Adam's Blog

A long way to go and a short time to get there ...

noreply@blogger.com (Adam West) — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:23:00 +0000

I thought I better take a few minutes to let everyone know that I wil be back in action in our #30 Sprint Car for the entire Southern Ontario Sprints schedule in 2009 and well as a few other special events. This will also be my second year behind the wheel of the #92 Dirt Late Model in the Ontario Dirt Late Model series with the majority of those races taking place in July and August.

The SOS season is set to start at Brighton Speedway in just over two weeks and we still have a pile of work to do in order to get ready, but there is no doubt that we will make the first race. This isn't the first year that we've cut it close on time, and it probably won't be the last, but we have never missed a season opening race in any series that we've run over the past 17 years.

I wish I could report that I have a shop full of new cars for this year and a line up of new hard hitting engines, but the reality is that the slow economy has affected us as well, so we will be competing with the same equipment as last year, with a few upgrades to help step up the performance. At times like these I feel that its important to be happy that we have the chance to race instead of being discouraged that we don't have the latest and greatest parts.

Make sure to check out http://www.southernontariosprints.com/ and http://www.ontariodirtlatemodels.com/ to keep up on schedules and news.

Hopefully see you at the track in 2009.

Adam

CPT Race Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Adam West) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:09:00 +0000

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we will be at the CPT Race Experience show (www.cptrace.com) show in London on January 24th and 25th. We will have both the #30 Sprint Car and #92 Ontario Dirt Late Model on display. I will be at the show both days so please stop by and say hello.
Adam

Disaster at Brighton

noreply@blogger.com (Adam West) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:23:00 +0000

I’ll keep this fairly short because this isn’t a weekend I want to remember with any great detail. I was optimistic about my chances to have a solid run because Brighton is a track that I have a lot of experience at, and have always ran well at, getting my first Sprint Car feature win there in 2005. Maybe it was the optimism that cursed me …

We left Saturday morning to travel to Brighton for the final ODLM race of the year, stopping in Woodstock along the way to meet Rent-A-Neil, our crewman that has followed us for every Sprint Car and Late Model race since 2004. It was at this stop that I realized I forgot my overnight bag at home. Not a big deal and nothing that a trip to Walmart for some new underwear couldn’t fix.

Next up was a flat tire on the race car trailer in the middle of Toronto. Charles had to fix the drivers-side tire on the side of the 401 with edge to the trailer hanging out into traffic. That had potential to turn into a huge disaster, but he got it changed and continued down the road.
Once at the track, things started smoothly and the weather was nice for a September day.

Unfortunately when I went to pull my number for the heat race starting spot, I ended up with 50, out of a possible 50, leaving me to start dead last at the back of Heat #2.

When it came time for hot laps, the track was clearly not in any condition to be racing on, but they sent us out anyway. After a handful of laps to pack the track, we went green for 1-1/2 laps before the session was over, and they started yelling on the radio to get off the track. It was a complete waste of time to be out there because the track was in no condition to race on. And the part that ticked me off even more, is that some of the other cars from my session got to out again later when the track was starting to pack down.

The heat race went about as good as to be expected. The track was still a single lane affair by this time with the high line being the fast way around. I started 7th, finished 6th and was challenging for 5th for the last half of the race but couldn’t get the traction to make the pass around the bottom. Before the checkered flag fell I knew that I was going to be starting 17th in the feature on a track that would be very difficult to pass on.

For the feature, my strategy was keep the car smooth and let the changing track conditions and attrition work in my favour and pick my way through the field. That worked well for about 5 seconds until I got hit in the right rear and spun to the outside of the track exiting turn 2 on the first lap of the race. Of course the car stalled and chose this time to not refire, eventually backfiring through the carburetor and catching the air cleaner on fire before the tow truck had me back in the pits.

The crew got the car running and straightened the body a little while only losing 1 lap because the caution had come out while we were in the pits. I wasn’t too worried about being a lap down because I knew that by staying on the track I could gain spots on other cars that were likely to have problems.

But about 200ft short of the start/finish line coming to the restart, 2 cars tangled a few spots ahead of me and I had no where to go except into the left front corner of Mike Lewis tearing a good chuck of the body from the right front of the car. At least this time the car restarted and I could drive it back to the pits.

Again the crew went to work tearing off sheet metal and removing about 4" of the toe-out that I had just "adjusted" to the front suspension. Bernie, (my teammate Keith’s father-in-law) even donated his belt to help strap body parts together, causing his pants to hit the dirt right in the middle of pit lane.

Again I headed back to the track, and still only 2 or 3 laps down because of all the other yellow flags. I was cautious for the first lap to make sure the car was handling ok before I started to work on the traffic ahead to gain some spots. The first car I started to pass made a hard right turn in the middle of the backstretch causing me to take evasive action eventually ending up on the backside the banking in turns 3-4. Luckily I was able to save it and drove back on the track.

By now I had lost so much time that the flagman was showing the move-over flag as I’m sure the leaders were catching me pretty quickly. I held a steady line around the top to give the faster cars a way by when they caught up. Luckily a caution came out before I got lapped which was going to let me catch up with the field (or so I thought). The yellow came out just as I was entering turn 1. I hit the brakes as normal to set the car entering the corner when I heard a big bang, the car dropped on the right rear and my brake pedal went to the floor, while still doing about 100mph. I cranked the wheel hard to the left but still slid off the track, out into the marshy area, bouncing along and heading for the creek that separates the track from the pit area. The only way I was going to get the car to stop was to shut the engine off and let the compression in the engine bring the car to safe stop. I shut the switch off, but the car didn’t even attempt to slow down. Before I had time to diagnose what exactly was wrong, I piled into a dirt embankment on the edge of the creek.

