in the next Thompson race on July 8th.
Debuting (the start of) some new colors, the #10CT Saturn rolled off the trailer to many comments on appearance. Bare without stickers, and freshly painted black the new look is off to a good start. But as we all know, the paint job don't make the car fast. We showed up to a beautiful day at the speedway, ready for 15 laps of Mini Stock action. We made very minimal changes throughout the day from practice to the feature, a first for us. We were running about 11th fastest of 22 entrants all afternoon.
