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| October 7th It was the last race of Matthew's rookie season in the King Taco Super Trucks. Matthew had already locked up Rookie of the Year honors by being more than 50 points ahead of the next closest rookie. Matthew knew to start the day he needed to finish the main event six positions ahead of third place Pat Mintey Jr. to retain second place in the points championship. In the first practice session on two race old tires, the truck handled good but was not as fast as we would've wanted it to be. New tires in the second practice session took care of that. We ended up only a few hundredths off the fastest truck of Scott Davidson. When Matthew went out to qualify, he new he had a fast truck. After running his fastest two laps Matthew was third on the board only six hundredths off of Scott Davidson's fast time. Scott spun a two on the wheel which put Matthew inside the second row for the main event. Matthew wasted no time at the start of the main event. He took the lead coming out of turn two and never looked back. At one point he had about a ten truck length lead over second place. He kept that pace up the whole race which ran 40 laps caution free. Matthew dominated the race and gave the capacity crowd at Irwindale Speedway a chance to see his talent. After the race Matthew did a burnout in celebration of his second Super Truck victory. The standing room only crowd cheered loudly. Matthew secured second place in the championship by 44 points over long time veteran Pat Mintey Jr. In the tech area everything was finalized after Ron Peterson's, Matthew's and Pat Mintey's heads were pulled and deemed legal. It was just another formality to prove to all that the top three in the championship ran legal motors. Congratulations to Ron Peterson and his crew for a dominating 2006 season. Matthew looks forward to running his King Taco Super Truck in 2007 and giving Ron Peterson a challenge for the championship. Matthew will be running his Legends car at Orange Show Speedway next weekend to break in a brand new motor built by our sponsor D & P Motorsports. We will then be running the open comp race in Vegas in early November. We hope you've all enjoyed another fine season of racing by the Matthew Hicks Racing Team and we look forward to seeing many of his fans at Orange Show and Irwindale next year. A big THANK YOU needs to go out to all of our 2006 sponsors: Lyle Hunter of Lyle Hunter Tax Service John Tyczki of J & M Auto Body Dean Kuhn and his crew Kenny and Steve of Oceanside Transmissions and Dalenzie Torque Converters. Billy Peppard and Rich Green of Intimidator Fabrication. Darren and Pete of D & P Motorsports September 30th We headed up to Irwindale Speedway to race the Super Truck for the next to the last race of the season. The weather was a little cooler than it has been and we hoped we could get the truck faster. In the first practice session with last weeks tires we were about 3rd or 4th fastest. We made no changes to the truck except for putting on the new race tires for the 2nd session. We picked up time and ended up second just .02 behind Joe Herold. Matthew knew he had more for qualifying. He was right. Matthew set fast time for the second time this year in his King Taco Super Truck. He was .06 faster than the second place qualifier and more than a tenth faster than third. Matthew spun the wheel to determine the invert. He spun the number one. That meant Matthew would start on the pole for the main event. Matthew got a good jump to start the race and pulled out to about a four to five truck length lead. Then the yellow flag came out for what must of been the first of four of five for the main event. It was very frustrating because every restart Matthew would get a decent lead on 2nd place then the yellow would come out. Joe Herold made his way to second place. He hounded Matthew each time the green came out but Matthew could maintain at least a full truck length lead on Joe. Matthew lead the first 35 laps of the 40 lap main. Unfortunately, when the green came out for the last time Matthew had a right front tire going down again. Joe would make the pass for the lead then Matthew had to hold on for several laps but he lost another spot before the checkered flag flew. Although normally third place would be a good night, it just seemed like another lost chance at a win. Matthew knows he had the best truck but it just wasn't his night. The good news is Matthew has secured the 2006 Rookie of the Year honors and he has moved into second place in the points standings. Matthew finishes off his rookie year in the King Taco Super Trucks October 7th. Come on out for the last race and watch as Matthew attempts to get that second win of the season. September 16th We headed up to Irwindale Speedway to race the Super Truck. We never could get an idea of how the truck was handling in