November 26, 2007
I want to thank Joe Baugh, Chet Mann, Chris Soehren and Scott for all of your support this weekend!
Driver - Clayton Peck
Crew Chief - Joe Baugh
Set up
On Friday, Allyson and I were flying back to Phoenix from Illiniois and my nephew, Joe, was humping his tail to get the car to the track and help set up the paddock in my absence. Joe has really been an asset at the track, I have given him the responsibility of crew chief and he takes it to heart. He does everything possible to make it easier for me in the car and he does a great job! Bottom line, I got home late Friday night, went home and went right to bed. We had a 4am wake up call to go to the track.
Saturday - The Enduro
Saturday was rough. It started with me not sleeping well and it was extremely cold when we woke up. It was right around 41 degrees, brrrr! We got out to the track and immediately realized in the first session the car needed some attention. My tires were showing alarming uneven wear. We immediately checked the camber and toe and they weren’t even close to what I had paid someone to set. Fortunately, Scott was home from the Navy and was out there with us, he used to work at the Nissan Proving grounds, so he jumped under the car and made things beautiful. The second practice session proved that the camber and toe fixed the problem, but the tires were corded. I had to buy, shave, mount and balance at the track. It was a expensive day! I missed qualifying while Brian Schakeford from Toyo was mounting my tires, so I had to start in the back for the enduro. I had never driven on Toyo RA-1’s before, but I was going to get a chance to get 100 minutes of experience. I immediately realized the adjustments and the tires were a good investment of time and money. I started picking people off left and right, I was having a blast! I realized about 50 minutes into the race I wasn’t going to make it with fuel. I decided to pit, the car was starting to get greasy and the brakes were fading, the time to cool the car down would be good anyway. The pit was fast for club standards, I was back in the car within 2 minutes. I had only lost a couple of laps, not too bad. I immediately realized I had a serious vibration in the steering. Knowing all of the trouble we had earlier, I decided to pull it in the garages. We realized quickly I was about to lose my front wheels, both sets of lugs has come completely loose. NOT GOOD! Unfortunately, I thought since I pulled into the garages, I couldn’t re enter the race, we called it quits after 60 minutes and 57 laps. We found out that I could have re entered the race and placed a little higher in the standings, but 57 laps was good enough for 3rd. Not too bad! Praise God, I could have been seriously injured if I hadn’t of stopped when I did. I still felt disappointed that I couldn’t finish.
Sunday - Final Sprint race of 2007
Sunday was a totally different day! First off, I was nervous, Joe Baugh couldn’t make it due to some final papers due at ASU. I knew I would have to make sure I checked and rechecked everything before each session. The first practice session was like being in the car I remembered before converting the car over to a race car. It was very drivable and very predictable; I knew the day had some serious potential to improve my lap times. The second session was an affirmation of the first; I now had two sessions that built my confidence to a brand new level.
We had a really small attendance at Chapel, but I thought it was awesome that drivers were taking time out to put Christ first when they were out there driving their cars. We went over the first verses of Isaiah 32. “A righteous king”. I love this group of people!
The next session was qualifying and I luckily went out with another SRD sponsored driver, Mike Browning, driving his SPEED CHALLENGE BMW M3. Before today, I wouldn’t even be able to stay close to him, but I was able to actually challenge Mike (Mike is sorting out his car as well) at certain points of the course. The end result was a 1:11:468 qualifying time, a whole second faster than my personal best. That’s was insane!
The race was a trip! I had an incredible start, I blew by five spots by turn two, I dive bombed turn one and set up turn three by getting to the outside of turn two first, it had to be my best start ever. The remainder of the race was a battle of me and the mini’s and a Pontiac Sunbird (I know, it sounds odd, but Danny is fast in that thing). I held everyone off except Sara and Troy the remainder of the race, it was a hard fought battle every turn, and someone was always trying to take the opportunity to get around me. I was getting really tired of seeing Danny in the Pontiac and Rick in the Cold Stone Creamery Mini in my rear view and side meirrors!! After it was over, I was fired up! I hadn’t had that much fun in the car ever! Even though it was my fastest race with my best lap times, I still only managed 3rd. I really look forward to next season with these guys, if I have to work that hard for 3rd, it’s going to be an incredible journey trying to climb my way to the top!
Can you tell I had fun? I made it to Soma North on time and the worship was rocking and the service was the bomb! The service was on doing God’s revealed will and God’s secret will. The verse was out of Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”
Joe Gordon broke this down like no one else can! It really warmed my spirit and I felt good about my desires in the car to be pleasing and from God.
We hope to see everyone out in 2008!
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