In 2002 the car started out running decent, then trouble in 4 features put me back a bunch of points. I had a few guys hit me in different events and had flats from their unnecessary contact. In the second half I had the luck and the car running good so I won the second half championship. The overall champion was my cousin Don #47. I had to play catch up from a unlucky first half and I did catch him and take the points lead by 21 points with 1 race weekend to go. I was the fastest qualifier that weekend. The last weekend Don qualified 6th and I qualified 2nd. I gained 4 points for qualifying. He won the heat race and I was in 3rd in the heat race. He gained 10 points for the heat race. In the pursuit race Don finished 2nd and I was right next to him about six inches behind, trying to pass him at the finish line. He gained 5 points for that pursuit race. In the feature race I started in the back and made my way thru right behind Don who had taken the lead. At a restart after a caution (caused by someone else) I dropped back when my brakes were overheating. I had somehow broke a brake rotor during the pursuit race. Bob Boyd passed me and I finished 3rd for the feature. Don had won so he gained another 10 points. At the end of the night of the last race of the season we both had tied in points for the overall 22 week season. It is funny to think that if I would have been one position ahead of any other car in any race of the season then I would have been the season champion. On the last night in that pursuit race I finished (next to him) behind him by about six inches. If I was 7 inches farther I would have gained that position and gained 5 points which would have made me champion. We tied but they gave him the championship because he won 5 features for the year and I only won 3 for the year. I won 11 races in 2002 at Painesville Speedway. Don raced well all year so he deserved the championship.

I decided to try the Midvale Speedway Cavalcade in 2002. It is a 3/8 mile track so it was in the middle range where I could not stay in second gear and third gear was too low of a RPM. I struggled and stayed in 3rd gear and qualified 19th out of 38 cars. (I had another bad lap this time too, should have been at least 10th, I almost hit wall and backed out of it, downshifted to 2nd gear then continued qualifying) In the heat race I finished back in 7th because another car caused a few of us to wreck. In my feature I finished 3rd. My car would not come out of the corner fast enough because I was in a bad RPM range in 3rd gear. Some cars upshifted and downshifted but I did not want to be hard on my transmission. By the end of the night I was getting the track down. I think I still could have been a top 10 in the fast feature. I was in the second fastest feature and finished 3rd. In the figure 8 feature I finished 4th after starting 12th. It was still fun racing and the boys and I had fun camping in the van playing video games.

We went back to the Manfield Speedway Cavalcade and could not hang with some 6 cylinders and a 2000 Dodge Neon.(who was the fastest) The top guys were running big tires and I stayed on my smaller 75 series tires. I qualifed 10th out of 43 cars. I was in the second fastest heat race and I won the heat race. In the second day hotlaps I was able to stay right on the tail (running pretty good) of the 5th fastest car (which was a V6 Pontiac Grand Prix) but wanted to catch the leaders so I changed a left rear tire. I found out in the feature that I should have left it alone. I tried changing the tire to make the car faster and it ended up slower. (oops I goofed) I started the feature in 9th and ended up in 11th. My right front tire had overheated. The air pressure went from 36psi to 49psi. My brother was racing my Dads car and he made it to the feature in a last chance race. He started in 22nd and finished right behind me in 12th. We still had a fun weekend camping in tents with the family, but will need to go to the bigger 50 series tires to keep up with the top 4 guys. Racing at 90mph at that track is fun


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