Redline Raceway Friday July 3rd…

It was the Mid Season Championship Friday night so things were a little crazy as far as line ups were concerned. Being 6th in money won over the last 3 weeks Kevin started 2nd in the 3rd heat and finished 2nd in the 3rd heat. Using money won again Kevin started 6th in the feature. The first five laps saw Kevin getting around the 71 of Zimmerman, making in up into the fifth spot in the running order when the first yellow flew. He settled into 5th and started working on the 3x of Shupp for forth. When the third yellow of the night flew he was past the 3x in forth but hanging on with the track going to a hard dry one groove racing surface. He hung to the bottom and went on the finish 4th in what was a night when one driver said Kevin should of got the hard charger award because he passed 2 cars the most he seen anyone pass. The 8jr of JR Crouse was 1st followed by the 119 of Brian Malcolm the 24x of Jason Andrews the 55 of Kevin Hartnett, and the 3x of Chris Shupp rounded out the top five. The car still needs to make it’s way back towards last years set up to get back to where it was really fast. We’re making small changes now so I feel we are a lot closer to where we need to be for the car to work for Kevin.

Sunday Rain Dates are not good for the sport…

You here people talking all the time about why tracks don’t just run on Sunday if they rain out Friday or Saturday. Well here is My Two Cents on the subject. Tracks are in business to make money. If they keep getting rained out, they are not making money, and are most likely hurting. If they race Sunday and the weather still is not very good, and the turn out is low, it’s going to hurt their bottom line even more. It’s a very big roll of the dice for any track, let alone one struggling to survive in today economy. However, that isn’t the biggest reason I don’t like Sunday Rain Dates. I’m looking at the overall picture, the number of people who put their time into putting on the show. The people who work at the tracks, the pit crew members, the drivers, car owners, and last but not least by any means the safety crews. They all have to change any plans they may of had for the show to go on. Pit Crews are a big one these days. Teams have a hard time finding good people to work on their cars as it is. When you start causing conflicts at home nothing good comes of it. The EMS people who are the unsung hero’s of today, these people have little time to spend with their families. Some only have Sundays, if that, to themselves. To ask them to give that up just isn’t right. And last the drivers who can’t find someone else to fill in, and the car owners who put their money into it. To run a points show and tell these people you have to be there, no matter what, falls into the just isn’t right category also. Some of these people work hard to stay in the points battle, and to see it all go down the drain because of a Sunday Rain Date should never happen. So when you’re thinking what’s the big deal, just run on Sunday, think again. What will happen if these people start leaving the sport of Modified racing? What will happen when they have to choose between racing and family? That is MY TWO CENTS on Sunday Rain Dates, and I’ll see you at the track Friday if it’s not raining.

Friday June 19th Redline Raceway

There were 18 Mods with 2 heat races. Kevin started 6th in the second heat and finished 3rd in one of the 5 qualifying spots. In the feature he started 7th and at the drop of the green the Cat9 of Tony Harris who started 5th flat out didn’t go. The cars were going by so fast on the outside it looked like the freeway. When he was finally able to clear Harris Kevin was back about 4 spots from where he started. By lap 2 when the first yellow flew he was back up to 9th and by lap 7 when the second yellow flew he was back to 7th. At one point Kevin was up to 4th but the car went away in the late going and he slid back to 7th at the finish. It’s hard to believe but the track got hard and dry coming out of turn 4 in the late laps, even after all the rain this week. There was a lot of slamming and banging, but there was some real good racing also. The 8jr got his second win of the season, it was the 19, 24x, 71, 119, 3x and the 55 at the end. Next week is the Mid Season Championship with double points on the line.

Friday June 12th Redline Raceway…

There were 17 modified in the pits with two heat races. Kevin was in the first heat race with nine cars, 5 to qualify. He started 8th and made it up to 6th. Kevin was scheduled to start 11th in the feature but with Brent Boyer scratching he moved into the 9th starting spot. He started moving forward and was inside the 169 of Josh Pursell in turn 2 when he got chopped hard and send into the tires. Kevin did a 360 on top of the tire and came out of the infield at the back of the pack. He started charging forward and was up to sixth when the final yellow flew. On the restart he quickly pass the 71 of Zimmerman and went after the 119 of Brian Malcom. He was able to get around the 119 when Malcom hit the tires in turn 3 on the last lap. The top four were the 8JR of JR Crouse, the 24x of Jason Andrews, the 55 of Kevin Hartnett, and the 119 of Brian Malcolm.

Off for the Rain…

With no racing this week you will have to put up with my two cents. When it comes to racing in the rain, it’s always the “could a would a should a” factor that comes into play. It’s easy to second guess the track when you are not the one paying the bills. It’s a given when it rains the fans don’t come. When the fans don’t come the track doesn’t make money. If the track doesn’t make money the track isn’t around very long. So even though I wanted to race Friday night, I understand where the track is coming from. The track could wait to see if it really is going to rain and then cancel at seven o’clock after everyone has spent money towing to the track. This isn’t good for anyone involved. So as for me I’ll take the early cancel over the other options any day.That’s MY TWO CENTS.

Now for all you Kevin Hartnett fans out there… Click your way to Sitler Kline Racing’s web site and Click on Kevin’s Page and you will see a link to buy your very own Kevin Hartnett/Sitler Kline Racing T-Shirt. You can even customize it if you want. For single shirts the cost is $25 if you buy more the price goes down. I have one on the way, I should have it on in a week or two if you want to wait and see what it looks like before getting one.

Kevin Hartnett/Sitler Kline Racing T-Shirt

Redline Raceway Friday May 29th

Sorry this is late this week, didn’t get home until after 2AM again, and had to be to work in the morning. It was not a good night at the track. The car wouldn’t go in the heat, Kevin started 6th and finished 5th with 4 to qualify. That didn’t hurt us to bad as we started 13th where we would of started 11th had we finished in one of the qualifying spots. The car still didn’t want to turn for Kevin in the feature. He held his own after dropping back a few spots on the start he had made his way back up to 12th when the first yellow flew on lap 6. On the restart coming out of 2 we were in the middle of the second yellow of the night. A car came off the wall and caused a jumbled mess in front of Kevin. He tried to check up and from the stands it looked like he missed everything. HOWEVER, when he came in front of the stands the right front was toed out about a foot. The car ended up with the axle bent back on both side and the tie rod at a 45 degrees angle. The car is still not working right and needs some work. We will be making major changes this week.