Well fans, after struggling last weekend and not knowing what we did wrong, we were a little skeptical to unload this Saturday morning for practice not really knowing what to expect. However, from the moment of our first lap in practice till the last while taking the checkered and bringing home our first local race win of the season, it was all smiles in the Chris Eggleston Pits for the remaining of the night.
The pit crew showed up to my house around 9:30 in the morning as we put the final touches on the car and loaded everything up in the trailer so we could make the quick five minute jaunt over to the track. Upon arriving and getting parked, we quickly unloaded everything including the car, pit box, tire cart and such; we were ready for race day.
Around 2:30 PM, it was finally time for the Late Models to hit the track. The car immediately felt back to normal as we made little changes in the first fifteen minutes of practice. We added a spring rubber to the right front to help give the car a little more bite on late entry. After that, we moved the rear panhard bar up evenly on both the rear-end and frame side to help the car rotate just a little better through the middle of the corner and on early exit on throttle. Our last little change was we added half a round of sway bar to increase bite on middle to late exit. (I know that’s a lot of miscellaneous terminology for some but stay with me here.) After we felt the car was pretty solid, we decided to come in and pit to change the front two shocks in which we pre-setup two nights before. The crew did an amazing job in getting them changed and getting me back out there for the remaining seven minutes of practice. We immediately picked up one-and-a-half tenths on the track and decided to stick with those shocks for the remaining of the night. At the completion of practice, we sat third on the practice sheets.
After practice, we decided to put our sticker set of tires on to go out for happy hour and scuff while also making one small change; we moved the rear track bar up one turn on the rear end side only to continue to help rotate the car through the center of the corner. This change really helped as we went out in happy hour for only two laps, but immediately jumped to the top of the practice charts turning in a lap time of 16.29 seconds.
It was finally race time and my crew as well as I felt like we had a really solid car for the rest of the night. We rolled out for our heat race in the third row inside (fifth starting position). The inside row was making as much progress as the outside row so I fell back in the field slightly. After getting cleared by my spotter, I jumped up to the outside grove and started pick cars off one at a time. We came home third in the heat race, missing second by inches coming across the line. The 42 car of Ronnie Hultz took home the heat race win and appeared to be very strong and I knew he would probably be the car to beat in the 40 lap main.
Because of a random pill draw, the invert was a six for the first three finishers in each heat race which put us to roll out and start on the pole for the feature event. Under the parade laps, I scuffed my tires as much as I could and worked the brakes getting ready to take the green flag. As the green flag flew, I, driving the H20 Fire Protection Chevy Impala, took a slight edge over the 12 car, Bruce the Moose Yackey. After a lap-and-a half, I cleared the 12 car and set sail immediately pulling him about a car to a car-and-half ahead, giving me some breathing room. My spotter (also my dad) continued to coach me through the whole race telling me where everyone was at on the track and how far back second place was. He continued to coach me, “easy in, point and shoot off.” It really seemed to calm me down and got me to drive my race as we had over a six car length lead on second. Just at that time, our biggest lead, the 42 car of Ronnie Hultz had moved up into second.
My car felt solid through all 40 laps of the race. It started to get a little free on late entry, so I dialed a little front brake into the car to increase rear stability on braking points. The nose also developed a little of a push, mainly in turns one and two on the high grove, so I had to wait to return back on the throttle to get a good run off. From these conditions, it allowed the 42 car to pull me in turns one and two, but we were so solid in turns three and four, (mainly on exit of turn four) we seemed to remain around five to six car lengths apart for the remaining of the race.
Thankfully, after no yellows, the white flag soon fell followed by the checkered the next lap. The crew came over the radio with excitement as this was our first local win of the 2011 season. The crew has put so much work and effort into my car, it felt good for all of us to pull into the winner’s circle in just our second appearance of the 2011 season.
I want to thank all the guys for all the hard work they put into preparing my car for this past weekend race. I also want to wish my dad, Mike, a Happy, Happy Father’s Day and thank him for all the support he has given me all through my racing career. I want to thank my mom for everything she does for the whole team which includes pit crew dinners every Tuesday and Thursday nights when the crew is over working on the cars, and also preparing lunch and dinner at the track for the crew and sponsors.
Thanks to all my fans that came and visited and chatted with me after the races. I can’t thank you for your loyalty and continued support over the years.
This weekend, I will be racing both my Legend car (Lucy we call her) and my Late Model. We are still looking for our first Legend win of the 2011 season as we have continued to struggle with these new Federal tires. This will be the last week to come out and watch me and my team compete for a few weeks as we will then proceed to take a few weeks off while trying to prepare for the Montana 200, a race that pays $15,000 to win.
Hope to see everyone out there next weekend, and thank you again to all my sponsors; H20 Fire Protection, 3R Auto.com, Leary Racing Products and Shock Shop, Kurt Hansen’s Race Central Radio and TV, Thread Shed Custom Embroidery, Sign Edge Custom Graphics and Carolynn’s Collections.
Chris Eggleston Returns
to the Winner’s Circle by Chris Eggleston
