Looking forward to the 2010 Season

As 2009 comes to an end, Butch & the Lambert Racing Team are already making plans for the 2010 Racing Season. We are proud to welcome back returning sponsors Fannie's Friends Pet Cremation Services and Austin's A-1 Bleach for the 2010 season. We will have more sponsor announcements in the coming weeks, but would welcome any new sponsors that would be interested in joining our team.

The team is currently on the search for a newer chassis than our current 2002 Rocket. Hopefully we will be able to put something together soon, as the action in the garage will be hot & heavy soon as the team starts preparing for the new season.

Although no official track or series schedules have been released at this point, our initial plans are to follow the 2010 FASTRAK Northeast Tour schedule and compete weekly at Mercer Raceway Park and Tri-City Speedway. This is, at this point, subject to change.

Our first official event of 2010 will be the Mercer Raceway Park/FASTRAK Northeast Banquet on January 16th where Butch will pick up 8th place honors in the Mercer points standings and 7th place from the FASTRAK Northeast Tour points. On January 30th we will attend the Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Banquet where Butch will be crowned the 2010 PCTC Crate Late Model Champion.

Lambert Racing hopes that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and here's to a safe and happy New Year!

Night #3 - Wythe Practice & Qualifying

Although the team only managed to qualify 35th, it wasn't for lack of effort. The car is working well. We were able to pick up half a second in the practice sessions held after qualifing.

He starts 8th in his heat today and they are taking 4 to the feature. We are optimistic on our chances of making the feature.

Volunteer Speedway - Night #2

Butch lined up in 8th place for his heat event, but didn't make it far. Going into turn three on the first lap, Mike Blose made contact, cutting down Butch's left front tire, sending him into the infield for the remainder of the event. We were now forced to run the second of 3 b-mains to try to make it into the race.

Butch lined up 11th in the 10-lap b-main and made a valiant effort to bring home a 5th place finish, but it wasn't good enough to make the feature, as they were only taking the top 3 cars.

We were disappointed and had a better car than our results show.

Tonight we will be at Wythe Raceway for Practice and Qualifying for the final event of the 2009 FASTRAK Grand Nationals. Butch currently sits in 24th place in the points standings. Northeast driver Mike Pegher Jr is leading the points.

Practice/Qualifying at Volunteer Speedway

After being 14th fastest in the first practice session, things went downhill for the Lambert Racing team throughout the night. 49 cars were signed in for Night #2 of the FASTRAK Grand Nationals and Butch was able to put in a 37th place qualifying effort. The margin between fast time and Butch's effort was less than 7/10ths of a second.

Heat races, b-mains & the 50 lap feature event will take place tonight. We believe Butch will start 8th in the 2nd of 5 heat races. He will need at least a 4th place finish to make the feature from the heat. If not, he will have to qualify through one of the the two b-mains that will take place and will likely need to finish 1st or 2nd to make the feature.

More updates tonight!

South-bound

In less than 24 hours, Butch and the Lambert Racing #27 FASTRAK Crate Late Model team will head south to Tennessee and Virginia to compete in Night #2 and Night #3 of the 2009 FASTRAK Grand Nationals.

On Saturday, October 3rd, Mercer Raceway Park hosted Night #1 of the Grand Nationals for the Northeast Region. After initially starting 17th, then being relegated to 22nd after being caught up in a first lap crash, Butch managed to work his way up to battle David Scott for the 5th place position in the closing laps of the event. He had to settle for a 6th place finish, which put the team in an interesting dilemma since we had drawn a line in the sand at needing to finish 5th or better to move on to Nights #2 & #3 in the South. After much debate, the team has decided to go ahead and make the 8+ hour tow to Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, TN and Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, VA this week.

Night #2 will find us on the fringe of the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee and the team's first ever visit to Volunteer Speedway on Wednesday, October 21st for practice and qualifying. On Thursday, Night #2 will end with heats, b-mains, a 50-lap feature event and non-qualifiers races. When the action ends Thursday night, the team will head North on 81 to Rural Retreat, VA for the 2009 Grand Nationals Finale (Night #3) at Wythe Raceway. The action on Friday, October 23rd will include practice and qualifying, with the heats, b's and features the next night, when the 2009 Champion will be crowned. Butch is going into the events in a three-way tie for 6th place (24th overall). Teams from all of the US are expected and the Northeast region will be well represented with 15 or so teams expected to make the trip.

You can listen to all the action LIVE on www.racecastlive.com all four days! Also, don't forget that live race results and information will available practically instantaneously, straight from the track. Please take a minute to sign up, just click on http://twitter.com/LambertRacing27. You can sign up to receive “tweets” through e-mail or text message (standard text rates may apply).

Stay tuned to this blog for nightly updates and results!

2009 Season Comes to Close as Lambert Eyes Grand Nationals

The 2009 season is just about over for Butch and the #27 Lambert Racing team. It has been a season of highs and lows but it's not over yet! Up next for the team is the long anticipated FASTRAK Grand Nationals, a three race series that pays an unbelievable $30,000 to the winner. All FASTRAK Teams in the nation start at zero points for Night #1 of Nationals, which takes place in their own Regions. The Southern Region will compete at Lavonia Speedway in Georgia, the Great Lakes Region at Langlade Speedway in Wisconsin, and the Northeast at Mercer Raceway Park here in PA. All of the regions come together for Nights #2 and #3 at Volunteer Speedway in Bulls Gap, Tennessee and Wythe Raceway in Rural Retreat, Virginia. At the end of Night #3, the driver with the most points accumulated will be crowned the 2009 Grand National Champion!

