11/27/04

After taking a month off and hearing that I-10 Speedway had fixed the racing surface we decided to go back and try the track again.  It was a much-improved racing surface but we struggled to get grip in the rear of the car.  We made several changes trying to make the car hook up off the corners.  The track was still very abrasive in the middle grooves and that's where Matthew wanted to race the car.  He could hold the car down low on the new surface but the car wasn't fast there.  After changing tires, springs, brake settings, pinion angles and moving the rear end we still couldn't get the car to bite off the corners.  Matthew had a very disappointing qualifying effort of 8th.  We made a few more changes for the main and they seemed to work.

He went out for the main event not knowing how the car was going to work.  It wasn't much faster but he could keep up with the leaders.  After several yellow flags, and the leader spinning out on his own, Matthew had only moved up one position.  He finally had a chance to move forward as the race ran green for a while.  As Matthew tried to take the 4th position, he was pinched down coming out of turn 4 and spun out, but he was able to do a complete 360 and keep going only falling back 3 positions.   Unfortunately, the yellow flag came out and Matthew was put back to the rear of the field.

 10/30/04

I'm going to say some things that I normally keep to myself regarding a track and it's officials.  Matthew was looking forward to racing at I-10 Speedway for the first time.  After racing there, he doesn't want to go back.  The track surface was horrible.  The inside racing groove was so torn up it appeared they brought in a machine to tear up the asphalt and never repaved it.  Rocks as big as an inch or more were all over the track.  Our car and Matthew got pelted as if he was racing in gravel.  When a car running in about 5th place began to smoke badly, they never took him off the track so the track was oiled down badly.  Several cars crashed either into the wall or spun out and were crashed into by other cars.  The smoking car finally blew up throwing engine parts onto the racing surface and the track still didn't put any oil dry down on the track.  They just removed the car and went back to racing.  More cars spun or crashed.  In my opinion this was the worst case of track management I've seen in my 15 years of racing.

Now that I got that out, I'll talk a little about the race day.  We arrived at about 1:30 pm because practice was supposed to start at 3:00 pm.  As we drove up, Legends cars were on the track practicing because they moved up the practice schedule to 1:00 pm.  We got the car out and sent Matthew out for the 2nd practice.  He got used to the track immediately and was one of 3 cars running in the 16:10's.  The other 2 cars we're Dustin Ash and Gary Scheurell.  We sent Matthew out for 2 more practice sessions but we didn't pick up any more speed.  Matthew qualified 2nd to Dustin.  In the trophy dash, Matthew started 3rd for the 4-lap event.  The car in front of Matthew spun on lap 2 and Matthew had to come to a complete stop to avoid hitting him.  No yellow flag came out so Matthew had no chance to win.  He finished 3rd.  The heat race meant nothing and didn't pay anything so we told Matthew to drop to the back and avoid any crashes.  Matthew, Dustin and Gary all had the same idea and all dropped to the back of the field.

We are discussing whether we will race any more this season or put the car away until early next year.  There are races still scheduled for Willow Springs Raceway, possibly a race in November at Tucson Raceway Park and road course races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in December and January.  We will post our decision on our Schedule page soon.  Check back often to see if we decide to race any of those races. 

Matthew Hicks Racing wants to thank Lyle Hunter Tax Service, J & M Auto Body and Ramona National Bank for it's sponsor support all year long.

Matthew wants to thank all of you for all your support in his rookie season.  Because of his fans he's had 101,795 hits on his website since June.   He's enjoyed the emails and can't wait to race again.  

10/16/04

We showed up at Orange Show Speedway with a very fast racecar.  Matthew ran low 14.80's in the first practice and high 14.80's and low 14.90's in the 2nd practice.  We sent him out to qualify and ended up with the right front tires' stem leaking badly.  He lost about 15 pounds of air pressure as he qualified but he still managed to run a 14.95.  We found the leaking stem, fixed it and sent him out for the main event.

Matthew started 4th because of a 6 car inversion.  He fell back to 7th at the start because he was stuck in the outside lane.  He moved up through the field quickly.  He got up to 3rd place behind his buddy Austin Grabowski.  It took him about 10 laps to get around Austin.  When he finally got around Austin he had to catch Jimmy Smith, a seasoned veteran with more than 35 main event wins.

