6/16/2020
Jason Berg
Weekend update for the #100 lighting sprint team
Well the "home track" race weekend came and went in what seems like a blur!! We started Friday afternoon at the Speedway Steakhouse & Event Center displaying our car along with the lightning sprints of Bryce & Jake Haugeberg prior to racing that night at the Red River Valley Speedway. It was a big night for me personally as i have been attending races at the speedway or working at it for over half my life it seems, so when we do get to race there it's a big deal to me. The best part of it is that many family, friends and sponsors get a chance to attend and support our race team and have some fun afterwards.
We started off the night on the pole for the heat race and lead most of the race before falling back to 2nd on the last lap giving Kelsi Pederson the win, but we still were in the redraw for the feature so it could have been worse. In the feature we had a brief early red flag as Kendra Westlund flipped at least three times down the front straight bringing the race to a stop. After the red flag the #100 car seemed to handle a little better or maybe i just settled into a better rhythm and we started to slowly move forward gaining a couple of spots as the race wound down before finishing in a ball of flames as the engine decide to open up with a large hole in it allowing the oil to spill all over the headers and briefly start the car on fire. Fortunately it was the last lap coming out of turn 4 so we did cross the line in 4th place and had to get pushed to the tech area but at least we made tech!! I had never been in/on fire before so it was a new experience for me and surprisingly i had the sense of mind to know where the end of the signboards were and make a hard left into the infield while shutting off the fuel, unhooking my belts as i was sliding to a stop and them quickly unhooking the steering wheel so i could get out!! All that though and i was still stuck/hanging by my arm restraint but with the help of the West Fargo Fire Department the fire was put out right away and i was assisted in getting my arm free. Thankfully the damage was to the front of the motor and no wires or anything were melted so that was a definite plus!!! We were able to visit with some friends, family and sponsors for a bit that night before heading back to the shop to start looking over the damage and unhooking motor parts so that we could possibly begin replacing the motor in the morning with hopes of racing Devils Lake Saturday night. Thankfully i am fortunate to have a great crew and friends that helped out and we were able to swap the motor Saturday morning and make a few minor repairs and were race ready by 1:30 Saturday afternoon to head back to Devils Lake Speedway to get one more night of racing in for the weekend.The night was uneventful after the previous night which is fine as we finished 3rd in the heat and 6th in the feature which wasn't bad considering how things had transpired the night before, i felt fortunate that we made it to the track and look forward to this weekend racing at the Bullring on Friday and back to Devils Lake Saturday before our schedule starts to taper off a bit for the next few weeks. Thanks again to everyone that helped get things back racing Saturday and to all the family, friends and sponsors that came out to show your support!!
Article Credit: Jason Berg
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