Tonight is our fifth out of seven local point’s races for the season. Last year at this point we were in 1st spot with a comfortable lead on second spot, and just had to play defense for the rest of the season.  This year is a little different going into round 5 with a 10 point deficit to the 55 car of Jim Gaunt.  From this point on this year we definitely have to be on the offensive side of things, and fight for every position on the track.  Every night at the track there is a maximum of 50 points available, and if you have one bad race your point total for the evening is affected drastically.  The window of opportunity is slowly closing and we don't want to be on the outside looking in.  After tonight’s race we have a long three week layoff till we are back on the track, and we would really like to go into the break on a high note.  The gates open at 6:00PM and racing starts 7:00PM. We hope to see you there.

This past Saturday was shaping up to be a great day at the track.  It was nice and warm, no rain in sight and the truck was fast right out of the trailer.  In the first practice session after 15 minutes we were the second fastest truck and were just heading back on the track for some more laps to try and grab the top spot, but the disaster struck.  The LA Weight Loss Silverado got loose coming out of turn 4 and nosed into the freshly painted wall right under the flag stand.  The truck was still able to drive into the pits so we started to fix it up as quickly as we could as the clock was ticking.  The 33 truck had a 2 point lead on us going into the day and we knew that if we were going to keep pace with him or take the lead, the truck would have to be perfect.  After a long couple hours, we had the truck ready for hot laps.  Once the truck got on the track it looked like it was as good as it was before it hit the wall.  In qualifying we clocked in at a 15.13 and were good enough to hold the 3rd spot on the board out of 16 trucks.  So for the heat races we were in the fast eight set of heat races.  In the first heat race we were having a good run until we got squeezed down into the grass going into turn 3 and we ended up finishing in 7th.  In the second heat race we started on the front row, and took the lead on the first lap and never looked back, taking the checkered flag.  So going into the feature we had managed to get back to the two point deficit to the 33 truck.  The feature was a great race and had lots of great battles going on all over the grid.  On lap 80 we were in fourth spot and the 33 was in third, but coming down the front straight he got collected in a crash with the 88 truck and ended up going a lap down because of repairs to his rear bumper cover.  We made a strong push to advance after that but ended up in third spot.  Now going into the last race we have a 14 point lead over Jamie.  Our next race will be on Saturday September 5th. 

    We are now into the second half of our season, and after nine races between both series we have only had on weekend off since the season has started.  We have had our ups and down’s this year but overall we are not doing too badly in the standings.  In the Alberta Super Truck Series we are sitting in second spot, two points out of first.  In the local Super Late Model standings we are in third spot with a ten point spread to first place Jim Gaunt.  We have some ground to make up, but we are pretty confident that it can and will be done. 

    This Saturday we have our third race in the ACMS Super Truck Series.  In the last race we made some drastic improvements in making the #70 LA Weight Loss Chevrolet Silverado a lot more consistent and faster.  Last race we finished second in the feature and we are hoping that we can knock Jamie McLennan in the #33 truck out of the top spot and put a new truck in victory lane.  Racing is this Saturday, with qualifying at 5:30 pm and the green flag drops at 6:00 pm.  Hope to see you there. 

    Well Friday night did not really go according to plan for the #70 LA Weight Loss Chevrolet Impala SS.  Right off the trailer the car was working fairly well just needed a little tweaking.  In the first heat race we had to contend with quite a bit of traffic right from the start.  A lot of cars running side by side and not enough room to gain positions.  Going into turn one of the last lap we were on the outside of the #20 car and there wasn’t quite enough on the inside of him for another car but the #69 tried to squeeze his car in.  Unfortunately the end result was us getting spun out and having a DNF for the first race.  In the second heat race we started on the pole and led all 15 laps for the win.  For the feature we started on the third row on the outside, and it was a bit of wild start.    After the complete restart we made our way to second spot and chased the 14 for half the race but with fewer than 20 laps to go the 77 and 55 cars were able to make it by us to finish the race in fourth.  Now the Chevy Impala SS goes up on jack stands for two weeks as we are back on the track this Saturday with the LA Weight Loss Chevy Silverado, or the Alberta Super Trucks Series.

This year has been one of the tightest point battles for SLM division in a long time.  This upcoming race on Friday marks the halfway mark of the season, and usually by this point you have a good idea of the top two to three cars that are going to be fighting it out for the championship, but with this many competitive cars and nobody having any catastrophic crashes so far it is making for quite the season.  Having the top 5 cars only separated by 17 points is pretty exciting and scary at the same time.  With it being this close you have to make sure you are on top of your game at all times, cause one bad night could drop you to the back of the bus and almost impossible to climb back to the front.  Right now we are sitting in second spot, four points behind Jim Gaunt in the 55 car.  We are pretty confident that we can pull things around and get back on top tomorrow night, but it's not going to be easy.  Tomorrow night the gates open at 6:00pm and racing starts at 7:00pm.  We hope to see you there.

Saturday night was a great night for the LA Weight Loss Chevy Silverado.  All day throughout practice we kept making little adjustments to make the truck just a little bit faster.  By the time qualifying came around we had the truck pretty much dialed in.  We went out first for qualifying and put a good time up on the board of 15.159 and it held up for 3rd place out of 15 trucks.  In the super truck series they split the field based on qualifying for the heat races.  So the fastest seven trucks run in the first heat race and the other eight are in the second set of  heat races.  We started in 5th spot in the first heat race and drove it up to the front for the win.  In the second heat race we started at the back and we're able to make it up to the 2nd spot with just a few laps left.  For the feature we started in the 8th spot, and did not stay there for long.  We moved our way through the field up to third spot by about lap 25.  By lap 50 we had moved into the 2nd spot, and that is where we finished.  It was good point’s day for us, moving us up to the 2nd spot in the local points.  Our next truck race is in two weeks on July 18th.

This Saturday is our 2nd out of four Super Truck races this year.  Last time out we had a decent showing for our first run with the truck.  We are sitting 6 points out of first, and are hoping to take the lead by the end of tomorrow.  Since our last race with the Super Trucks, they made a stop two weeks ago in Hythe Alberta.  Qualifying starts at 5:30pm and racing starts at 6:00pm.  Hope to see you out there.