Jimmy's car was hooked up but so was Matthew's.  He ran behind Jimmy bumper to bumper for about 8 laps then a caution came out.  Matthew tried several times to get a run on Jimmy but the veteran was having no part of it.  Another caution came out.  Matthew tried to get a jump on Jimmy but to no avail.  Jimmy, Matthew and Austin ran bumper to bumper the rest of the race.  The race was shortened 5 laps.  Jimmy won followed by Matthew, and Austin.  It was an good race for all 3 drivers.  The top 3 ran 14.70's and 14.80's during the entire race.

10/07/04

Legends Car Nationals.  Our Daytona 500.  The fastest Legends racers from around the country and Canada were there.  We showed up with hopes of running fast and making the A-Main.  Thursday was practice day for all the classes.  Matthew was fast and the car was handling great.  The only change we made was to add more right front camber.  That picked us up almost 2 10ths of a second per lap.  We we're still behind Dustin Ash by 2 10ths though.  As the day went by we got faster and faster.  We bolted on his race tires and picked up even more.  We did a practice qualifying run and were pleased with the 2 lap run.  We put the car away and went to Matthew's Nana's home to get some sleep.

10/08/04

We arrived at the track at 7:30 am for an 8 am drivers meeting.  After the meeting, Matthew's division took to the track for qualifying.  It was 9am.  We didn't make any changes to his car.  He was about the 30th car out of 70 in his class to make his qualifying attempt.  He got a good first lap then drove it in hard for his 2nd lap.  A small slip in one of the turns cost him a little but he still qualified 5th in his class and 18th among the 230 competitors that showed up for the Nationals.  He was the fastest qualifying rookie driver at the Legends Car Nationals.  Very impressive for a driver in only his 24th start ever.  

Here is a bit of history on the first 5 qualifiers in qualifying order:

    Dustin Ash from Las Vegas Nevada.  3rd season in Legends Cars.  2004 Nationals points Champion, Young Lions Division.  50 races in 2004, 38 wins.  Home track The Bullring in Las Vegas.

    C. E. Falk from Virginia.  2nd season in Legends Cars.  Finished 6th in the nation in the Championship points.  38 races and 19 wins in 2004

    Josh Gross from Las Vegas Nevada.  3rd season in Legends Cars.  Finished 8th in the nation in the Championship points.  28 races, 5 wins and 13 2nd place finishes behind Dustin Ash in 2004.

     Dillon Oliver from Kentucky.  2nd season in Legends Cars.  2004 Legends Car Semi-Pro National Champion.  50 races and 37 wins in 2004.

     Matthew Hicks from Santee California.  1st season in Legends Cars.  23 races and 4 wins in 2004.

Next Matthew had to run a heat race.  The Legends car officials implemented a points system to determine your starting position for the main events.  The fastest qualifier in each division received 200 points, 2nd fastest received 198, 3rd fastest 196  and so on.  Matthew started his heat race with 192 points.  There were six heat races in Matthews class.  The top six qualifiers had to start last in their respective heat races.  The winner of  each heat race received 100 points and dropped by 2 points for every position down from the winner.

Matthew started 11th in his 12 lap heat race.   He held back several car lengths on the start because the front row cars were over a second slower than he was.  After a couple laps he began to pick cars off one at a time.  He finished 5th.  Based on his points he would start the A-Main on Saturday in the 6th position.

10/09/04

We arrived at the track at about 9:30 am for an 11 am drivers meeting.  Matthew's main event  would start at 6 pm.  We had all day to watch the D - Mains, C - Mains and B - Mains for all three divisions.  We saw some good racing action, several cars blowing motors and many, many cars being towed away due to accidents.  

Of the 70 cars that arrived to race in the Legends Car Nationals in Matthew's class, only 31 would make the A - Main event.  20 on qualifying and heat race results, 4 transfers from the B- Main and 7 regional race winners that failed to make the race based on their qualifying and heat race points.  39 cars had to load up and go home without getting a chance to race the A - Main.

