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...