Team Weaver went to Grand Rapids last night (July 3) for a special event race, including fireworks afterward.  On the track, Skyler created some fireworks of his own, finishing second in his heat.  In the feature of 13 cars, he started in row one, outside.  Running near the front, he and a tight group of points-leading drivers put on a show.  Four lead cars (Skyler running third) gradually pulled away from field. The drivers tucked in bumper-to-bumper down the straight-aways, then jockeyed inside and out through the turns.  Twice Skyler and No. 87 criss-crossed at full throttle on the high banks, as they swapped positions quicker than a finger snap.  Our No. 16 was set up perfectly, and Skyler hit the turns hard and faster than the lead two cars--which forced him to brake more than he wanted.  On lap 17, Skyler pressed too hard into turn 2 and spun out.  This sent to him to rear on the restart, where he finish 10th of 13th.  In the pits afterward he climbed out of the car very annoyed with himself.  But the Team Weaver pit crew was smiling.  Except for one little mistake, it was great racing.

Whenever the weather is perfect, when the car runs well, when there seem to be no problems of any kind--look out.  Team Weaver's night started with a great draw for pole position in the Mod-Four heat.  Call me superstitious, but I think the inside slot, first row, is way over-rated.  

On a hot summer night at Bemidji Speedway, Team Weaver came away with some serious points.  Skyler took 1st in his heat, and 3rd in a wild and crazy feature.

Racing doesn't happen without sponsors.  A race team always needs to take time to make sure its sponsors are happy and getting their money's worth.  For Skyler and I, that meant taking Saturday to promote Saturday Night Dirt by visiting a couple of independent bookstores on behalf of my book publisher, Farrar Straus and Giroux of New York.   

Finally some sunny if breezy weather for a night of racing.  Team Weaver rolled east to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, arriving early in the pits—but not too early, as it turned out. Chief Bill Smith spotted a frayed throttle cable.  It was held together by a single strand of wire.  Since we were at our first out of town show of the 2008 season, we didn’t have all the parts needed.  Bill borrowed a car and raced off to an auto parts store to find a cable.  The repair took most of an hour, with Billy Smith doing some seriously upside-down work on the floor of the cockpit as he attached the cable to the pedal.  (Check out the photos of Billy’s shoes poking up from the cockpit.)

In his heat race, Skyler started second row outside.  From the stands where I went to sit, the car looked slightly loose.  On lap one Skyler made a smooth move and threaded the needle between two other cars.  Briefly in third place, he soon had all he could do to stay straight. Gradually he dropped back to fourth, where he finished the heat.

Between the heats and the feature, Bill made some adjustments to the rear shocks to give the right rear tire more bite.  Starting fourth row outside in the feature, the car handled better. A tight group of leaders went turn to turn, bumper to bumper for several laps.  After a spin out by No. 95, Ev Barrett from Bemidji, Skyler took advantage of the restart to move into fourth position.  He held fourth deep into the 15 lap feature, but hit turn two a bit too hard and got loose--one small mistake--but enough to allow the trailing car to slip by him on the inside. 

 Final results: fourth in his heat, and fifth in the feature.  No damage but for some slightly bent tin and one dented rear rim. “We’ll take it,” as we’ve come to say.  The combination of heat and feature placement gave us some solid national points in the Mod-Four class.

 As well, we always enjoy the Grand Rapids Speedway.  It’s well run, plus there’s more competition—which makes Skyler a better driver, he says. The other racers are friendly and welcoming.  They told us to “come back soon.”  That says a lot about Skyler as a driver, one that other drivers respect.

Next race: Sunday, June 21, Bemidji Speedway.

Meant to log on last night (Sunday June 15) and tell you that rain washed out yet another race.   We were all depressed.  

Well, not rain rain.  But gray clouds and light mist at Bemidji Speedway tonight, which made for a heavy track--sticky and tacky--which made for some great racing.  The Team Weaver No. 16 was dialed in.  After last weekend's race, Crew Chief Bill Smith noticed some front end issues with caster and camber. Skyler had said the car wasn't handling right, but guessed that was because of track condition last weekend, a dry slick that was hard and sandy.  But Skyler also  had a couple of bump-and-runs last weekend, which must have thrown off our front end set-up.  Bill spotted the issue, and fixed the front-end alignment in time for tonight's race.

Team Weaver had planned to roll east to Grand Rapids Speedway (MN) tonight, but heavy rains across the Midwest shut everything down.  So we did some "rainy day racing".  We met for lunch in downtown Bemidji at The Cabin Coffee Shop on 3rd Street.  I've been trying to get Skyler and Bill to eat healthy, and break their fast-food habit.  It's an on-going amusement with Team Weaver, and I actually think I'm making some progress! Bill has even cut down on his smoking....

Anyway, we ate and took care of some details.  I had my computer along (the coffee shop has wireless), and we ordered a new radiator for No. 16 from Speedway Motors in Nebraska.  Then Bill looked at all the pix on the motornovels website, and we also talked about Team Weaver  teeshirts.  We agree on a basic design--car on front, and our sponsor FSG Publisher on the back.  Skyler and Bill were headed to our design place, Thunderbird Graphics in Bemidji, after lunch.

But one more thing needed attention.  As the "writer',  I usually summarize Skyler's race and post the results.  However, I want to hear more from him--his own description--so I asked him to write about last week's race.  Here it is in his words:

"My best race I feel was last weekend in my heat race. I was racing against Conrad Schwinn, one of the fastest guys that races at Bemidji  Speedway.  I sat 1^st row outside, with him right behind me. Going into the first turn I led Schwinn. He was behind me pressuring hard trying to pass me.  He showed himself beside me lap after lap and I kept shutting the door on him 'till about 5 laps in. Then he got the lead from me and won.

In the feature it was a different story.  I started second row inside. We had a dusty dry track and when I punched it I couldn’t get my car to hook up.  It just spun the tires, so coming out of turn 2, I was in fourth and I made it a few laps and my car was really loose--but I lost it and spun out. On the restart I was in eleventh.  Coming out of turn 4 for the green flag, a racer spun out in front of me. I had nowhere to go and I hit her (Ev Barrett) which threw my front end all out of wack. After that my car really didn’t handle well, so I did everything I could to make it around and pick up a few places . I ended up finishing 7^{th ."} 

I kinda like hearing directly from Skyler.  I think we'll make this a regular feature!  All for now, and look for the upcoming Sunday night results by 10 p.m.

Team Owner goes on vacation and misses race!  Calls his crew chief from the airport to get the results!  Bill Smith was happy to fill me in on last night's race at Bemidji Speedway.  He reports that Skyler finished second in his heat, edged out by a top Minnesota driver from Little Falls, Conrad Schwinn.  After the heat Schwinn came over to congratulate Skyler.  "Great driving, kid," he said.  "I had to pull out ever trick in the book to get by you, and I didn't think it was going to happen!"  Skyler was pleased to get a compliment like that from a current points leader....

Today, May 25, was the Indianapolis 500.  It was a race out of synch, with lots of mistakes on the track and in the pits, including one that knocked Danica Patrick out of the race.  The pit incident wasn't her fault, and she was steamed.