Matthew started the A-Main in 6th.  On the 1st lap he was hit hard in the rear bumper.  As he came around the start/finish line for lap 2 he was black flagged because his rear bumper had been knocked off and was dragging on the ground.  Legend rules state you must have both front and rear bumpers attached to race.  He was forced off the track and we replaced the bumper but he was several laps down ending his chance at a top 5 finish.  He finished 23rd.  He was extremely disappointed as were a lot of his friends and competitors whom he raced with all season long.  Matthew's best friend Darrin Moore drove out from Georgia to assist him at the Nationals.

Overall it was a good experience for Matthew.  He showed that as a rookie he was not at all intimated by his competition.  He's already looking forward to Nationals in 2005.

We would like to thank all of our sponsors for their assistance this season.  Lyle Hunter Tax Service, J & M Auto Body, Ramona National Bank and Tilton Welding are the best!

10/02/04

We showed up to Cajon Speedway with a very fast racecar.  Matthew had confidence that he could get his 5th win of the season.  What he didn't expect was Tommy Jordan from South Carolina showing up.  Tommy is out here to run the Legend Car Nationals next week in Las Vegas.  Tommy is 65 years old and has raced for 54 years.  He's driven cars for the late Ralph Dale Earnhardt, the grandfather of Little "E".  He's also raced against Cale Yarborough.  This guy could race.  Tommy set fast time with an 18.72, Mark Gaiser was 2nd with an 18.78 and Matthew was 3rd with an 18.92. 

Matthew started 5th in the fast heat race and moved up quickly.  He took the lead by lap 3 and was never challenged.  He won just ahead of Tommy.  We loosened the car up for the main because Matthew stated it had a slight push in the middle of the corner.  That was a good move.

 Tommy has won 13 of 21 races he's entered this year has 17 top 3 finishes.  Like I said earlier, this guy can race.

09/25/04

We headed back to Irwindale Speedway for twin 25 lap races to end the Irwindale championship season.  Matthew was sitting 3rd in the championship standings after missing the 1st race of the season.  He was also the top rookie in the standings.  We unloaded the car and it was fast right away.  It was a little loose so we tightened it up for the 2nd practice session.  That helped.  We were in the top 5 after the session ended and decided not to make any more changes for qualifying.  That was a smart move. 

Matthew qualified 3rd, his best qualifying effort at Irwindale so far.  The fast qualifier drew a #7 pea, which inverted the top 7 cars.  Matthew started 5th in the 1st 25 lap main event.  He worked his way up to 4th and ran there for more than half the race until he slipped up in turn 3 and was passed by 2 cars moving him back to 6th.  It was a tight race from 1st to 6th with just 4 laps to go until Kenton Grey, the 4th place car spun when a rear trailing arm broke on his car.   Matthew saw the spin and braked hard to avoid Kenton as Kenton was sliding up into turn 3.  The car behind Matthew braked, then got back on the throttle and hit Matthew hard in the rear causing Matthew's right front wheel to make contact with Kenton’s left front wheel ending Matthew's 1st race in a disappointing 24th place.

The entire right front suspension was torn off.  We had our work cut out to repair the car so Matthew could make the 2nd 25 lap main event and try to make it back to 3rd in the championship standings.  With help from Matthew, his mom Shelly, Pat and Austin Grabowski, Larry from the Legend Car dealer at Irwindale Speedway and several other Legend drivers we got the car back together but ran out of time to get the car re-scaled and setup up, or so we thought.  Everything was bolted on and rechecked for tightness.  We then eyeballed the setup and sent Matthew out for the 2nd race.  He started 5th because of his original qualifying time.  The car worked great.

Matthew didn't take long to pass Tom Landreth, Ryan Partridge (the 1st main event winner) and Kenton Grey.  He then went to work on Jimmy Smith, a seasoned veteran with over 30 main event wins to his credit.  He got by Jimmy then had his work cut out to get around J.D. Hendley.  It took Matthew about 7 laps to take the lead.  He got the lead and a yellow flag came out on lap 11.  Matthew maintained his lead until the race ended.  He finally got his 1st win at Irwindale Speedway in the last race of the their season.  Matthew finished in 3rd place in the championship standings and is the highest finishing rookie at Irwindale.  Congratulations Matthew on a great rookie season.

