Worked on driving higher on track until driveshaft snapped
June 3rd, 2024 - Friday we started the weekend off at Moler Raceway Park Racing, a tricky little track that likes to act like a big track. Alex went into the weekend wanting to work on running a high line, something that requires dedication and trust in the equipment and your ability to pull off. You're driving a longer distance but the momentum you carry outweighs the added distance, but it can be riskier with higher speeds and closer to the wall. Overall the night went well, continuously getting more laps in. Was running 10th chasing down 9th when finally made a mistake as the track was really slicking off and put it into the slowest of spins. Thankfully everybody navigated around him and each other. After that he really started to give me a heart attack as it really looked for all the world like he was driving it right at the outside wall and one of these times it was going to just understeer right into the wall. But that's why he's the driver and my opinion doesn't matter because my butt isn't in the seat. He was playing with corner entry trying to get that higher and higher and he turned his fastest lap second to last and felt pretty in control.
Saturday we made our way east to Atomic Speedway south of Chillicothe. A very fast high banked 3/8 mile that in our class you generally are trying to run foot to the floor all the way around. Was looking pretty good out of the gate and he'd still get better as the night progressed and more laps logged until a few laps into the heat race coming out of turn 4 he heard a "Pop!" and the car he'd been battling just shot past him and he realized car no go no more but engine running. Pulled it into the infield and got towed out. Wasn't sure if it just popped out of gear so we went to try and start it in the back and there was zero resistance. As the rain started to fall we started pulling things apart to see where the engine disconnected from the wheels, turns out we had snapped the driveshaft. No obvious other damage so we're chalking it up to it being old, will throw another one in and see what happens at 35 Raceway Park and Waynesfield Raceway Park this weekend!
Big thanks to everybody who helps us get to go out and do this including everybody who helps make the Ohio Thunder IMCA Racesaver Sprint Car Series one of the best ways to get into Sprint Car Racing, as well as track photographers like Nate’s Racin’ Photos!