either practice session because one truck was leaking transmission fluid all over the track in both sessions. We setup up the truck as we would normally for qualifying. It paid off. Ron Peterson was the fastest qualifier, 2nd was Bill Sedgwick followed by Matthew only .03 of a second behind Ron. There were no heat races so Matthew would start 3rd because the fast qualifier spun a two for the invert. Our plan for the main event was to follow both Ron and Bill and wait for a good opportunity to attempt to pass them both. That didn't work out. Bill didn't get a good start and Ron took the lead for outside the front row. Matthew passed Bill and set his sites on Ron. Matthew went side by side with Ron for about 14 laps. Matthew actually took the lead on about lap 17 only to give it back to Ron when the truck lost rear grip. Matthew fell to 3rd. A couple cautions came out and Matthew attempted to take back 2nd place from former Ultra Wheels Spec Truck racer Richard Geisler of Arizona. Richard was fast. Matthew tried cooling his tires to make one last attempt to pass Richard but he just couldn't get any grip out of the corners. Ron ended up winning followed by Richard, Matthew, Dave Blankenship and Bill Sedgwick. We picked up 8 points on 2nd place Pat Mintey who came home 7th. The good news is Irwindale added another race to make up for a rainout. The race is scheduled for October 7th. We'll take the week off and get the truck ready for the September 30th race. Hope to see you there. September 11th We received a call from Joe, the promoter at Orange Show. Joe apologized for the mix up in the payout and stated he has sent out a formal apology to all Legend drivers and a check for the correct amount they should've been paid. September 9th We headed to Orange Show Speedway for a Legends Car race. Matthew was fast in the 1st practice but the car got tight and wouldn't turn through the middle of the corners in the 2nd and 3rd sessions. We made some changes but we were still not the fastest car. After Matthew qualified 3rd we made more changes to the car. The last change we made worked very well. Matthew started the heat race in the 3rd position as the heat races were run straight up with the fast qualifier starting on the pole. Matthew took the lead on about lap 4 and won the race. His comment was "the car is awesome, don't touch it." Matthew started the main event in 3rd and took the lead by lap 2 and never looked back. He won his 14th Legends Car race of his career. Matthew put on a good show for the fans at Orange Show. It's too bad the promoter of the track didn't realize this. When we went to pick up our payout for winning the race the promoter cut our purse by more than 60 percent. Normally the Legends Car main event winner receives $250. We only received $95 and the promoter would not come and discuss the issue with us. We hope to see you at Irwindale Speedway next week as Matthew continues to improve in his King Taco Super Truck. September 2nd It was another hot day at Irwindale Speedway. We unloaded Matthew's truck and it was fast on last week's tires. The transponders were not available for either practice therefore we had no idea how fast his competition was but we knew how fast Matthew was. Matthew was even faster when we gave him new tires. Even though it was hot, the lap times were decent on our new Hoosier tires. Because we didn't have transponders for practice and the 2nd practice session speeds determines what group you'll qualify in, it was decided to qualify the groups based on points. That put Matthew in the fast group. Matthew ended up qualifying 4th, .06 behind the fast qualifier. The invert was 8. Matthew would start the main event 5th. At the start of the race Matthew immediately passed the truck in front of him. A yellow came out after the 2nd lap for a group of trucks who crashed behind Matthew. On the restart Matthew got a good jump and tried to pass the eventual winner Ron Peterson. He ran side by side in several corners with Ron but couldn't quite get enough of a run to pass him. Another yellow came out. On the next restart the 2nd place truck didn't go causing multiple trucks to crash. Matthew got through the crash but the fast qualifier and the 2nd fast qualifier weren't so lucky. Unfortunately for Matthew debris from the crash was left on the track. Matthew ran over something causing a slow leak in his right front tire. Matthew tried to stay out and wait for a caution. It never came. Matthew ended up bringing out the caution by stopping on the track when his right front tire eventually blew. The track officials black flagged him for intentionally causing a caution flag. It ended our night and he finished 17th. The truck we're chasing for 2nd place in points was involved in the 2nd crash but he was able to get the truck back out and finish two spots ahead of Matthew. We might be heading to Orange Show Speedway next