09/18/04

We headed up to Irwindale Speedway with hopes of winning and guaranteeing a spot in the main event at the Nationals on October 9th.  We came up one spot short.  The car was fast all day but a little too loose.  We tightened the car up after the 1st practice session.  Matthew was 3rd fastest.  The 2nd practice session Matthew fell to 5th and lost a 10th of a second.  We adjusted on the car again and he lost another 5 hundredths of a second and ended up qualifying 6th.  The fast qualifier was again the Tom Landreth.  He drew a #3 pea which inverted the top 3 qualifiers putting Matthew in the 6th position for the start of the main event.

09/11/04

Saturday night we had hopes of running a good race and trying to win the regional qualifier.  Our hopes were dashed when we couldn't get the car to run any faster than 17.70's.  We had lost 2 tenths of a second and couldn't figure out why.  Matthew qualified 20th out of 40 cars.  There were drivers from all over the West Coast including California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas that we knew of.  If Matthew would have been able to run what he did the night before he would've qualified in the top 6 or 7.  Instead he had to come from the B-main to qualify for the A-main.  That was no problem for him.  He only needed to finish 5th or better to qualify which he did by finishing 2nd.

He started 22nd in the 40 lap A-main.  He quickly started moving forward.  He passed a few cars as the race went green for more than 20 laps before the 1st caution caused by a blown motor on a car in the back of the field.  Matthew had moved up to 15th but was moved back to 16th because he hadn't run a full lap ahead of the 15th place car before the yellow flag came out.  The rest of the race Matthew attempted to get around the 15th place car but he couldn't make the pass.  Matthew did lap several competitors behind him.  The cars from 17th place through the leader were all within a couple seconds at the finish.  It was a very disappointing finish for Matthew.  He learned who his competitors will be for the Nationals in October.

The official results were mailed to us on 9/16/04 and the winner of Saturday nights race was disqualified moving Matthew to 15th.

09/10/04

The car was fast right off the trailer.  We only got two 5 minute practice sessions before the race.  There is no qualifying on Friday nights.  The drivers draw a pea for their lineup.  Matthew drew the 3rd place starting position.  The pole sitter didn't go on the start.  The 6th place starter advanced to the lead into turn 1.  Matthew moved around the pole sitter and settled into 3rd place.  He battled for the 2nd place spot for several laps.  He was finally able to take the 2nd place position.  He stayed there for a few laps.  He got a little loose coming out of the corner and was passed by 2 cars putting him back to 4th.  One of the cars ahead of him cracked an oil line and began spraying oil on the track and all over Matthew's car.   Matthew got real loose.  A yellow came out for a car that spun.  Matthew slowed up and 2 cars passed him under the yellow flag.  The track placed those 2 cars ahead of Matthew under the re-start.  It was a green-white-checker finish.  Matthew was bad loose and couldn't regain his 4th place position.  He finished a disappointing 6th.  After the race the transponder lap times were posted and Matthew had the 2nd fastest lap in the race behind Dustin Ash, the eventual race winner.

09/03/04

We showed up at Orange Show Speedway with high hopes.  We left completely dejected.  Because Orange Show decided to run 9 main events in one night we only got 1 practice session.  Then qualifying was cancelled.  The track decided to have the drivers draw peas for their starting position.  Matthew got lucky and drew an outside front row starting position.  

He grabbed the lead going into turn 1 and never looked back.  He had a 8 - 10 car lead on 2nd place when the first of several yellow flags came out.  On the next two re-starts he was able to get a good jump on the 2nd place car.  He was running a consistent race when the final yellow came out. 

On the re-start, the 2nd place car pushed Matthew and got him crossed up.  Matthew kept the lead but the 2nd place car was able to hang right on Matthew's bumper.  On the white flag lap, the 2nd place car got under Matthew in turn 3.  They ran side by side until turn 1.  Matthew was now in 2nd.  Matthew came off turn 2 better then the leader and got side by side going into turn 3.  The leader tried to squeeze Matthew into the infield but instead he caused both he and Matthew to spin.  Matthew got going again but not until he was passed by several cars.  We believe he finished 7th or 8th because he had lapped several of the cars that finished ahead of him on the track.  The official results weren't posted before we left the track.

