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HMS Update - Knoxville Nationals

Our Knoxville Nationals experience has come to a close after 3 weekends of racing at the world famous Knoxville Raceway. This past weekend we ran the 52nd Annual Goodyear Knoxville Nationals with the 410 and I started it off by drawing pill 60 which would mean I would qualify late. I timed in 36th quick which meant I just made the invert and would start on the pole of the first heat. I got a good jump on the initial start and had the lead going into turn one before a wreck behind me would bring out the red flag. After that, we had a complete restart and I was able to get another good jump. I led the field into turn one and out of turn two and was able to get a half-straightaway lead on second who had another half-straightaway on the rest of the pack. The car felt almost absolutely perfect on the cushion but around lap 6 of the 10 lap heat I could feel the motor start to lay down so I started easing out of the throttle more and more to try and make it the full distance. The motor kept getting worse and second place was able to catch up to me exiting turn four coming to the checkered flag. The motor really lost power at that point and I got beat at the line by a narrow margin to finish 2nd which still meant I made the A-feature. Once we got back to the pits we analyzed the situation and we believe that we burned a piston which meant we had to make an engine change. With the help of my dad, Mark Rosborough, Calvin Landis, Beth Steenhoek, and countless others, we were able to exit the infield pit area where we were unloaded, grab our 360 motor out of the trailer and put it in the car for the A-feature. I started the A and after a few laps I pulled in running about 18th being cautious after feeling a vibration. It turned out to be nothing but after the motor change earlier and being down on horsepower, I didn’t want to take any chances. Under the new Friday format we would have to start all over and I drew pill 70. By the time we went out the track slicked up through the middle a little and I timed in 67th out of 70 with a 360. I would start last in the heat and advance one position to finish 9th. That put us in the back of the 3rd B main where I got a few cars on the start only to get caught up in a lap 1 accident in turn 2 that would end my night. We came back again on Saturday in the E main but was still unable to go anywhere because of the fast track conditions and us being down on power. Although we had quite a bit of bad luck and misfortunes I am happy that I got to run the Knoxville Nationals this year and I learned a tremendous amount. I feel like we definitely had some speed that we weren’t able to show given some of our circumstances but it was certainly a fun experience nonetheless. I would like to thank Mesilla Valley Transportation, Chuck Jackson, and Power Generation for getting us here and I need to give a big thank you to Calvin, Emily, and Cally Landis, and Beth Steenhoek for their hospitality and help these past few weeks and another big thank you to Mark Rosborough for his tremendous dedication and hard work. Thanks also go out to Manny and Annette Ortega, Johnny Herrera, and Lee Nelson for their help at the track and in the shop. It was a great experience and I hope we get to do it again another time!

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