April 6, 2008

For Immediate Release

Wet Weather Postpones ACE Speedway

Friday Night in North Carolina saw rain fall cancelling the nights racing action at ACE Speedway in Altamahaw. The scheduled meeting got underway with open practice, but during qualifying for the LMSC round the heavens opened whilst Dane was mid run.

There is no word at time of going to press about any possible reschedule date, this information will be forwarded once it becomes clear.

Some words from Dane regarding the meeting as it stood.

As you know it was round two schedule for 75 laps. The local weather was looking bad all day, I was certain they would call it off before they opened the gates. Many other race tracks like South Boston, Motormile and Orange County had already cancelled their event for the weekend. However ACE decided to roll the dice. We had two practice sessions, I'm pretty sure they were both only 5 min or so long because we only managed to get about 8 or 9 laps in each session.

The first practice run was used to scrub our new tyres which we were to use for qualifying. We've had a lot of rain the past few days and it was very obvious, the track felt quite slick (green, with no rubber laid down at all).

In the second practice I found myself some clear space I managed to lay down some pretty good lap times about 2 tenths quicker than last week. The car felt a bit loose on entry midcorner and exit, it was pretty close to the mark. I was feeling good and I was really looking forward to the race.

I talked with my crew chief HC Sellers about the feeling of the car and we made some slight changes to help slow down the amount of 'dive' and front bite the card had on turn in, plus moved cross weight to help free and amake the car rotate in the middle of the turn. I felt things were really looking good for the race.

Qualifying was up next, the draw number I pulled out of the hat before practice meant I was the second in line for qualifying. When my turn came round, the moment I put the car in first gear the rain started to come down. It came down hard and fast, just barely got into 4th gear. I couldn't see anything at all, there are no wipers on a stock car. I came back around in the pits and parked it, all the guys threw the car cover over it to keep the engine bay dry.

I got out and stayed in the transporter with the rest of the guys, then after about 1 hour NASCAR decided to cancel the event, the weather did not appear to be clearing, and there was no way to dry the track in the remaining time.

A correct decision regarding cancelling the event was made, but from a drivers point of view it was so disappointing, I was looking forward to the event, to build on the momentum of the previous week. I am loving being over in the USA competing in this series, and any time I miss out on driving the cars in a genuine disappointment. I guess that is life, so now I can't wait until next Friday night where another 75 lapper is scheduled to be run.

The next meeting is scheduled for this coming Friday night, fingers crossed for some fine weather.