This race was very disappointing to Matthew because he hasn't won a race at Orange Show in his four starts there.  Also in a very sportsman-like gesture, the racer that Matthew was battling for the lead with, came over to our pit and apologized for taking Matthew out.

08/28/04

The car was fast in both practices.  Again we were comfortable with how the car was handling so we didn't make any changes for qualifying.  Unfortunately for Matthew, the car got loose as he qualified and he lost 2 10ths of a second.  He fell from 5th fast in the second practice to 9th fast qualifier.

Matthew felt the car would be good for the main event so we didn't change the setup.  He was right.  The race went 35 straight laps and he moved up through the field to 4th place where he finished.  There were no yellow flags so the race went 35 straight laps.  

Tom Landreth and Dustin Ash were the class of the field.  They each laid down a lap of 16.91 and had us beat by a little over a 10th of a second.  Matthew's fastest lap was 17.04.  That was the fastest lap he's turned so far at Irwindale Speedway.  Matthew's friend Austin Grabowski finished 3rd just ahead of him.

08/21//04

We changed the setup again for Cajon Speedway.  We practiced the car on Friday August 20th.  The car was fast, real fast.  For the first time ever Matthew got into the 18.70's.  We ran consistent 18.80's and 18.90's in the heat of the day.  We ended practice early and left the track very happy.

On race day we pulled the car out of the trailer and it was still fast.  Matthew ran 18.80's and 18.90's.  We decided not to run the second practice session.  That was a mistake.  The track cooled off more than expected and the car developed a push in the middle of the corners.  Although Matthew set fast time, we were disappointed with the time.

We loosened the car up for the heat race.  Matthew started last.  He was moving forward until he hit some dirt coming out of turn 4.  He spun into the infield.  No yellow flag came out because Matthew got going again.  Donnie Akers ended up spinning on lap 7 so Matthew finished 6th.  

Matthew started the main event in 11th because 2 cars were disqualified from their heat races so they were sent to the rear of the field.  Matthew moved up through the field as soon as the green flag dropped.  He was up in 4th by lap 14 when two cars got together and crashed.  One was the second fast qualifier, Rick Bogart, a former Winston West competitor.  The other car was a slow heat qualifier.  That put Matthew into 2nd place behind slow heat winner Tom Skahill.  Matthew passed Tom in 2 laps but a car spun and they put Matthew back to 2nd.  When the green flag was waved for the last time, Matthew didn't take long to pass Tom and go on to win his 3rd main event of the year. 

08/14//04

We changed the entire setup on the car because it wasn't fast the last race at Irwindale.  We changed 3 springs, the castor and camber on both front wheels and closed up the toe out.  It seemed to help but the car was still 3/10's off the fastest car in practice.  I made another jet change thanks to Pat Grabowski, Austin's dad.  I didn't have the jets I needed but Pat came through with them.

After the second practice, Matthew said the car felt good so we didn't make any changes for qualifying.  He ended up qualifying 7th. The fast qualifier spun the wheel for the invert and it came up on #6, which meant a 6-car invert.  Matthew started the main in 7th.  He immediately moved his was up to 5th as the car was handling well.  The series point leader, Bob Landreth, made a pass to get around Matthew.  A yellow flag came out for a crash right behind Matthew, which took out 2 cars.   On the ensuing green flag, Matthew made a great pass to get around Ryan Partridge to take back over the 5th spot. 

One more caution came out as a car back in the pack spun on his own.  The race had 6 laps to go and none of the top 5 changed places so Matthew ended up 5th again.  Not a great night but another top 5 for the young rookie driver who now moved up to 3rd place at Irwindale in the Legends Series Point Championship.  Not bad considering he missed the 1st race of the season at the track.

08/07/04

The car was loose all day.  Matthew was only 7th fastest  with a time of 17.27.  We made changes to the setup after the 1st practice but it didn't make any difference.  He slowed down to 11th fastest because the car was still too loose.  We made more changes and he was still loose in qualifying.  He qualified 9th with a 17.42.