week with the Legends car. If not we hope to see you back at Irwindale on September 16th. August 19th We headed back to Irwindale Speedway to race the Super Truck. The truck was fast all day. Matthew was the fastest in both practice sessions. He didn't want us to change anything for qualifying. The only thing we had to do was bolt on two new right side tires. Matthew picked up only about 5 hundredths but he ended up the 2nd fast qualifier. The King Taco When the green flag flew for the main event Matthew started making his way to the front. As Matthew was attempting to make a pass for 2nd, another truck got below Matthew down the back stretch. They were three wide and Matthew was in the middle. The number 2 truck, who is not a weekly competitor moved into Matthew forcing Matthew into the 39 truck. The incident tore Matthew's right side door almost off. It was pulling off slowly lap after lap. It was also unfortunate for the 39 truck who had to pit to pull his nose off. On about lap 28 or so, a caution came out. Matthew was in 3rd place at the time. The officials deemed his body panel needed to be removed so he pulled off the track and his mom tore the door the rest of the way off. Matthew would restart in 27th place but still on the lead lap. With just 12 laps of racing left Matthew put on a charge and made his way back to 9th place. It was a disappointing night that didn't turn out as bad as it could have. Matthew lost 10 points to Pat Mintey who Matthew is chasing for 2nd place in the points standings. We'll get the truck fixed and ready for the last three races of the season in September. Hope to see you there. If you haven't made it up to Irwindale this year you better hurry, there are just a few weeks of racing left in the season. August 5th We headed back to Irwindale Speedway with Matthew's Super Truck only to find out the track had changed our race tires to Hoosiers due to a lack of availability of Goodyear tires. We had heard the rumors for weeks that it might happen so it wasn't too much of a surprise. Luckily for us, our good friend Dean Kuhn was headed up to Irwindale to test with Jeff William's from the West Coast Pro Trucks on the Friday before our race and he was able to get us a set of tires mounted and balanced so we wouldn't be in a rush on race day. We got to the track early and setup the truck for the new tires. We heard many trucks had tested Friday night on the new tires and they were much slower than the Goodyear's. Matthew was in the top five in all three practice sessions. He was going to be in the fast group for qualifying. Although the truck was fast, Matthew had no 1st gear. The trucks transmission was failing fast. Because Matthew didn't need to shift for qualifying, he didn't have an issue with the truck after he got it moving. We made and adjustment and Matthew picked up almost 3 tenths in qualifying. He had been running high 20.20's in all three practice's. He qualified 20.03. He stated the truck was much better than in practice. Joe Herold beat Matthew with a 20.01 for fast time. After qualifying, we made several attempts to fix the transmission without any luck. Dean Kuhn, the owner of Oceanside Transmission decided we needed to put in a new one. Ron Peterson offered his backup to us and with help from Dean and Larry Stone from Speed Wong Racing we got the new one in quickly. Joe spun a number 3 on the wheel that determines the starting position for the fast qualifier which put Matthew on the outside of the front row in the Main Event. We didn't get any heat races to possibly improve to the pole position. Matthew got a good jump but Pat Mintey and Matthew ran side by side for several laps. Pat got the advantage then Joe and Ron Peterson were able to get by Matthew on the low side. Matthew settled into 4th and ran there for several laps behind Ron. Once Joe took over the lead from Pat, Ron and Matthew were also able to get by him and move Pat to 4th. Matthew tried for several laps to pass Ron. He almost cleared him several times only to have Ron drive in deep into the corners and re-take the spot. A yellow flag came out for a crashed truck. Unfortunately for Ron, he ran over some debris and it caused his right front tire to go flat. Ron pulled into the center of the track and had to wait for a caution to get the flat fixed. Matthew tried on the restart to get by Joe but he was too strong and consistent to get by. Another yellow flag came out with about five laps to go in the 40 lap race. Matthew got a good jump on Joe and actually got in front of him several times but couldn't make it stick. Each time Matthew tried to pass Joe, they raced each other clean. Matthew never put a bumper on Joe even though he could have several times. Joe ended up winning and Matthew finished a half second behind him. After the race, Joe handed our team his $50 fast qualifier certificate. He told us Matthew raced him