From the Pits: Dear Race Fans, There has been so much happening with the Parker Farms/Mondello Tech Center/LaHorgue Race Car and most of it while we are on the road. I will try to fill you all in. As most know, the Tucson race was cancelled, so our Crew Chief Chuck LaHorgue made some arrangements with the track promoter at Shasta Raceway to allow Victor to race a couple of races at the Anderson California track. We ran both the NSCS (Northstate Challlenge Series) and the Westcar Shasta Raceway is a gorgeous facility and George Wade, the promoter, was a wonderful host. We can’t thank him enough for all of the courtesy he extended to us. We hope to return for a Westcar race at this track in October. Victor felt that he had some big shoes to fill at Shasta Raceway. Our Late Model Car was purchased from Kyle Cattanach and he had done well with it and this is Kyle’s backyard. It is also home to LaHorgue Race Cars so we of course wanted to put our best effort in. Kyle has been someone for Victor to model his career after and most importantly he and his family have been great friends to all of us. The North State race was kind of like going to a gunfight with a popgun. There were cars there with over 800 horsepower. Chuck had warned us not to get our hopes up and to just take advantage of the seat time. Our motor wasn’t designed to run with a 4 barrel and it was Victor's first time at this track and on 10” tires. The Friday practice rained out which left us at a real disadvantage. Victor and Chuck worked real hard on race day practice to dial the car in but chased it hard right up until qualifying. Our qualifying effort wasn’t as good as we hoped for and we were 23 out 24. We were only a few hundredths away from a better starting spot but it didn’t matter as they decided to start all cars. Victor got caught up in a wreck on lap 9, breaking a pitman’s arm and ending the night. For those first laps we were right there and left knowing that we could have been a decent car. We spent the next week literally camping at Chuck’s shop fixing the damage to the car and getting ready for the Westcar race. With other cars being unexpectedly wrecked that are customers of the LaHorgue facility, it was a busy and stressful week. There was more than once that Chuck would have been happy to get rid of me but we all muddled thru and made the best of it. Chuck is a great person to work with and gives 100 percent to all of his customers. On to the Westcar. We rolled thru Tech, we had some things that weren’t up to their rules, but at first they didn’t want to worry about it. They didn’t feel that we were all that fast. After the third practice we went from a second behind the pace to 3rd fastest. But then there was a problem. Chuck had to make some innovative trackside changes to get the officials happy. As always Chuck just made the best of it and we got everyone happy. We went out for qualifying, which has been a weak point for Victor. Victor went 3rd fastest, which put him in the trophy dash. In only his second start at Shasta, Victor won the trophy dash fairly easily. It was time for the main. On the parade lap we could see fuel coming out of the car. Victor was forced to pull in and Cattanach’s crew quickly put the fuel cap on correctly that I had messed up. I just didn’t get it on straight. We were penalized and put to the end of the field, 20th of 20. Though it was a long climb thru the pack of cars Victor made a head-turning 7th place finish. It was an excellent finish for our first race in this series. Also it was only Victors 9th race in this type of race car. I’d like to include more but we have to check out of the motel and get on the road home to get ready for Vegas next Friday. As always we want to thank all of our supporters. We especially want to thank Jim and Sheila Parker, Joe Mondello, and Chuck LaHorgue. Without these people it wouldn’t happen. |