The team is going into Night #1 at Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday, October 3rd needing to finish 5th or better to move on to Nights #2 & #3 in the south. We feel that anything worse than a fifth place will not be enough points to justify making the trip South due to lack of funds. Last year's trip cost the team over $2500 and we fell just one point shy of finishing in the Top 30 in points to win any money and came home with only $140 in winnings.

Fifty drivers are eligible to run in Night #1 of the Grand Nationals at Mercer Raceway Park, but we expect the car count to be around 30 cars. Butch is coming off of a 3rd place finish in the last FASTRAK Northeast Tour Event at Mercer on September 12th, so we have high hopes of a good finish.

All of the seasonal points battles are over for 2009. Although they are still auditing the points for the FASTRAK National Weekly Championship, Butch looks to have finished in 30th place out of almost 300 drivers in the US. Four of the top 8 drivers in the points are from the Northeast Division, which is a testament to how strong the competition is in the Northeast.

The final FASTRAK Northeast Tour Event was held last Saturday at McKean County Speedway. Butch finished 7th in the race to wrap up an 8th place finish in the Tour points despite missing two events earlier in the season. He also finished 8th in points at Tri-City Speedway (missed 1 event) and Mercer Raceway Park, despite competing in only 9 of the 16 events held there.

Until next time...

Big Events Still on Tap for Lambert Racing in 2009

It has been a busy month of August for Butch and the Lambert Racing Team. We kicked off the month with a trip to the famed Eldora Speedway (OH) for a FASTRAK National Event. Although we were disappointed to not make the feature event, winning the Non-Qualifiers race was the highlight of the weekend. Standing in Victory Lane at Eldora is not something any of us are soon to forget.

The team has struggled at Tri-City Speedway (PA) as of late, breaking an axle on August 2nd, finishing 14th on August 16th, and putting in a solid 7th place finish last Sunday, August 23rd. With one point race remaining, Butch sits in 8th place in the standings, despite have to sit out a night earlier in the year.

The FASTRAK Northeast Tour is in full swing and we visited Elkins Motor Speedway (WV) for the first time ever on August 8th where Butch won his heat event and put on a fantastic show for the fans in a battle for 2nd place in the feature event. He ended up taking the checkered in 3rd place, but it was a great race. We were to return to Elkins on August 21st, but that event was cancelled by rain. On August 22nd we returned to Tyler County Speedway (WV) where the team rallied to start the feature in 22nd place and finish a respectable 14th. The next FASTRAK Tour event is at Tri-City Speedway over Labor Day weekend. Butch has competed in 9 out of 11 Tour races so far this season and is currently in 10th place in the points standings with four Tour events remaining.

After Elkins was rained out on August 21st, we decided to race at Dog Hollow Speedway (OH) where Butch picked up the heat race win and finished 6th in the feature.

This weekend will find us at Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday, August 29th for "Meet Your Hero's Night". It is also $10 Family Night so come out and enjoy at night at the races! Sunday will be the last regular event at Tri-City Speedway for the 2009 season. We are hoping to have a good run before the big FASTRAK Northeast Tour event there next weekend.

Until next time...

Butch Lambert and the Lambert Racing team would like to thank all of their sponsors and supporters for 2009: Bagel Bites, Austin's A1 Bleach, Fannie's Friends Pet Cremation Services, Fleming Tire & Auto, Lambert Plumbing, RAM Transit Lines, Inc., Kozminski Auto Body, BP Construction, Harmony's Angel Candle Co., Smardt Equipment, Woodward, Inc., Flinner Signs & Decals, C&D Embroidery, Mars Beer Distributor, Marburger Farms Dairy, Hotsy, B&E Mini Mart and Fleming Design Services.

Lambert's Busy July to Culminate with Trip to Eldora

The month of July has been a busy one for Butch and the Lambert Racing Team. After back to back FASTRAK Northeast Tour races at Raceway 7 & Expo, the race at McKean County Speedway was rained out on Saturday, July 11th. The team camped for the night at Tri-City Speedway on July 12th, where Butch picked up another heat race win in the crate and had a good run from 9th to finish 5th in the feature. Butch also piloted the Chuck Neely owned #27 Wexford Racing Emod where he finished a solid 6th in the feature.

The Pro-Late Model race at Lernerville Speedway and the FASTRAK Northeast Tour race at Dog Hollow Speedway on Friday, July 17th were also rained out. Tri-City Speedway held its first of two FASTRAK Northeast Tour events on Sunday, July 19th. Butch was able to overcome a bad pill draw to race his way into the feature re-draw with a 3rd place finish in the heat. He re-drew the 8th starting spot for the feature and finished a strong 6th in the 30 lap non-stop event.

