We've got a race car!

After many arduous months, we have a Silver Crown car that saw time on a race track today for a few hours as USAC hosted an open test for all Silver Crown teams at Lucas Oil Raceway in Clermont, IN. There was a turnout of 12 or 13 and we found ourselves running decent laps that put us right in the middle of where everyone was. We were able to do it on older tires and we're hoping that with new, sticker tires, we'll be able to put down faster laps. This bodes well for the race at LOR on 19 May.

We spent a fair amount of the day with the weather radar in one hand and stop watches in the other as we were sure that we were about to be rained out of our test session. The sky and radar looked very imposing throughout the majority of the day and we figured that we better get moving and get in as much testing as possible before we had to pack up and head home.  Luckily, the rain held off and we were able to spend a few good hours on track, testing different ideas.

Jimmy was impressed that the car was a marked improvement over what we were running last season and he felt that several of the changes that we made over the winter have really paid off. We spent a lot of time working on shock and stagger set ups and there may still be some additional work to do. However, last season when we ran LOR, we spent the entire day running horribly loose and today, Jimmy noted that the car was much tighter and it was evident, watching him come out of Turn 4. As anyone who attended last year's race, a few times it looked as though Jimmy was running the Indiana Fairgrounds and not LOR! Not so, today.

The car looks very good too as the new decals really stand out and make the car much easier to see. A couple of us stood on top of the Geoff's trailer (which he graciously lent us for the test today) and watched Jimmy turn some laps. The new Indy Line Stripe logo on the side of the hood has added a bit extra which really makes this look like a good race car and helps a bit more in making it stand out from the rest of the pack. We think that Dan Berg, Jimmy's longtime spotter, will really appreciate the new paint scheme!

After running several laps and playing around with shock, spring and stagger configurations, Jimmy said after the test that he's got a few things to think about and consider before we head back out again in May. We have just under three weeks until we get back out on-track and with new tires and a better set-up with the shocks and springs, we should be able to run fairly well.


- Gar