A-Class Mini-Sprint Heat Race

The A-Class Mini-Sprint class had 95 entries, and the cars were lined up for twelve 8-lap heat races. Chad started his heat race on the outside of Row 2. He moved into 2nd place on the first lap, and the race was run without a yellow flag. Chad finished in the 2nd position and transferred directly into the Saturday night A-Main Event.

Multi-Class Mini-Sprint Qualifier

Chad had the fifth highest points total out of the top 60 multi-class cars after all of the heat races. Since they inverted the top 6 cars in the qualifiers, Chad started 6th in the 5th qualifying race.
The crew had to change engines between the heat race and the qualifier, but they got it done in time for Chad to run his qualifying race.

At the end of Lap 1, Chad was running 6th. He moved to 5th, but wasn’t able to improve his position in the 10-lap race and took the checker flag in the 5th position. He came up 3 points short of transferring directly to the A-Main and would have to run the B-Main on Saturday night.

Saturday – December 31, 2005

Non-Wing Mini-Sprint B--Main

Chad started Saturday’s races with a 10-lap Non-Wing B-Main. He started in the 8th position and had to finish in the top 3 to transfer to the A-Main. As the green flag waved, Chad was running 6th, but a car spun out in front of him and he had to come to a stop on the race track to keep from hitting the car. On the restart, Chad had to start at the rear of the field. He moved up to the 4th position at the checkered flag, but was one position short of transferring to the A-Main. At the post-race technical inspection, the winner of the race was disqualified, moving Chad to 3rd place and transferring him into Saturday night’s A-Main.

Multi-Class Mini-Sprint B-Main

Chad started the Multi-Class B-Main on the inside of Row 2. Only four cars transferred to the A-Main, so Chad needed a top 4 finish in the 15-lap race. At the end of the first lap, Chad was running in the 5th position, but lost a position back to 6th when the yellow flag waved. On the restart, Chad passed 2 cars and was running 4th when the yellow flew again on Lap 11. With 2 laps to go, Chad lost the final transfer spot, and ended up in the 5th position, and was one position short of transferring to the A-Main.

A-Class Mini-Sprint A-Main Event

Chad started the 20-lap A-Class Mini-Sprint Main Event for the winged cars on the inside of Row 6. The track officials decided to tear up the track before the start of the mini sprint races, so the crew hoped they had guessed right on the setup for the car. On the first start, a yellow flag came out, and on the restart, Chad moved into the 9th position. After two more yellow flags, Chad had moved into the 6th position at the halfway point of the race. Chad had moved into 3rd when the yellow came out again with only 2 laps to go. He held on the 3rd place, and after the post-race technical inspection, the car finishing ahead of Chad was disqualified, and Chad finished 2nd to the winner Scott Sawyer.

Non-Wing Mini-Sprint A- Main Event

Starting in the 20th position of the 20-lap A-Main, Chad knew it wouldn’t be easy to get to the front, but he took the green flag and immediately went to the high side of the track and started passing cars every lap. He steadily moved forward and when the yellow flag flew on Lap 17, he was running in the 9th position. With only three laps to go he moved up another position and made a pass at the checkered flag to finish in the 7th position. Again, after the post-race technical inspection, a car finishing ahead of Chad was disqualified and Chad finished in the 6th position after starting in the back row.

The crew worked hard all weekend and it paid off giving Chad good cars for all the races. Chad was the only Arizona driver to make the A-Mains and he was very impressive in all of his races.

Chad’s next race will be in the #30 Bullet Midget at the Chili Bowl Nationals, January 11th through January 14th.

 

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