The FASTRAK Northeast Tour evet at Dog Hollow was re-scheduled for Friday, July 24th and we decided to make the trip. With not having raced at Dog Hollow in years, and not getting any hot laps, Butch struggled a bit in the heat and got caught in a wreck in the closing laps. He was able to rally to a 5th place finish, which was just good enough to make the starting grid of the feature. He took the green flag in the feature from the 19th starting spot and started working his way to the front. When the dust settled, he had finished 10th. Saturday, July 25th the FASTRAK Northeast Tour made it's first ever visit to Pittsburgh's PA Motor Speedway. Rainy skies and cooler temps made for a lightning fast surface and we were happy with the car after hot laps. Butch started the heat in 5th place, only to be caught in a wreck on lap 2. Unfortunately, he was not able to continue. The crew quickly got to work fixing sheet metal and replacing the front bumper and nose piece. He barely made it out to start on the pole of the B-main when it started raining. That bought us a few extra minutes to get the car back together. Once the rain stopped, the completed the show with Butch finishing in 3rd in the B-main to get the 21st starting spot in the feature. From the drop of the green, he started working his way forward. He was running in 15th position when he got a flat tire on lap 21 of the 25 lap event and had to pull out. He was credited with a 20th place finish. Our bad luck on the weekend spilled over onto Sunday at Tri-City Speedway where we just couldn't seem to hit the set up. He started and finished the heat in 7th place. He started the feature in 13th place and advanced to a 10th place finish. We also had problems with the emod, as he had to pull out of the feature on lap 6 with a broken rocker arm.

This weekend's event is one that we have been looking forward to all year. We will be attending the FASTRAK National "Chassis Challenge" at the famed Eldora Speedway. Last year was our first visit to the Tony Stewart owned track, and Butch qualified an impressive 23rd, only to be caught up in a hard crash on the first lap of the heat event, ending out night.

We will practice on Friday night, then attend an autograph session/car show at the Walmart in Greenville, Ohio on Saturday. We will start the racing off Saturday night with time-trials, heats, b-mains and finish with the 50-lap main event feature. We are expecting there to be 60-70 teams there all vying for a spot in the 24 car starting lineup. We will head home early Sunday morning so we can make it to Tri-City for their regular event.

Send out some good luck vibes for this weekend! We need to get our season turned around!

Until next time...

A Successful Debut and a Couple Trips

After enjoying the weekend at the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway, Butch and crew made the tow to Tri-City Speedway on Sunday, June 28th. With the Wexford Racing, Chuck Neely owned #27 Emod finally ready for action, Butch was looking forward to pulling double duty. Rain had hit the speedway earlier in the day leaving the track heavy and rough, but at least we were racing! In the heat event for the Crate, Butch started 7th and could only muster a 5th place finish. An invert Zero put him in 9th place on the starting grid for the feature. He ran a strong race and finished a respectable 7th. Everyone was on edge for the emod debut. After struggling with engine problems most of last year, we were anxious to see what the new season would bring. Butch started on the pole of the heat event and led for the first half of the race. Cautions slowed the race down and allowed Evan Taylor to get by Butch for the win. He held on to finish a strong 2nd. Tri-City has a new car rule in which any new car cannot start any better than 12th in the feature, so Butch had his work cut out for him from the 12th starting position. Lap by lap he worked his way through the field and when the checkered fell, he was in 6th place. We were very happy with the results.

The FASTRAK Northeast Tour had a rare weekday event on Wednesday, July 1st at Expo Speedway as part of the Trumbull County Fair. We made the tow out to Ohio only to get rained out. The show was re-scheduled for Sunday, July 5th, see results below.

On Friday, July 3rd we made our first trip of the season to Raceway 7 in Conneaut, Ohio for a FASTRAK Northeast Tour event. He started the heat event in 5th place on a very rough track and fell to a 6th place finish, forcing him to run the B-Main to try to qualify for the feature. He started the B from the outside pole and got the lead on a nice move in turns 3 & 4. He never looked back and took the checkered for his second B-main win of the year. He started the feature event in 22nd place and was a man on the move. By the time the checkered fell, he worked his way to an 8th place finish! Butch also piloted the emod at Raceway 7, starting his heat in 3rd place and finishing 4th. The re-draw put him on the pole for the feature and he ran a very strong race, pulling off a 3rd place finish. I believe that is a best-ever feature finish for the emod and certainly his best finish at Raceway 7 against some stout competition.

We returned to Expo Speedway on Sunday afternoon for the rescheduled event, this time with sunny skies. A good pill draw had him starting 3rd in a star- studded heat event. Unfortunately, the second place starter decided to try to win the race in the first turn and spun out, collecting Butch. Luckily, he was able to continue, but had to re-start at the end of the field. He was able to muster a 6th place finish, which was good enough to make the feature. He started the event from the 16th spot, but a first lap caution shuffled the field and the ensuing restart was not lined up properly, so he restarted in 18th. The 30 lap event was a long one, with a ton of cautions, but Butch steadily worked his way forward. With 11 laps to go he was up to 8th place and by the final lap, he had finished 6th! It was a frustrating night, but we were very happy to come away in one piece and with another solid top 10 finish.

Up next is another FASTRAK Northeast Tour race, this time at McKean County Speedway on Saturday, July 11th. Butch will also be competing in the UEMS Emod event there. We will head back to Tri-City Speedway on Sunday, July 12th with both cars. July will be a busy month for the Lambert Racing Team, with special events at Lernerville Speedway, Tri-City Speedway, Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway and Eldora Speedway, in addition to regular events at Tri-City.

Until next time...

Another So, So Weekend, and Rain!