We tightened the car up a bit more for the main.  At the start of the main, Matthew followed the eventual winner Tom Landreth up through the field.  The car then went away and he was passed by 2 cars.  He ended the night in 5th place. 

We have our work cut out to find out  why we're not fast right now.  We hope to be better next week to challenge Tom Landreth for the win.

07/31/04

We didn't get a practice at Cajon to check out the car as planned.  We showed up early at Orange Show to get a good pit stall.  What we didn't know until we got there was they added two other divisions to the race schedule.  That made a total of 7 divisions running.  

The car handled better than it ever had at Orange Show.  Unfortunately, the motor wasn't running right.  We worked on the carburetors changing the jets and needle settings.  After the 2nd practice Matthew said it was better but still not right.  We changed the jets again before qualifying and the motor came to life.  Matthew said the motor spun the tires coming out of turns 2 and 4.  He qualified 2nd behind Tom Landreth.

The main event was a 10-car invert.  Matthew started 9th.  He worked his way up to 6th and then got stuck behind the pole sitter who was falling back lap after lap.  Matthew moved back to 10th before making his way up through the field for a 3rd place finish.  After the race Matthew stated he needed more gear to pass coming out of the corner.  We'll try a little lower gear the next time we race at Orange Show and see how it works.

07/17/04

The car wasn't very fast on Saturday.  We made several changes but couldn't get the car to run fast off the corners.  It appeared to be handling well but the new motor wouldn't pull off the corners.  We changed spark plugs before qualifying.  Matthew was able to qualify 3rd out of 20 cars.  Dustin Ash, the National Points leader was the fast qualifier and Art Nevill was second. 

Matthew started outside the front row in the Trophy Dash.  Unfortunately, he couldn't get a good run on the pole sitter and ended up falling back to 4th then came back to finish 3rd.  In the fast heat race, Matthew got stuck behind Dana Moore who struggled all night.  He went back to 10th place before making his was up to 6th in the eight lap heat race.

In the main, Cajon Speedway decided to run the slower heat racers ahead of the fast heat cars.  That meant Matthew had to start 16th.  He made his way up to 7th and was passing for 6th when Art Nevill and Fred Chavez got together sending Chavez into the front stretch wall then back across the track right into Matthew.  Chavez couldn't get his car going again.  Matthew came off the track during the yellow flag.  His right front fender, door and quarter panel were broken and hanging off the car.  The right rear tire was rubbing against the nerf bar.  We pulled the nerf bar and quarter panel off the tire and sent him back out.  He started lap 11 in 19th place.  He made his was to 9th by lap 18 when a caution came out.  In the final 7 laps he made his way up to finish 6th.  Matthew was very dejected at his bad racing luck.

07/10/04

We missed the first practice session at Irwindale because they failed to notify anyone they would be starting practice earlier than usual.  With only one practice session we felt the car was handling well in the heat of the day.   Matthew ran a 17.25 and was 6th fastest of the 32 cars.  He was within .03 seconds of 3rd.

Qualifying started at 3pm.  Because the car was fast in the heat of the day we didn't change anything but a slight tire pressure adjustment.  Matthew lost 3/10ths of a second and only qualified 8th.  The fast qualifier spun a 2 on the wheel for the inversion so we started 8th. 

Matthew moved up to 5th after about 12 laps but a yellow came out and he had to move back to sixth on the restart.  Several cautions followed and he never could regain the 5th spot from Jim Smith, a 30+ main event winner in the Legends series.  Matthew moved into 4th place in points at Irwindale Speedway even though he missed the 1st race of the season.  It wasn't a great night for Matthew but we'll see how he does as he returns to his home track of Cajon Speedway this Saturday night July 17th. 

07/03/04

We went to Orange Show Speedway to race the 1/4 mile high banked oval.  The car had a push all day coming off the corner.  We loosened the car up in all three practice sessions and again for qualifying and the main event.  Finally after qualifying 4th the car was getting better and faster.  In only his second time at Orange Show Speedway, Matthew out qualified the National Points Leader by two hundredth's of a second.

