Jul 14, 2019
Friday night at West Ga Speedway was much better for the 13 team for a change. Roger was quite fast in hot laps and we only had to make a slight change before qualifying. The track dried out quickly so by the time qualifying rolled around it was slick and the dust was flying.
Roger made some great laps for qualifying but there was some controversy about the times. (more on that in a minute)
We started the race on the outside front row. At the flag stand Roger was all the way up beside the leader on the start of the race and felt he had the momentum to try for a pass going into turn one. However the leader decided to pinch him up against the guard rail. Roger never lifted the gas but when he scrubbed the guard rail it took away some of his speed and let the pole sitter get by.
The skirmish with the guard rail knocked the front end alignment out some but Roger was able to finish a solid second place. Much better than we have been running.
Now for the controversy on the qualifying times. After the races were over we went to the tower where they pay the drivers. I asked the promoter if it was possible to see the sheet that they write the qualifying times on. He said, "Sure" and sent someone upstairs to get it.
The guy returned with a whole stack of papers and started looking through them to find the 604 crate qualifying times. A lady took one of the papers and put it in a notebook. She then said, "Which one do you want to know and I will call it out to you." I said, "I want to see all of them". The track promoter grabbed the paper and placed it on the counter in front of me.
The lady then proclaimed, "Wait I will have to explain it to you. You probably will not be able to read my writing." It was too late. There it was right in front of us. Beside Roger's name was a 15.39 and a 15.23. The 15.23 was the fastest time on the sheet. I looked up at them and said I have seen all I need to see and I walked out.
Roger stayed behind and asked them why he did not start on the pole if he had the fastest time. He got a very lame excuse that the names were written in one direction but the times where written another. It was a quite comical answer since the sheet had perfectly printed boxes on it with the names neatly written in the left column and the times neatly written beside the names in the corresponding boxes.
We just laughed it off and headed to the Waffle House to get some Old Fashion ham and cheese omelets.
Written By: David Chambers (Crew Chief)