On Saturday, June 13th, Butch and the Lambert Racing #27 headed to Mercer Raceway Park for a regular event. The show started over an hour late due to poor track conditions, and Butch was fortunate to start on the pole of his heat event on the very rough track. No one really went anywhere in the heat and Butch picked up the heat event win. Madison did the re-draw for the feature and put her daddy 3rd on the grid for the event. He started the race out strong and jumped into 2nd at the start. He was biding his time and closing in on the leader as the race went on. On lap 8, Max Blair caught up to him going down the back stretch, then proceeded to "door" him in turns 3&4. The contact sent Butch up towards the wall and also allowed another car to get by. It was apparent that the hit caused some sort of damage to the handling of the car, as he fell back to a 6th place finish. Butch and the crew were pretty upset about the contact from Blair, as, quite honestly, it was completely unnecessary, and wasn't the first time it has happened.

The team re-grouped for Sunday, June 14th at Tri-City Speedway. A bad bill had Butch starting 7th in the heat event, but he did a nice job to race his way to a third place finish. The invert zero for the feature event saw him start from the 6th hole. Overall, there was not alot of passing in the feature, he advanced a few positions only to be passed by other cars. In the end, we took home a 7th place finish and for once the car was in one piece.

This past weekend, with rain in the forecast and still a bad taste in our mouth from Mercer, we decided to attend a family graduation party in lieu of racing at Mercer. It was a good call on our part, as they rained out shortly after hot laps. We had originally had Pittsburgh Motor Speedway on our schedule for June 20th, but the carnage they have been having there in the crates kept us away. Another good call on our part, as only 7 of the 19 cars that started the feature finished last Saturday. Tri-City Speedway was closed this week for an ATV race.

This weekend we will be attending the World of Outlaws Firecracker 100 at Lernerville Speedway. We had already committed to our camping spot and tickets when the FASTRAK Northeast Tour event was announced for Roaring Knob, so we will not be attending the Tour race. I guess you could say it is our mini-vacation before our very busy month of July. We will be in action this weekend on Sunday at Tri-City Speedway on June 28th. The Wexford Racing #27 Emod is also finally ready for action, so Butch will be pulling double duty, driving both the crate and the emod.

We will kick July off at Expo Raceway on Wednesday, July 1st, as the FASTRAK Northeast Tour event is being held in conjunction with the Trumbull County Fair. We have never been to Expo, but it sounds like a great place! Friday, July 3rd, we will make our first trip of the year to Raceway 7 in Connueat, OH for another FASTRAK Northeast Tour event. We will spend Saturday, July 4th with family, then head to Tri-City on Sunday, July 5th for an Emod only show. July also has four more FASTRAK Northeast Tour events throughout the month at McKean County Speedway (7/11), Dog Hollow Speedway (7/17), Tri-City Speedway (7/19) and Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway (7/25). The only questionable event for us will be the race at Dog Hollow and that will depend on Butch's work schedule. We will end July with a trip to the famed Eldora Speedway for a FASTRAK National Event.

Last chance to order shirts/sweatshirts this week!!!

Until next time...

More Ups and Downs

The 2009 season is barely three months old, but Butch and the Lambert Racing Team have already had their share of ups and downs and this past weekend was no exception.

It was a homecoming of sorts on Friday, June 5th as Butch returned to Lernerville Speedway to run in the Pro Crate Late Model event. He took the green flag for the heat event from the third spot and looked to finish there until a bad restart handed him the pole position. He pulled away to a significant lead to pick up the heat event win. For the feature, he drew the 5th starting spot and it was a really good race. He quickly raced his way to third place in the caution filled event. As the race went on, the leader broke, but Butch had been racing side by side and didn't get the spot at the line. Instead of restarting 2nd, he was relegated to third and put up a hard fought battle to capture a second place finish. We were very happy to come home basically in one piece with a top 3 finish.

With no racing at Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday evening, we headed to Tri-City Speedway on Sunday for a regular event. Butch started his heat from the outside pole and quickly took the lead. He cruised to his second heat event win of the weekend with a hard charging Max Blair nipping at his heels. An Invert Zero line-up was pulled for the feature event, putting Butch on the outside pole beside Mike Pegher Jr. As soon as the green flag dropped, it was apparent there was a problem. For the first few laps, Butch dropped to 4th, then charged back to 2nd, only to drop back again, this time to 6th. With only 5 laps on the board, he pulled into the pits leaving all of us to wonder what happened. Our initial investigation found a problem with the carburetor, forcing us to load up for the night. He was credited with a 12th place finish.

Monday evening the team dug a little further into the problem and found metal in the oil, which is not a good sign. The engine was pulled and given to Mike Ingram of Ingram Engines to check out. He discovered early Wednesday that a lifter had come apart. Not something you would expect to see in a motor that only has 14 nights of racing on it. Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed. The good news is that we will have the engine back in time for next weekend and will run last year's motor in the meantime.

This weekend, we will be racing at Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday Night and Tri-City Speedway on Sunday night.

We are also pleased to announce that we have new Butch Lambert Racing T-shirts available for order for only $10! We are also offering tanks, hoodies, sweatshirts and long-sleeved T's. Please contact me if you would like to place an order!

Until next time...

It was the best of times, and the worst of times...

