ON Saturday June 17th we headed to PEI to race in the SLM Series event #2. We only plan on running twice in this 6 race series. After our strong finish on June 10th at Riverside International Speedway we wanted to see how the car would be at the short fast oval in PEI, Oyster Bed Speedway.
We weren’t disappointed. The car was quick right from the start. After the final practice session we were 12th of 26 cars.
We started outside pole for the second heat with some young rockets and finished 3rd, our best heat finish in 3 1/2 years in the Maritimes.
Because this was our first race in this series we could not start in our qualified position and would take 17th position for the 150 lap feature.
Luck wasn’t with us for this race as we got boxed behind the 15th place car on the inside lane. By the time every car behind us got by we found ourselves last on lap 20 with the leaders coming fast.
I was able to pass cars moving up to 19th but again got caught in traffic and soon the leaders would fly by me and eventually more cars.
We ran hard all race but struggled getting by cars that were quick, but we did moving up to 13th.
By lap 125 we were down 3 laps and only 11 cars were on the lead lap, a consequence that happens on a short track with lots of cars.
We did have something to cheer about when on lap 125 we followed the top 2 cars (finally getting out of traffic) for about 10 laps not falling off. The 3rd place car was not gaining on us either. Laps times for this run were very impressive for us with times fast than the leader and only 5 cars with a better lap at that point. Unfortunately being down any laps hurt, but the good news for us was that if we could keep on the lead lap our car did not drop off like most. We ended up 15th.
I will take that as a positive for us for sure.
This track is a combination of Peterborough and Sauble Speedways, short, high banked and fast. We will return here in late July for a 150 lap in the East Coast International Pro Stock Tour scheduled race.
Thanks to my crew who worked hard, Shannon Riley, Bob Landry, Chris White and Jack Lynds.
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