2006_04_09_MotorMileSpeeedway

The Crew Today was: Jake Keaton, Jason Garrett, Rick Keaton, Deborah Keaton, Rodney Keaton, and Scott Call

Feature Event

Late Model Stock Car

Jake Keaton

Start: 22nd

Finish: 11th

Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA was the stop this week as Jake races for the first at the track he plans to run at all year. The race was postponed till Sunday again because of rainout like South Boston 2 weeks ago. Jake and the team was excited and hoped to improve from last week. Some adjustments were made and Jake went out for practice on a slightly chilly but beautiful sunny day. Jake and the Sherwin Williams Monte Carlo looked to be running well but the car still had a moderate push which kept Jake from the top 10 speed charts. Some more adjustments were made to try and free the car up for Jake but even though he posted much faster times for the 2nd practice session the car just did not want to turn in the middle of the corner. Jake had to go qualify right after practice so only minor adjustments could be made to the car.

Qualifying showed the massive field of 33 Late Model Stock Cars that had came for the race. Most of the biggest Late Model teams around showed such as Richard Childress Racing, Sellers Racing, Wood Brothers racing, and Dale Earnhardt Jr Motorsports.

Jake went out and ran his fastest lap of the day at 16.032 on his first lap. Lap 2 was looking much better until the car bottomed out terribly going down into turn 3. This shot Jake way up the race track and ruined his 2nd lap. Spirits were still high though as Jake knew he had an easy low 15.9 or high 15.8 second lap going. He wound up 22nd out of 33 cars.

After qualifying Jason and Jake talked about some changes that needed to be made to the car. It was still very tight and could be much faster. Jason talked to Davin Scites crew chief Kim Adkins looking for some advice as there were only a couple options to loosen the car up without throwing other things off. Using some of his new knowledge Jason spoke to Jake more and they came to terms on some final adjustments.

The Race began as the sun went down and Jake held on waiting for the "Big One" to happen. It only took 3 laps for someone to spin bringing out the first of many cautions. Luckily Jake made it through ok. Unfortunately Jake reported that the car was still way too tight making it hard for him to pass. Jake took it easy the first half of the race just staying in line and staying on the bottom of the one groove race track. Slowly he progressed through the field until when running in 15th three cars ahead crashed and blocked the track directly in front of Jake. The only way through was squeezing by up top along the wall. Another car around Jake had the same idea as they both tried to squeeze by. Jake bounced off the turn 4 wall and was concerned about the front suspension. The green flag dropped again and Jake was conservative feeling out the car to make sure it was ok to race. He took his time and just stayed on the bottom. Near the end he found himself just out of the top 10 but was unable to break the top 10. He finished 11th out of the 33 car field. Jake races again next week at Motor Mile Speedway.