After Butch's strong run at The Dirt Track at Lowe's on Friday night, the team was optimistic heading into the FASTRAK Southeast event at Wythe Raceway on Saturday night. Unfortunately, that optimism was short-lived, as we knew we were in trouble after hot laps. Butch qualified 33rd out of 40 cars, which put him in 7th on the starting grid for the heat. The crew worked diligently to try to get the car working better, but to no avail. He finished the heat in 6th, forcing him to run the B-main to try to make the feature. The crew went to work once again, but just could not find the magic set-up for the car. Although it was not through lack of effort, his 6th place finish in the b-main would not be good enough to make the feature starting grid, so we were done for the night.

Sunday morning we awoke to gloomy skies and a forecast of 60% rain for the Princeton, WV area. This, combined with the FASTRAK Northeast event at Mercer Raceway Park waiting for us on Monday, compelled us to make the decision to head for home. The team pulled out of Wytheville, Virginia a little after 10 am and pulled into Tri-City Speedway around 5:30pm, just missing hot laps. Butch started and finished the heat event at Tri-City in 3rd place. The Invert Zero re-draw put him in 5th on the starting grid for the feature. The caution flag only flew one time in the event and this allowed the field to get spaced out with very little passing towards the end of the event. Butch crossed the finish line in 5th place, exactly where he had started.

We were thrilled to have survived three straight nights of racing with very little damage or issues and looked forward to having a strong run at Mercer Raceway Park on Monday for the Steel Valley Classic, FASTRAK Northeast Tour event. The night started off well with Butch racing his way from a 7th place start in the heat to a 3rd place finish. This secured him a spot in the feature event and put him in the re-draw for the top 12 starting spots. As luck would have it, he re-drew the 11th place spot to start the feature. The track had changed considerable from the heats to the feature, and alot of cars were struggling at the beginning of the race. A lap one crash shuffled the field and cause some confusion, but Butch re-started in 10th. He was running in about 8th place when disaster struck on un-lucky lap 13. A lead car spun going into turn one and Butch had no where to go and very little time to react. As a result, he crashed hard into the car sitting broadside in the corner, only to be hit two more times as other cars joined the crash. Luckily, Butch was able to walk away. The car, however, was not so fortunate. Both the left and right side front suspension was all but destroyed, and he also took a very hard hit to the left side rear quarter.

The crew took the day off on Tuesday to rest, but started to assess the damage on Wednesday. Their findings were not good. In addition to the front shocks, a-arms, and other suspension, the chassis is also bent, not just in the front, but in the rear as well. There was heavy sheet-metal and cosmetic damage as well.

Unfortunately, we are forced to take this weekend off to re-group. We hope to have the car ready for next Friday's Pro Late Model event at Lernerville Speedway. We have also made the very difficult decision to pare our schedule back to racing one night at week at Tri-City Speedway (barring any specials). This crash has put a serious dent in our racing budget for the year, so unfortunately we will have to sit out some events. Hopefully this will be a short-term change and we will be back to also racing at Mercer Raceway Park on a weekly basis soon.

Until next time...

A Good Night at The Dirt Track at Lowe's!

Butch and the Lambert Racing Team rolled into The Dirt Track at Lowe's yesterday for the FASTRAK Goodyear Challenge. The event was limited to 50 entries and 47 drivers signed in for the night.

Butch pulled a #28 and started the 4th heat event in 4th place. He patiently worked the inside line and made a thrilling pass on the white flag lap to secure a 3rd place finish and a spot on the starting grid for the feature. We were thrilled to have made the show through the heat and felt that we had accomplished our #1 goal by just making the race.

He took the green flag in the feature from the 16th starting spot. A lap one spin in front of him cost him a few spots, but once the race restarted, he was on the move. Using the whole track, he started weaving through traffic. Coming for the checkered flag, he had a strong run down the backstretch and through 3 and 4 that allowed him to pull right up on the 9th and 10th place cars. Unfortunately, he just didn't have enough time and finished in 11th place, just about a foot shy of a top 10 finish.

We couldn't be happier with our performance and are hoping to carry some momentum into the FASTRAK Southeast Tour race at Wythe Raceway tonight.

A Good Run & a Look Ahead

Mercer Raceway Park fell to rain and thunderstorms on Saturday, May 16th, giving us a rare night off. Sunday it was off for a chilly night of racing at Tri-City Speedway. Butch started the heat event in 6th place and managed to move up one for a fifth place finish. He was slated to start the feature in 6th, but unfortunately, Carl McKinney had to scratch due to an engine problem, which moved Butch into 5th place for the start. He jumped into 4th on the start and was running a great race. At one point he had reeled in Mike Pegher Jr and was working on 3rd place, but the leader of the race spun coming out of turn 4 and Butch had to lift for a split second, allowing Mikey to pull away again. The leader's spin handed the lead to Max Blair, with Butch now in 3rd. The remainder of the race went green and we were very happy with our third place finish.

This week is the week we have all been waiting for. Weather permitting, we will be making our way down south for a 4 day race swing that will take us to four different tracks in four different states in just 4 days! We will start off at FASTRAK National event at The Dirt Track at Lowe's Motor Speedway on Friday, May 22nd. This race is being held in conjunction with the NASCAR race and the World of Outlaws Sprints. The next night, we will head north to Wythe Raceway in Virginia for a FASTRAK Southeast Tour race. Sunday will find us at Princeston Speedway in West Virginia for another FASTRAK Southeast Tour race. Monday we will head home to compete in the Steel Valley Classic at Mercer Raceway Park, which is FASTRAK Northeast Tour event.