To start the main event Matthew was lined up behind Art Nevill in the outside second row.  The track decided to run the Legends race straight up with no inversion.  Coming out of turn 2 on the 1st lap Art got loose in front of Matthew.  Matthew made a clean pass under Art.  Art's car came off the wall and moved down the track into Matthew's car.  Matthew's right rear wheel ran up Art's left front wheel cause Matthew's right rear trailing arm to bend at a 90 degree angle ending his chance for another win.  We got Matthew back out but he was 18 laps down.  Matthew passed several cars as he went back on to the track but it didn't help his finishing position.  

06/26/04

After breaking in the new engine on Friday, the car was fast right away.  Unfortunately a slower car hit Matthew in his left rear wheel as Matthew attempted to pass him in the first practice session.  Matthew hit the wall hard in turn 3.  With hard work from Darren Moore, myself, Matthew's mom Shelly and help from Scott Moses' Sportsman crew we got the car back together for qualifying.  We had no idea how it was going to run.  We had to weld back together the rear end of the chassis, change both rear trailing arms, the panhard bar and replace the right rear axel because it snapped in half.  Matthew then went out to qualify and he laid down the fastest qualifying lap of the day and the fastest of his career so far.

06/18/04

We traveled to Las Vegas for Matthew's first run at the Las Vegas Bullring.  The Bullring is a high-banked fast racetrack.  Matthew picked up on the track right away.  By his second practice he was running 17.50 lap times.  The fastest car on the track was Dustin Ash who was running 17.38.  Dustin has raced at the Bullring for three years now and has won 18 of 20 races this year.  Matthew wasn't intimidated at all.

To start the main event all drivers drew peas.  Matthew's draw put him in the 6th starting position.  By the 3rd lap Matthew had moved up to 4th place and was still on the move.  Suddenly he slowed down.  He fell back to 7th place.  He rode in 7th place for a few laps then slowed down even more.  He fell to 8th place then the engine shut off coming out of turn 2.  He coasted off the track and informed me that for several laps he lost major power and then the engine just died.

A post race inspection found the number 2 cylinder had no compression and the number 3 cylinder had only 40 pounds of compression.  The number 1 and 4 cylinders had 160 pounds of compression.  All cylinders should have about 175 pounds of compression.  It appears we blew a head gasket.  We never got a chance to race the Saturday night race in Las Vegas.  I haven't had a chance to pull the head off to inspect it completely.

06/12/04

The car wasn't all that fast in the heat of the day.  We made several changes to tighten it up off the corners.  We adjusted the tire pressures for qualifying but that didn't work.  We slowed down and ended up qualifying 9th after being in the top five after the 3rd practice session.

06/05/04

Matthew enjoys racing at Cajon Speedway.  Now he really enjoys racing at Cajon Speedway.  In only his 5th race ever, Matthew sets fast time and wins his first main event.

The car was really working good right from the start.  In both practice sessions he had the field covered by over a half second.  In qualifying Matthew set fast time by three tenths of a second.  He started 10th in the heat race, spun twice trying to get to the front and still finished 4th.

He started the main event outside the 2nd row and by turn three on the green flag lap he was in the lead.  He maintained the lead the entire race with no challenge from the other competitors.  The race for 2nd was where the excitement was.  Frank and Fred Chavez, cousins, put on a great show for the fans.  They raced side by side for the final 15 laps.  Matthew was very excited after his first win.  Several of his competitors congratulated Matthew after the race.  His sponsors Lyle Hunter of Lyle Hunter Tax Service and John Tyczki, Jr. of J&M Auto body were on hand to watch Matthew get his first win.

A very special thank you goes out to our former driver John Isabella for coming out to the races and coaching Matthew to his first victory in his Legends car.

05/29/04

Back to Matthew's home track, Cajon Speedway.  The car was fast right off the trailer.  He ran lap times equal to Tom Landreth, last week’s winner at Irwindale Speedway.  Matthew Qualified 2nd behind Tom.  In the heat race, which was a nine-car inversion, Matthew started 8th.  He made his way through the pack and by lap 5 he was attempting to take the lead on the outside.  The 2nd place car spun out the leader as Matthew was trying to make the pass around both of them in turn 1.  Cajon Speedway Officials erroneously put Matthew to the rear of the field.   He only had 3 laps to make up as much room as possible.  He made it to 6th place, which put him outside the 3rd row for the main event.

