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HMS Update - Copper Classic

Opening weekend of the ASCS National Tour is finished up at Canyon Speedway Park in Peoria, AZ this weekend, and it was an eventful conclusion to the 2012 Copper Classic for our Napa Auto Parts, Mesilla Valley Transportation 74x race team. I pulled pill 30 to start the night lining me up 4th in the 2nd heat race. The track was still fairly wet and was a bit slick at the bottom to the middle on exit of the corners but the track was continuously getting faster. On the start I was able to jump to 3rd out of the gate and just 1 or 2 laps in the 2nd place car pulled off with troubles, moving me to 2nd. I was catching the leader the first few laps but started losing ground thereafter. It progressively got worse but I was able to hold my own in 2nd until the final lap going into turn 3 when we blew a motor. I coasted across the line, still able to run 2nd but we were pushed into the pits and swapped motors. With the awesome help of my dad, Manny and Derrik Ortega, Mike and Kenny Brewer, David Davis, and others, we were able to get the motor changed fairly quickly. A huge thanks to all who helped! After passing 2 cars in our heat we were set to start 9th in the A-feature but after an engine change we were required to tag the back of the field. The track was very similar to the previous night but early on had slick spots where the track had recently been watered creating some inconsistency. The car was good and I was able to get by a few cars then I would slip and lose the spots that I worked for. It was like this for most of the feature which was paused several times for spins and one large wreck in particular that I just barely made through. In the end I would wind up finishing 16th again, and almost got by on the last lap for 15th. Overall the weekend was good and we had 2 strong runs with great competition to kick the season off. We are disappointed that we blew a motor in the process but we will move on to Cocopah Speedway in Yuma, AZ next Friday and Saturday. A big thanks to JT Imperial and Michael Bryan as well.

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