george.felix
George
2016 was a tough year much like 2015 and 2014 culminating in a disastrous b1k motor failure a grand total of 14 miles in....so whatever we were doing wasn't working. Made some changes and hoped to start 2017 with a solid car....motor, trans, suspension, clutch all tested and ready. Parker would be the race we decide to run the series or not. We drew 8th next to Cory Weller. The team ok mostly my motor builder Throttle Out saw this as a motor competition. I wasn't buying into it because I know she's a great short course driver in a lighter car and I'm running a new motor I really didn't know what it could do. Anyway we get the drop on her at the start and it's pretty close most of the way till we hit the last two turns and the straight to the course where it turns out I have a pretty decent motor after all and edge out in front. Cory doesn't give an inch she's all over me for a mile or two then she nerfs me not once but twice at about 70 mph. I'm not pulling over we're racing right? So I move as far right as I can and she finally makes her move....I ease up just enough so we're not wheel to wheel very long and let her go. Now I'm all over her but I don't return the nerf because....well I don't hit ladies and I don't have to. The course starts to get rough and the little Yammie isn't a match for my Rockstar Rzr. I passed her in the rough and last I saw the rear of her car was trying to pass the front. It wasn't long we were picking off cars one by one pretty easy till we got to 1970 Russell Griffin who I knew has the same suspension sponsor Double E who also does all S3 cars. I also knew he had a new Sparks motor he said was "slightly" tuned. We battled and I used up an entire can of air horn on him but he wouldn't budge and he was too fast and rough to nerf so we just went into dogfight mode till it got wide and I put it down and passed him. That's the moment I knew we would get our first podium....like RM 20. The car felt great and Russel is one of the top in the class and my motor felt like it was breathing fire. I don't know how many turbo and NA cars even a couple 2900 cars we passed but we were flying through them. Then we came up on 1898. Let me back up a minute....At the start he was a row in front of me and I notice this dude is older than me. A guy who looks to be my age is helping him get his helmet on and I tell my co driver that must be his son but the dude is struggling with his gear and I say we need to watch this guy I'm not sure what to expect. Even as we move up in line he's fumbling with something inside the car and creating huge gap in the row. I'm just shaking my head. Ok so back to the race.....we run up on him and he takes off but this time we can't catch him. So I get a little more serious and finally we're on his butt but he's too fast to pass so we eat dust for a few miles till we can motor by. By this time most of the cars are behind us so we're alone. Next thing I know this car is flying by us....the guy isn't going to let us cruise so we just stay with him and we're dogfighting thru a few remaining cars we come up on. Finally he pulls off for something and I'm like great no more George Burns. Not so fast the dude is back again and same thing just flying by us. By now we're getting close to the pits around Rm 68-70 and I know we got to be somewhere near the lead. I want to enter the pits in front of him so we put it all out there for 5-6 miles and we get the job done for good. We pit change a banged up wheel and we're off for lap 2. I believe was after Midway we see I believe Shaw and Cognito. Funny thing happened on the way to the forum.....we went thru contingency behind Cognito and someone yelled out you better take a picture because this is the closest your car will ever be to ours. Well turns out I got a lot closer and almost touched them but didn't. Like I said I don't hit ladies....lol I'm jk they had a new car and weren't running super hard but I knew that passing them meant the race was going well for us. When we pitted they said we're 4 miles from the leader. Lap 3 was brutal to the point it was painful. Then the sun was blinding and our light bar didn't work. I didn't even try to catch anyone at this point I just wanted to hold what we had. Then near disaster struck....we felt something odd and my co driver said want to stop and check the car? I said do you really want to stop now we're only 10 mi from the finish and no sooner I said that the left side of the car just collapsed and rolled over the bern. I can't believe it the first race we're doing well and we still can't get the damn finish. We unravel ourselves and there's no way we're going to push it over but we tried. Luckily we were blocking the entire course so every car had to stop to go around. A Yamaha I didn't get the number let me attach the strap and righted us. That was so cool for him to do that I know he was in a big hurry and all but it saved our race. We fixed the broken tie rod but not before 1970 got by us so we finished 3rd. Was a fun event we ran both races and everyone had a good time. Thanks to GMZ for a great event....and the entire team and my co driver Nathan who wasn't feeling too great with whatever was going around because I heard lot of teams had sick crew. Lastly, I'd like to say the day would have been perfect if Casey would have handed us our pins. I didn't find out till after the race that Casey had been taken to the hospital. Prayers for Casey and family.....
