Coming off an incredible run at Ventura Speedway last weekend ( coming from 22nd to 2nd ! ) , Austin put " a shine" on his new helmet and took to the California highways for Bakersfield Speedway. As most of the tracks across the US, the prediction for rain was the headline for the days prior to Saturday. But here on the west coast Mother Nature, must of wanted to see a sprint car race, and she graciously set her temperature at a toasty 85 degrees with sun a blazin'.
Coming off the 1st set of hot laps, Austin, kinda shook his head, asked for some changes to the car, since he wasn't super pleased with the handling of the 92 sprinter. The look on his face when the crew told him, he was quickest in that set was priceless! Unable to get the stagger he really wanted for qualifying, he still careened the car around the track to set the 3rd fastest lap of the evening.
Car set up for the heat had Austin tight tight tight – not making the top 4 , meant that Austin would miss the top 6 invert and would start the Main in 7th. Massive changes were made before the Main – fingers crossed they were made in the right direction!!!
With only 2 laps into the 30 lapper craziness ensued, seeing the 2 drivers in USAC/CRA points tangle and Austin had no where to go, sliding into the car that had gotten the worst end of the tangle. But for the Moose Team, it meant going to the tail of field!! To avoid another mishap Austin was cautious in getting around a lap car, holding up his progress massively. A slider put him past and he was gaining ground lap after lap and now running in 6th. There’s a gaggle of cars on the front straightaway, all running the high side of the track, so, Austin continued his preferred line – when all of a sudden another car darted from his top line directly into Austin’s line and he was up and over. You could ask 5 different people what happened, and you’d get 5 different answers. Doing fast horizontal spins down the front straightway and landing on all 4’s was definitely was not the way to end the evening. To everyone relief Austin popped out of the Moosemobile and make the long trek back to the pits.
Knowing Austin was a bit woozie, but ok, all attention shifted to the car – car hooked to the tow truck, but they picked it up by the nose and basically drug it to the work area – yes, gang, I said drug it. No, didn’t pick it up with straps around the cage, or even check to make sure it was out of gear. So, with the car in gear and being dragged that meant engine was rotating with every tug. If that wasn’t bad enough, since the rear arms had snapped off during the flip, there was no support to the rear of the car - so the rear frame rails were digging into the ground putting an extraordinary amount of pressure on the drive line, rear end and caused the rear brake rotor to jam up into the tail tank and worn thru the tai lank and damaged the bladder.
Rise and shine Sunday am to the task for taking everything apart – engine to Richard at RC Performance to check to see if there’s any damage, rear end & power steering box to Mike & Randy at CRC, 4 crunched shocks boxed and on their way back to FK Shocks in Indiana, wheel ordered … and big pike of scrap for dipidy dumpster!!!
But the Huntington Beach Glass/ Lucas Oil Center DRC back up car will be ready to celebrate, The Red, White & Blue Memorial Weekend at Perris Auto Speedway for The Salute To Indy.
You can never say Thank You enough to the Moose Crew & all the people
And companies that support Moose Racing: Huntington Beach Glass & Mirror, Lucas Oil Center Of Evansville Ind., CSI Construction, Lucas Oil, ABPCO/SPG, CATT Plumbing, Specialized Powdercoating, Offroadloans.com, RC Performance, Kistler Engines, Keizer Wheels, Circle Track, Freeway Auto, PJ1, Wilwood, Extreme Mufflers, Rod End Supply & Joe at DRC Chassis!!!