June 5th, 6th & 7th Results
June 10, 2009Friday - Heat - started 7th finished 3rd. Feature - started 3rd finished 3rd.
Saturday - Heat - started 9th finished 7th. Feature - started 16th finished 10th.
Sunday - Heat - started 7th finished 6th. Feature - started 16th finished 14th.
All and all not a bad weekend. For once the cars stayed together, for the most part, with only Carb problems on the Crate Friday night. Other than that, we are just happy to be back finishing races.
May 29th, 30th & 31st Results
Friday - Rained Out
Saturday - The bad luck continues! Before the race would even get started, the leaders brake checked the field and caused a pile up. The 17L suffered front end damage but was able to continue…restarting in last place. The car was just not right after the wreck, so after 10 laps, Dennis pulled off and found that the right front spindle was badly bent and rubbing against the rim.
Sunday - More bad luck! In the heat the car was really running bad…found he dummy shock was broken and the RR axle bent. After fixing that, the 17L started 19th in the feature. We raced up to 12th and then the power steering line blew a hole, ending out night on lap 8.
Time to regroup. With the crate car ready for action after the rainout, Dennis will use this week to rip apart the SLM and get it ready for action! Let’s hope for some better luck!
May 22nd, 23rd & 24th Results
May 28, 2009Friday SLM - Broke while leading Heat - DNS Feature
Saturday - Heat 2nd - Feature Broke Axel while in 4th, Finish 25th
Sunday Eriez - Heat 4th - Feature 11th
May 15th, 16th & 17th Results
Friday Fastrak - Start 6th Finish 3rd - Heat 2nd
Saturday Stateline - Rained Out
Sunday Eriez - Start 18th Finish 15th - Heat DNF
May 8th, 9th & 10th Results
May 12, 2009Friday - Raceway 7 - Heat: Started 7th - finished 4th. Thanks to Mother Nature…All features got rained out!
Saturday - Stateline - Heat: Started 4th - finished 7th. After the heat Dennis told the crew “something just isn’t right with the car”. After a few changes, Dennis would start the feature in 18th spot. On lap 11 Team 17L would find themselves charging into the top 10. Then on lap 14 the 5th arm snapped, ripping out the drive shaft ending our night finishing 17th.
Sunday - Eriez - After a long day of hard work putting the Schwartz Constuction, Carter Lumber, Beacon Lubricants Rocket SLM back together, Team 17L headed to Eriez Speedway. We started 2nd in the heat - finished 4th. We used this run to make sure everything just stayed together after all the work from Saturday night. The car was better, but still to loose. Feature: Started 1st. After running most of the race in the 3rd spot, the tires would give up and Dennis would bring the car home in 6th spot for our best finish in ‘09 to date. We learned some new things to help us get around the track in the slick and its starting to show. Special thanks to Jeff, Rueben and Chris Lunger for helping get the car back together so we could race Sunday night.
May 1st, 2nd & 3rd Results
May 4, 2009Friday Fastrak - Rained Out
Saturday Stateline - Heat 5th. On what was the roughest track we have ever been a part of! After some track prep from Muncie & Schwartz Excavating the track was better, but still really rough. Feature - Started 14th. After an early spin in a monster hole while on the move and up in 6th spot, Team 17L would now restart 23rd. Dennis would work the high line and charge back to 9th at the line. The seat time we are now getting in the SLM is starting to show up, better things to come.
Sunday Eriez - Heat - 5th. Feature - Started 14th. This track can really trick you. The track in the heat race was a sheet of ice, with no bite at all. Team 17L made the call to run not one, but 3 hard tires on the Carter Lumber, Schwartz Construction rocket. This time we were right on with the call, but the track was now down to one grove so passing was at a minimum. Dennis kept the car in one piece and brought it home in 13th spot. The team used Eriez Speedway to work on things we have never done with the car. We feel this will help us later in the year … time will tell.
April 25th-26th Results
April 28, 2009Stateline Saturday night…After Starting 10th, Team 17L would be involved in a multi-car wreck on the first lap dropping us back to 18th for the start. At the finish, the 17L would only manage a 11th place at the line on what was once again a VERY rough track. For the record, we finished 4th in the heat.
Sunday at Eriez Team 17L would pick up there first carreer SLM win in heat #2 [Photo by Jim Balentine]. The redraw would find the team in an unfamiliar spot…First for the feature event. Being a young team like we are, sometime you get caught up and just over think yourself and in this case we did just that. After much debate, we chose to run a hard tire and this sealed our fate. After leading lap 1 the 17L hit a hole in turn 1 losing 5 spots. On lap 7 Dennis would lose the handle in turn 3, though never stopping and ended up in the 18th spot. While charging back though the field up to 7th, Dennis caught the hole once again stalling the motor and coming to a stop to bring out the yellow. The red flag was also bought out for another driver who lost his drive shaft at this time. During a long delay, the team made a tire switch and came out to restart 16th. Dennis charged his way back up to 9th –thinking, “well, we’ll take home a 9th in one piece and get them next week”. Then with two to go it all went bad. A car hit the holes in turn 1, shot into the air and when it came down was hit by another car. This second car bounced off right in front of us. The Carter Lumber/Schwartz Construction 17L sustained major damage. Dennis was able to complete the final laps and would finish 9th.
Lots of work for team 17L this week. Lets hope we can start off our crate racing at Raceway 7 on a better note.
Mercer April 4th Results
April 5, 2009Team 17L unloaded at Mercer with high hopes of repeating last years first night…First win of the season. That all turned for the worse once we fired the motor for hot laps. The motor would not stay running under 4,000 RPMs and was back firing real bad. After a few quick changes we were able to run from 3rd to 2nd in the heat with a very ill running car. After changing several more things all with the same result the team made the call to just run the car and hope for the best. The car was way down on power but we were still able to charge from 7th to 4th at the line. We will get the motor fixed and go get them next week. Next weeks plans Mercer 4/11 Fastrak.
We Are Ready For The 2009 Season!
April 4, 2009Thank You!
Thanks to the 17L crew, fans, families & sponsors for your continued support of local dirt track racing.
If you would like to become a part of Team 17L, we have spaces available on both cars, as well as both haulers. Contact Dennis email or @ (814)460-1183 with any questions.
Please share your thoughts with us…We are looking forward to the 2009 racing season.