Preparations for the weekend are already well underway as we have alot of work to do to be able to run that many days in a row. First we are putting a new body on the car and will need to re-letter it. Then we need to load up the trailer with lots of spare parts that we hopefully won't need.

Send us some good luck vibes and cross your fingers for good weather!

I will post results to the blog daily so check back soon!

Until then...

Rain and Another Top Ten

On Saturday, May 9th, Butch and the Lambert Racing team headed to Mercer Raceway Park. This was the first week they had their “In the Spotlight” driver event, featuring a driver from each division. Butch as the FASTRAK Crate Late Model driver featured, and he got to take the car up behind the grandstands and sign autographs for fans on beautiful cards that Mercer provided. The Mahoning Valley Scrappers Minor League Baseball team also had their mascot “Scrappy” there and we had some fun with him.

Butch started the heat event in 5th place and at the drop of the checkered, he finished 3rd. It was a chilly night and the threatening skies finally let loose shortly before feature time, cancelling the remainder of the racing action for the night.

After having the previous week off at Tri-City Speedway, we headed there on Sunday, May 10th. Madison drew her daddy a good pill and he started the heat event on the pole. He had pulled out to a considerable lead, but the caution flew quite a few times and had Butch battling with Carl McKinney and Max Blair throughout the event. He faded as far as 3rd, but managed to pass Carl at the end and finished 2nd. His strong heat finish put him in 5th place on the starting grid of the feature. He hung there for quite awhile, and had even moved up as far as 3rd. A very nasty crash marred the event just past the halfway point. Luckily, it happened just behind Butch, and thankfully, everyone was ok. The top groove came in as the race went on and Butch lost a few spots for a 7th place finish.

This week, we will be back at Mercer on Saturday night and Tri-City on Sunday night – that is, if Mother Nature cooperates. After Sunday’s racing, we will start preparing for our trip to The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway by re-skinning and re-lettering the car.

Until next week…good racing!

A Pretty Good Night

Our trip to Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday, May 2nd was pretty good. Butch started out the night by drawing the #1 pill which put him on the pole of the first heat event. He jumped into the lead and never looked back, logging his first heat race victory of 2009.

Luck was with us for the feature re-draw as well, as he drew the outside pole for the event. It was quickly evident that the outside groove was not the place to be and Butch fell back to 6th or 7th place with just a few laps in. He raced hard and was fighting a tight car for most of the event, but managed to pull back up to a 4th place finish.

Tri-City Speedway has a Sprint/Late Model special on Sunday, so they are not running crates. Next weekend we will be back at Mercer on Saturday (5/9) and Tri-City on Sunday (5/10).

It is looking like we will be able to debut our new website this week, so stay posted for that!

Until then, good racing!

From Bad to Worse

After a rough weekend at Lernerville last weekend, we went into the FASTRAK Northeast Tour event at Tyler County Speedway with high hopes. Unfortunately, Lady Luck had other ideas. After drawing a bad pill, Butch started and finished the heat event in 7th place. With 26 cars on hand, and FASTRAK's hard and fast rule of only starting 24 cars, this meant Butch had to run the B-main to race his way into the feature. He started 3rd in the event and worked his way to the lead where he then pulled away from the pack.

He was slated to start 19th in the feature, but somehow ended up starting 21st. He was slowly making his way through traffic and was up to 15th place. On a restart, the field got moved around and he got shuffled back to probably 19th before the green even dropped. On the very next lap a multi-car crash happened right in front of him and he had no where to go. It looked innocent enough and originally appeared that he could continue, but a broken tie-rod, bent shock, and other bent suspension parts ended our night. He was credited with a 22nd place finish. Needless to say, it was a long ride home.

Looking to turn our luck around, Butch and crew worked hard to get the car put back together for Tri-City's opening night on Sunday, April 26th. He started the heat in 6th place and was racing for 4th with #00H Brian Booher when Butch tried to pass him on the inside and Booher turned into the passenger door, spinning Butch out. He restarted at the rear of the field and could only muster an 8th place finish. The poor heat finish put him in 16th place on the grid for the feature event. The car was working good and he slowly started moving through the field. For the last 10 laps of the event, he swapped positions with David Scott and Carl McKinney almost ever lap. It was a great battle and Butch ended up finishing the feature in 7th place. Not the night we had hoped for, but another top 10 finish all the same.

Our weekend plans for this week are a little up in the air. We will either race at Mercer or Roaring Knob. I will post the decision on our website once it is made. Tri-City has a special this week and is not running crates so we have Sunday off.

We are already making plans for our 4-day race through the south on Memorial Day weekend and have secured a spot in the restricted event at Lowe's Motor Speedway by getting our entry in early.

Until next time...

Rough Weekend

Our highly anticipated return to Lernerville Speedway on Friday, April 17th ended in bitter disappointment.

After drawing a bad pill to start the heat event in 7th (last) place, Butch made a charge towards the front, passing eventually feature winner David Scott with just a couple laps to go and nearly taking second place from Max Blair coming for the checkered flag. His 3rd place heat race finish put him in the redraw for the feature event and he took the green from the 5th place position. I can't say for sure what happened, but coming through turns 3 and 4 to complete the first lap, the 55 of Chris Schneider spun. Butch barely missed him, only to get caught up by another spinning car in front of him. He headed to the pits with heavy damage to the left front of the car, as well as the entire right side and two flat tires. The crew got him back on the track just in time to take the green without missing a lap. Another spinning car caused Butch himself to spin shortly after they restarted the event. About 8 laps into the 20 lap event, it was announced that the race was being cut to 15 laps. What a bunch of crap! There was NO REASON to do that, especially once the race was under way. Butch was caught up in yet another wreck but persevered on and starting making progress towards the end of the event. He was fast through turns 1 & 2 and in one lap passed 3 cars by going to the outside and making it stick. He ended up finishing 7th. If they had gotten to run the whole 20 laps, who knows.

