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.