Back to the Grind
Friday - April - 2022
I want to say that the weather has been strange to start the year. But to be fair, this is basically a typical spring in Pennsylvania, right?
Opening night at Port Royal Speedway was scheduled for Sunday March 6th. It was 30 degrees when we woke up and started driving to the speedway, and by the time our race day started, it was almost 70 degrees with 20+ mph winds. We had a horrible pill draw, started last in the heat race and got up to 6th. Unfortunately, we finished 1 spot out of the heat race transfer position. We were running in a transfer spot in the B-Main but we hit a hole going into turn 1, blew the RF tire off the wheel, and slammed the fence with the right side of our car. Our damage was minimal but we were done for the night.
Weather took the 2nd week of racing away from us as it was too cold and produced too much rain to create safe racing conditions.
We were locked and loaded for our return to Port Royal on March 20th. It was originally scheduled for March 19th but was pushed back another day due to cold weather. Sensing a pattern here? This night consisted of group time trails. I wasn’t happy with our time trail run, as it put us 4th overall in our group. On the plus side, it worked for the invert and gave us the pole position for the heat race, which we won’t confidently. A redraw of 6 put us on the outside of row 3 for the feature. We avoided many wrecked, including a big one on lap 1, and raced strongly near the front all day, finally finishing in 7th. We weren’t in contention for the win but we were more securely near the top 5 than we have been in over 2 years.
Our 3rd scheduled race was cancelled due to cold again. As I type this on April Fool’s Day, April 1st, it looks very promising that we will get our next race under way tomorrow April 2nd. Not the warmest day, only 56 degrees as a high, but plenty warm enough to put on a good show for the fans. I’m excited to get back on track and to continue improving.
Thank you Ferguson Heating and AC, Fence by Maintenance Service, Chernega Construction, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Johnny Carpet, JD Byrider Monroeville Pennsylvania, Stanford’s Glass Service, Townsend Gas and Oil, MAHLE Pistons, Showtime Designs, Rheem, Advance Auto Parts, Carlisle Cement Products, DMI Racing, Fluid Film, Smith Titanium, Bell Racing, INDY Race Parts, TBM Brakes, BMRS Hoses, Kinser Air Filters, KING Racing Products, Dr. Neff Eye Care Center, and the rest of my marketing partners for the continued support!
If anyone is interested in my YouTube vlogs and races, they can be found at www.youtube.com/CompleteChaos2
Merchandise can be found at https://aj-flick-racing.myshopify.com/