We will have to really weigh our options regarding the next race at Lernerville for the Crates. No transponder data, cutting the race by 5 laps, lax tire rules...the list goes on for why we shouldn't, but we all know why we should.

We all worked very hard on Saturday to get the car ready to go to Mercer and it was a pretty good night. Butch started and finished the heat in 3rd place. He spun on the first or second lap to avoid contact with another car, so he went to the tail of the field and worked his way back to third. He re-drew the 6th place starting spot in the feature and it was a hard fought race. It seemed like every time he made some progress, the caution would come out. He was as far back as 7th and as high as 3rd at times. It seemed like no matter where he went on the track to pass the guy in front of him, the guy was there. If Butch went high, he drifted high and Butch had to lift, if Butch went low, he cut him off and Butch had to get on the brakes. One of those times towards the end of the race, Butch fell back to 5th. On the last lap going down the back straightaway, he pulled even with 4th place and ran into the corner on the high side. It stuck and the next thing you knew, he was beside the 3rd place car at the finish line. He had to settle for 4th but that move on the last lap was awesome!

Next for us is the first FASTRAK Northeast Tour event of 2009. We will be competing at Tyler County Speedway in Middlebourne, WV on Saturday, April 25th in the FASTRAK "Topless 25". No, they won't be racing without their shirts, they will be racing without their roofs! It is our first ever Topless event and it should be alot of fun. They are calling for beautiful weather this weekend too!

Sunday we plan to make our first trip of 2009 to Tri-City Speedway for their opening event. The emod will not be ready for this weekend, so we will just be running the crate.

Until next time, happy racing!

Braving the Cold!

Saturday night at Mercer Raceway Park was a cold one! It's a good thing there was alot of action on the track to warm things up!

Butch started the heat event in 6th place and quickly jumped into 4th. He mounted a challenge on the 35H of Chris Haines for the entire event, but just couldn't get around him and had to settle for 4th. With 30 FASTRAK Crates on hand, this was just good enough to get him into the pill draw for the feature.

Butch took the green from his 10th place starting spot and drove a very smart race, missing many wrecks and having quite a few close calls. He eventually settled into 5th place and was looking like he might be able to bring home 4th place, but a caution with a few laps to go changed that. It was a hard fought battle, but he came home with a 5th place finish and we were, of course, very happy with that.

This Friday we will return to our old stomping ground to compete in the UMP Pro Late Model event at Lernerville Speedway that is in conjunction with the O'Reilly All Star Late Models. We always look forward to racing at Lernerville and this event should be a great one! As of right now, we are also planning on running at Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday night, but that will be dependent on how Friday goes.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter holiday!

Successful Opening Night

Mercer Raceway Park got their opening night in this past Saturday and Butch had, what I would consider to be, a successful opening night.

After starting from the 4th place position in his heat race, he went on to score a solid 2nd place behind eventual feature winner, Mike Pegher, Jr. For the feature, Butch once again started in 4th place but quickly moved up in to the second spot. On lap eight he was passed by Max Blair, but ran a good race to finish 3rd and hold off a hard charging Dennis Lunger.

This week we will return to Mercer on Saturday, April 11th. The following week we will be competing at Lernerville Speedway on Friday (4/17) and Mercer on Saturday (4/18). In just over two weeks, we will travel to Tyler County Speedway for the first of sixteen FASTRAK Northeast Tour events (4/25). The following night will be opening night for Tri-City Speedway (4/26).

Check back often, and see you at the races!

Ready for Action!

Tomorrow night will mark the first event of the season for Butch Lambert and the Lambert Racing #27 FASTRAK Late Model team. Mercer Raceway Park will be holding their opening night event which includes Sprints, Small Block Modifieds, FASTRAK Late Models, Mod-Lites and Mini-Stocks. Grandstands open at 4:30pm with racing at 7pm.

Hopefully, Mother Nature will cooperate and not dump too much rain on us today, as the forecast for tomorrow is favorable.

After what has been determined to have been a successful test and tune session at Lernerville Speedway on March 21st, Butch is looking forward to get into some real racing action this weekend.

We are also happy to announce that we have partnered with Jason Fleming of Fleming Design Solutions to design a new website for Lambert Racing. We expect to debut the new site sometime in April.

April Race Schedule:
April 4th - Mercer Raceway Park
April 11th - Mercer Raceway Park
April 17th - Lernerville Speedway
April 18th - Mercer Raceway Park
April 25th - Tyler County Speedway (FASTRAK Northeast Tour)
April 26th - Tri-City Speedway (Opening Night)

Butch Lambert and the Lambert Racing team would like to thank all of their sponsors and supporters: Bagel Bites, Austin's A1 Bleach, Fannie's Friends Pet Crematorium, Fleming Tire & Auto, Lambert Plumbing, RAM Transit Lines, Inc., Kozminski Auto Body & AlignRite, BP Construction, Harmony's Angel Candle Co., Smardt Equipment, Woodward, Inc., Flinner Signs & Decals, C&D Embroidery, Mars Beer Distributor, Marburger Farms Dairy, Hotsy and B&E Mini Mart.

