Finally some sunny if breezy weather for a night of racing.  Team Weaver rolled east to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, arriving early in the pits—but not too early, as it turned out. Chief Bill Smith spotted a frayed throttle cable.  It was held together by a single strand of wire.  Since we were at our first out of town show of the 2008 season, we didn’t have all the parts needed.  Bill borrowed a car and raced off to an auto parts store to find a cable.  The repair took most of an hour, with Billy Smith doing some seriously upside-down work on the floor of the cockpit as he attached the cable to the pedal.  (Check out the photos of Billy’s shoes poking up from the cockpit.)

In his heat race, Skyler started second row outside.  From the stands where I went to sit, the car looked slightly loose.  On lap one Skyler made a smooth move and threaded the needle between two other cars.  Briefly in third place, he soon had all he could do to stay straight. Gradually he dropped back to fourth, where he finished the heat.

Between the heats and the feature, Bill made some adjustments to the rear shocks to give the right rear tire more bite.  Starting fourth row outside in the feature, the car handled better. A tight group of leaders went turn to turn, bumper to bumper for several laps.  After a spin out by No. 95, Ev Barrett from Bemidji, Skyler took advantage of the restart to move into fourth position.  He held fourth deep into the 15 lap feature, but hit turn two a bit too hard and got loose--one small mistake--but enough to allow the trailing car to slip by him on the inside. 

 Final results: fourth in his heat, and fifth in the feature.  No damage but for some slightly bent tin and one dented rear rim. “We’ll take it,” as we’ve come to say.  The combination of heat and feature placement gave us some solid national points in the Mod-Four class.

 As well, we always enjoy the Grand Rapids Speedway.  It’s well run, plus there’s more competition—which makes Skyler a better driver, he says. The other racers are friendly and welcoming.  They told us to “come back soon.”  That says a lot about Skyler as a driver, one that other drivers respect.

Next race: Sunday, June 21, Bemidji Speedway.