After the heat race our Legends Official talked with the 1st and 2nd place cars involved in the accident.  The 2nd place car admitted spinning the leader.  The Legends Official tried to correct the error to no avail.

05/15/04 

We headed to Irwindale Speedway for Matthew's third race.  After two practice sessions Matthew had posted the 9th fastest lap.  We changed the car for qualifying.  Matthew said the car wouldn't turn and he slowed down by almost two tenths.  He qualified 11th out of 34 cars.  We took the car back to the pits only to find that the left front shock had not seated in its spring bucket.  We took care of that problem and adjusted on the car a little more.

Matthew started 11th due to an 8-car inversion.  He stayed in that position for several laps until he got comfortable with the track and the racers around him.  He passed a few cars and avoided a wreck that took out two cars ahead of him.  On the restart another car in front of him had trouble and couldn't get his car up to speed.  Matthew passed him and several other cars to come home with a 4th place finish and received the "Hard Charger Award" for passing the most cars.

05/01/04 

We made the trip to Orange Show Speedway for Matthew's second race.  We got there late and missed the first practice session.  With only the second practice session to learn the track, Matthew had fast enough laps to put him in the top five in practice speeds.  He qualified 5th at 15.36 to Art Nevill's 15.32.  There were 31 cars that attempted to qualify for the 22 car main event.  16 qualified on time and 6 came from the semi - main.

04/24/04 

Matthew qualified 2nd in his first ever race.  In the heat race he started ninth due to the complete inversion of the fast heat.  He and Art Nevill, the fast qualifier held back until they knew the front of the pack wasn't going to crash.  When Matthew finally decided to go he began to move through the pack one car at a time.  Matthew pinched the car down low in turn 2 as he tried to pass Art for 7th and spun.  He got going again before the yellow flag came out but was now a half lap down.  With three laps to go another car spun and brought out a yellow flag.  For some reason they re-started Matthew in 10th place.  He didn't hold back this time.  Matthew passed 4 cars going into turn one on the Green flag.  It took Matthew 3 laps but he passed Art for 5th on last lap.

In the Main event, Matthew started outside of the front row because Art drew the number one pea.  Matthew rode behind Art for 6 laps.  They both pulled out to a 15-car lead over 3rd place.  Matthew showed Art his nose twice before trying to take the lead on lap 7.  As Matthew pulled even with Art going into turn one and they hit wheel to wheel.  Art spun and Matthew kept going.  With an unfortunate call, they banished Matthew to the rear and gave Art back the lead.  The entire 3100 people in the stands booed the call.

Matthew re-started 19th and began making passes lap after lap.  In just 4 laps he had already passed 11 cars and was trying to take 6th place.  He was putting on a driving clinic.  He drove in too deep in turn 3 and ended up spinning out on lap 14.  His racecar stalled.  While trying to re-start the car two cars ran into him ending his first night.  He finished 17th.  He impressed many people in the stands.  We must of had 200 people come to the pits to congratulate him on his driving ability including Southwest Tour drivers, former Sportsman and Street Stock champions.

03/27/04 

The car was fast right off the trailer.  We finally got Matthew into the 18.80's.  We were happy with the speed even though we had two-year-old left side tires and last year’s right sides.  We ran almost 60 laps in the 18.80's to 19.00's.  We then worked on qualifying practice.  Matthew was able to run consistent 19.00's in two lap runs.  We hope with new tires we can get him to run 18.80's or better for qualifying.  

03/20/04  

Matthew had a chance to run with other drivers in the 1st practice of 2004.  He was 6/10ths faster than any other driver.  Although we were faster than the other cars we knew there was more speed in the car.  We made several changes but couldn't get the car to go any faster than 18.90's.  

11/14/03

We took Matthew out for his first time in the Legend Car.  He did great.  He started out getting a feel for the car.  By his 50th lap he was already running fast enough to run with the fast qualifiers at the last Legends race at Cajon Speedway.  

By the end of the day, Matthew was running faster than every driver in the last race except for our former driver John Isabella who was the fast qualifier in the last two races at Cajon Speedway in 2003.  We look forward to his next test session.