It's Ready!!

Finally, we are ready to go racing! Butch is looking forward to practice on Saturday at Lernerville Speedway to shake down the car and break in the new GM 604 Crate Engine.

Our first official race event is scheduled for Saturday, April 4th at Mercer Raceway Park. Tri-City Speedway has moved their opening night back to April 26th, so we will be racing mainly at Mercer for the month of April.

The first FASTRAK Northeast Tour Event is Saturday, April 25th at Tyler County Speedway in West Virginia. It will be our first visit to the track and the cars will be running topless, so we are really looking forward to it.

I'll let you know how practice goes and will hopefully have some better pictures to share soon!

Can you hear it?

If you listen really closely, you can almost hear the sounds of engines roaring! It's getting close! Only 14 short days until Butch Lambert and the Lambert Racing #27 rolls on to the track at Lernerville Speedway for practice on Saturday, March 21st!

The crate is almost 100% ready to go - just needs lettered - which will be done in the next 2 weeks. Sadly, we were not able to secure any new sponsorship for 2009, but we do still plan to follow the FASTRAK Northeast Tour as much as possible. After practice on the 21st, we will open the season at Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday, April 4th for their first regular night of competition and follow that up at Tri-City Speedway on the 5th for their opening night. The following weekend we will be at Mercer once again, but Tri-City is closed for the Easter Holiday. We will be back to Mercer and Tri-City on April 18th & 19th, then on April 25th we will make our first ever trip to Tyler County Speedway for a "Topless" FASTRAK Northeast Tour Event. We will close April out at Tri-City on Sunday the 26th.

Our first road trip of the season will be over Memorial Day weekend when we will travel to The Dirt Track at Lowe's in Charlotte, North Carolina for a FASTRAK National Event. We have not yet decided where we will go from there - to Wythe or Sharon Speedway.

It does not look like the emod will be ready for the Chiller Thriller at Mercer, but work is progressing in that camp as well.

Check back soon for pics of the new car! I will post them as soon as it's done!

See you at the races!

Change in Plans

We have made the very difficult decision to not attend the FASTRAK Modoc 100 next month. Instead, we are going to focus on getting the car completed in time for the car show at Clearview Mall. We have a very agressive schedule planned for the beginning of the season and need to be at the top of our game out of the box.

The crate now has a body on it and the rear-end is going back in this week. The new GM 604 crate engine is going in today and we should have the repaired steering rack back by the end of the week. We are making progress!

Next up - getting lettered!!! If everything goes as planned and FSD's schedule allows it, we should be lettered and ready to go by the end of February!

As of right now, our first officially scheduled race event is the Chiller Thriller at Mercer Raceway Park on March 28th with the UEMS Emod Series. Opening night at Mercer will be the following week (4/4), when the crate will make its 2009 debut.

We are still looking to secure sponsorship for the 2009 season. Please contact me for more information - robyn@lambertracing.com.

Enjoy the Daytona 500 this weekend!

Road Trip?

I had initially thought that our first road trip of the season would be Memorial Day weekend. BUT, plans have changed. We are now focused on trying to get the car finished to attend the first FASTRAK National event of the year at Modoc Speedway in South Carolina for the Modoc 100 on March 6th & 7th!

We are pretty excited about making this trip and hope that we can make it happen. A quick glance at the tentative schedule has us racing at 15 different tracks in 7 states this year!

Butch, Dave & Ron are at "Rocket" school this weekend - let's hope they learn something!

The car will be heading over the KAR Fab this week for the new body, the new 604 GM Crate Engine should be here Monday or Tuesday, so things are falling into place.

We are still looking for new product, associate and primary sponsors to join our team. Please contact me if you or anyone you know may be interested.

On to 2009...

We are gearing up for the 2009 Season. The Crate is ready to go to KAR Fab for the new body, then it is off to Flinner Signs and Decals to get lettered. I think the emod is also going to KAR Fab and will have a new look this year as Flinner will also be lettering it.

I have been working hard looking for new sponsors to take our team to the next level. We are so close...just need a little more backing to get it done. In today's tough economic times, it hasn't been easy to garner much interest. I feel that the economic situation could be good for dirt track racing, as family's will be looking for inexpensive entertainment and their local dirt track will fit the bill!

We are starting to put together our schedule and hope to begin with the local mall car shows. It will depend on how the work and money flows if we will be ready in time. Not too many tracks have released schedules yet, but we were happy to get a couple events at Lernerville Speedway. I was also happy to see a FASTRAK Northeast Tour Event scheduled at Roaring Knob - we are looking forward to that one. Our first road trip looks to be at the end of May with a three-day trek that will start at The Dirt Track at Lowe's, move to Wythe Raceway, then end at Princeston Speedway in West Virginia. I am already excited for this trip, so I hope we can make it happen and there aren't any scheduling conflicts with the Northeast Tour.

We will be attending the Tri-City Speedway banquet this Sunday, then the Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Banquet on January 31st. Butch will be honored as the 2008 Crate Late Model Rookie of the Year for PCTC.

That's all for now - if you or anyone you know is interested in joining our team as a marketing partner, please contact me.

See you at the races!