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19.481 seconds.
We could have been faster. There was gravel at the bottom in corner
3-4 from the Claimers practice, so the first few Legends that qualified
(we went 2nd) had to contend with that. Congratulations to #42 Hugh
Williamson for his blistering qualifying time of 19.224 seconds - a new
track record!
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#3 pit area.
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We started in
12th position, near the back of the 16-car Pro field. The #3
Mac's / PEPSI racecar was just super in this race - sticking solidly
in the 2nd groove through the corners! The short race (only 10 laps)
didn't give us much time to make progress, so we went on the attack early
and aggressively. We gained 3 positions to 9th by lap 2, and
by lap 6 we were in 5th! But then we got stuck behind the #21
car who was falling backwards, and we couldn't get down to the inside
groove because of the "freight train" that was going by, taking advantage
of our misfortune. We fell back to 8th place, but on the last
lap managed to get down to the inside groove to pass the #21 car for
7th position. Not a bad run, but could have been a top 3 finish!
Shoulda, woulda, coulda... didn't!
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Start of the heat race.
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Main
Event - 3rd
(100 laps - 50 + 50, but
race called at lap 93)
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The
Mac's Firecracker 50
is a 100 lap race, with a mandatory SLOW pit stop for fuel only at lap 50.
Lap 51 is restarted in a double-file format, so it's almost like a new,
different race. We started in 5th position, inside row 3 -
determined by our qualifying position.
On lap 1 we got past the #36
car for 4th position, where we stayed for most of the first 50
laps. The top 4 cars were a high-speed freight train! We ran
numerous back-to-back bumper-to-bumper laps at qualifying speeds (19.20s
and 19.30s!), but there wasn't much passing activity. #36 and #9
made a couple of passing attempts on us from behind, but for the most part
we were all biding our time for this first 50 lap segment.
On
lap 49 the #3 Mac's / PEPSI racecar got a glorious passing
opportunity due to lap traffic congestion, and Brent managed to pull off a
2-car pass through corners 3 & 4 to end the segment in 2nd place!
But that meant starting the next 50-lap segment on the OUTSIDE of row 1,
beside leader #42 Hugh Williamson. That could be an opportunity to
pass and take 1st, or and opportunity to get "freight-trained" on the
inside groove with no way to join the train. Unfortunately, it was a
bit of the latter. We couldn't stick it well enough in the second
groove and fell back to an exciting side-by-side multi-lap fight for
3rd place with #54 Craig Ball. After a few laps of
back-and-forth, he managed to claim the position and we fell back to
4th - again.
Then a lot of laps were run just staying in
position and looking for opportunities - tried to keep pressure on #27
Jamie Beatson who had fallen to 3rd. On lap 91 we got inside #27 in
corner 1, and claimed 3rd position during the next lap!
Then the race came to an abrupt end on lap 93 when #45 Wayne Miller and
#505 Randy Thompson had a bad wreck on the front straight. #45 was
out of shape and heading toward the wall and #505 launched hard off of him
high into the air, landing on his side and sliding down the wall in corner
1. #45 also ended up on its side in corner 1, and was on fire!
Wayne got out in a hurry and the safety crew did a great job of
extinguishing the fire and getting Randy out of his car ever-so-gently.
Randy went to the hospital to be checked out, but the end result was just
a really sore neck. Thankfully, both drivers are OK. So... it
ended on a somber note.
3rd place! :-)
A special
thank you
to
Aero-Tech Specialty
Welding & Machine for helping with our crisis - welding the cracks in the
frame just prior to this race. And to Chris Huntley for the
last-minute re-assembly and setup of the #3 Mac's / PEPSI racecar.
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Pre-race introductions.
Post-race autographs.
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show up - 10
qualifying - 16
heat race - 14
main event - 56
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Post-race interview.
L to R: Hugh Williamson, Brent, (Craig
Ball
- behind), Dave Rowe
(race announcer).
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Winners on the podium.
L to R: Tom Hollinshead (#99) 1st place
Master, Brent Hackl (#3) 3rd place Pro, Hugh Williamson (#42) Winner, Craig
Ball (#54) 2nd place Pro, Kevin Kemna (#18) 1st place Semi-Pro. |
Champagne time!
L to R: Brent, Hugh Williamson, Kevin Kemna
(back), Craig Ball, Tom Hollinshead.
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Read the Mac's Firecracker 50
promotional
flyer (73 KB).
For finish orders of ALL
cars, see the Racing
Results section of the Legends Cars of Alberta web site.
Also, check out the
current points standings in the
Calgary Championship.
Are you wondering
about the Legends race procedures and
lineups?
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