It took the tow truck ride back to the pits before I realized that the right rear suspension had broken just as I hit the brakes, causing the axle to shift sideways, pulling the shock and spring apart and tearing the brake lines off. At the same time, when the rearend shifted, the driveshaft yoke came out the transmission, causing the driveshaft to flop around violently inside the car, but providing no means of engine braking (because it was no longer connected to the engine).

Needless to say, I was devastated. None of the events were really my fault as I was a victim of circumstance for the most part. It wasn’t the crews fault as they did everything they could to keep the car going when I kept tearing it up. It wasn’t anyones fault. It was just a bad night at the races. I’ve been very very fortunate in my career that I have never had a night like that before, and hope I never have one again.

Because of my poor finish, I dropped back from 5th to 7th in the final ODLM standings. Before the season started, I would have been thrilled with anything even close to the top 10, but once we got going and having solid runs, the expectations change and anything less than success is frustrating.

As for the rest of the season, I’m just a couple of hours from heading to the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken. After last weekend, if I can keep the shiny side up it will be a good weekend. Next week we have off, then to Eldora on October 11th for an NRA / SOD 360 race.

Its Over Already???

noreply@blogger.com (Adam West) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:20:00 +0000

It’s hard to believe that another racing season is nearly in the books. With the SOS running a slightly shorter schedule than the previous years, coupled with mother nature taking the checkered flag in several events, racing is almost done for the year when it seems like we’re barely getting started.

Only two more events remain on our Sprint Car schedule at this time, the postponed Canadian Sprint Car Nationals during the last weekend in September at Ohsweken, and a 360 race at Eldora Speedway on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in October.

Looking back on the SOS season, its hard to call it anything less than a success with 8 top 10 finishes and 5 top 5’s in 9 races but I can’t seem to forget about two races in particular that were major disappointments; Brockville and Ohsweken. The 9th place at Brockville was a result of reading the track wrong and making the car so tight that it would ‘bicycle’ in the corners to the point that I had to lift off the gas and ultimately lose positions on the track. Ohsweken was just a heartbreaker after all the work we put into bringing our best equipment to the track, running up to 3rd in the feature just past the halfway point then losing it all when the freshly rebuilt magneto shorted out and the car stopped on the backstretch. I gave up making excuses in racing a long time ago, but its easy to see that that 18th place finish kept us from at least challenging for the championship. On the brighter side, it was great to battle with Glenn Styres for the lead at Humberstone where I eventually finished second, earning a hard fought third in the make-up feature at Brighton and a solid fourth in front of a bunch of family and friends at South Buxton.

Heading into the CSCN my goals are simple, be the fastest Canadian qualifier again and make the A-main, something that I haven’t been able to do since the inaugural race of 2005. Once I’m in the A, the pressure will be off to the point that I can run my own race and see where we really stack up against the best in the Northeast, but until we’re locked in, the stress level will be high.

Driving for the Inlaws, Racing with the Outlaws …

Something that the regular Sprint Car fans may not know is that I’ve also taken on a ride in a dirt Late Model style stock car for a handfull of races this summer competing in the Ontario Dirt Late Model series. Its something that we’ve talked about in the past, but when the opportunity came along this season to drive for Charles and Debbie (my fiancee’s parents), I couldn’t pass it up.

My competitive debut in the car came during the World of Outlaws Late Model race at Ohsweken in late June where I can confidently say that I got my butt kicked by the best in the business. Despite getting lapped in the heat race and ultimately finishing mid-pack in the B-main, we were all encouraged to be running similar lap times to the majority of the other ODLM cars.

Due to scheduling conflicts I missed the first regular ODLM race of the season to run the SOS race at South Buxton during the August long weekend. Paul Turner, the original hired driver of the 92 car finished a solid 8th place, setting the bar fairly high and putting pressure on me to get up to speed quickly and prove to myself that I belonged in the seat.

The following night at Humberstone I started 12th in the feature but spun to avoid a crash early in the race leaving me buried deep in the field, 16th or 18th I think. On the restart I focused on keeping the car as straight as possible and used a lot of throttle control on the slick track to move steadily to a solid sixth place finish while gaining on the top 5 runners at the end of the race.

I had high hopes for my third start in the car at Ohsweken, but wasn’t able to keep pace in the heat race and fell from second to seventh at the finish. This relegated me to a 20th place start in the feature where I had another strong drive up to 6th, again challenging the top 5 cars late in race.

Heading to Brighton for the ODLM final this weekend (September 20th), my goal is to earn a better finish in the heat race so I can start the feature in the top 10 and keep the leaders in site for the entire race and ultimately have a shot at picking up the feature win and maintain our top 5 points position.

Overall driving the Late Model has been a great experience. I’m still not ready to claim that I feel totally comfortable in the car or that I understand the seemingly unlimited adjustments that can be made to the chassis, but I know this will come with more track time and that can only help our already solid on-track performance.

Welcome to Adam West.ca

noreply@blogger.com (Adam West) — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:33:00 +0000

Welcome to the Official Website of Adam West Racing. Stay tuned throughout the racing season for updates on Adam's blog. In 2008 Adam will be chasing the Southern Ontario Sprints championship as well as competing at a number of other local 360 sprint car events.

Stay tuned for all the latest from Adam and the #30 team!