Stampede Over. Already Looking Towards 2018.
Monday - October - 2017
Hello everyone. AJ Flick here. Thank you for reading! When I cannot get a professional release made, I will give everyone a personal write-up myself. Enjoy the weekend at Lernerville for the Steel City Stampede, through my perspective!
Featured Image by Ashlee Leister and Leister Photography!
Our final weekend of the 2017 season consisted of a 3 day show at Lernerville Speedway. The Thursday practice night was rained out, which hurt because we had a lot of things planned to try.
Photo by Ashlee Leister
Friday night was the heat race portion. I started 4th on a dry, ice, slick track and finished 2nd. However, we were about 1 second off the leaders pace. I spent all night studying our notes to prepare for the Saturday night feature in case the track surface was similar.
Luck was on my side as I was pulled to start 1st. The speedway was watered and we went green. I led for a lap and moved to the top side of the speedway. When I moved up, I hit a fresh patch of slime and slid up over turn 1 bringing out the caution. It was heartbreaking but we regrouped at the back of the single file line with full intention of getting back to the front. With no cautions to help, we drove from 20th to 4th and was quickly catching 2nd and 3rd. I would have needed a lot of help to get the lead back after my mistake on lap 1, but nonetheless, we had an amazing comeback to finish out the year. The car was actually pretty good and I would have loved to see how it felt in clean air.
Photo by Patrick Miller
This year was incredibly hit or miss but the crew and sponsors backed me up the entire time. I am blessed to have the support I do from such incredible people. Thank you Ferguson Heating and AC, Coopers RV Center, Chernega Construction, Fence by Maintenance Service, Champion, JD Byrider, Stanford’s Glass Service, Townsend Gas and Oil, Alternative Power Sources, and the rest of my marketing partners for the continued support!
We will work hard during this offseason and be well prepared for the 2018 season.
#TeamChampion #ChampionParts