so clean he deserved the money and appreciated racing with Matthew that way. The Matthew Hicks Racing Team really appreciates Ron Peterson and his team for loaning us his spare transmission for the race. That act of kindness is what short track racing is all about. We would also like to thank Larry Stone and especially our long time friend Dean Kuhn. Dean is always there to lend a hand to us. The Matthew Hicks Racing Team would like to congratulate our friend Jeff Williams for winning the Irwindale Speedway West Coast Pro Truck championship. Good luck to Jeff the rest of his season and hopefully he can bring home the touring West Coast Pro Truck championship. July 22nd In a last minute decision, we decided to race the Legends Car at Orange Show Speedway. It was a good decision. Matthew set fast time and won both the fast heat race and the main event. It was blistering hot at Orange Show. 113 degrees air temperature, 150 degree track temperature. Because of the heat only we only had about 18 cars show up. No matter, many of the fast racers were there. Austin Murphy, the current national point leader was on hand. He gave Matthew fits the entire day. That young man can flat out drive a race car. It took all Matthew had to keep him from winning the race. Matthew and Austin ran bumper to bumper the entire main event. Matthew won the heat race with Austin all over him. For the main event Matthew drew a number 3 which put him inside the 2nd row. Matthew's very good friend Darren Amidon was on the pole and Austin was outside the front row. Matthew and Darren got a good jump and Darren lead the first 6 laps or so until a caution flag came out. That was all Matthew needed to make a pass on Darren. Matthew got a great jump and passed Darren going into turn one. Unfortunately for Darren he got stuck in the high groove and fell to 5th. Matthew and Austin then put on a show the rest of the race. A couple cautions flew for wrecks and one for a car fire but Matthew was able to keep Austin behind him. They finished first and second. Ryan Schug was third , KJ Garrison fourth and Darren fifth. Now we get a week off and then we head back to Irwindale Speedway to race the truck again. Hope to see you there. July 15th The racing Gods smiled on us this weekend. This was the weekend we had been looking forward to for a long time. Matthew was the fastest in practice. He qualified 1st. He started 4th in the fast heat and won. Then he dominated the main event by over 5 seconds and broke Ron Peterson's record of 11 straight wins. What a weekend of racing for the Matthew Hicks Racing Team. Matthew ran just a few laps in the sweltering heat in the 1st practice to shake the truck down. In the 2nd practice session, we bolted on the new race tires and Matthew was on top of the board. He stated the truck was handling awesome and he didn't want us to touch it. When Matthew went out to qualify, he said the truck was on a rail and it had never felt better. He set fast time over Ron. Matthew spun the wheel and it stopped on the number 4 which meant he would start 4th in the fast heat race and where ever he finished in the heat race that would determine his start for the main event. Matthew wasted no time moving straight to the front. He passed Ron first, then Paul Brennan and finally Joe Herold for the lead. Matthew stated the truck worked good on the bottom and he didn't want us to make any changes for the main event. When the green flag dropped for the main event, it only went a few laps then a caution came out. Matthew got a good jump on the re-start and he never looked back. Lap after lap he pulled out to a 4 truck lead. Then he extended that lead to 6 trucks, then 7 and 8. Matthew ran the laps off at a good pace and continued to pull away. At one point he was the entire straightaway ahead of Ron. As the race ran the rest of the way without caution, Matthew's truck kept its pace while the others were slowing down. Matthew had almost a half lap lead on 2nd place when he started to close on several trucks as he was about to lap them. Matthew ran into the corners cautiously as he lapped several of those trucks. His lap times slowed and that allowed the trucks behind him to gain some of the ground back on him. He was still out in front by over 5 seconds when the checkered flag flew. What a great night for Matthew Hicks Racing. In one race weekend Matthew got his first fast time, his first heat race win and of course his first main event win. He also ended the longest winning streak in Irwindale Speedway's history. We'd like to thank Dean Kuhn and his team for their help, Lyle Hunter Tax Service for his sponsorship, J&M Auto Body for painting the truck, and Intimidator Fabrication for the sheet metal work they've done for us. Now for those of you out there reading this and would like to support Matthew's race team please email us at matt@matthewhicksracing.com. July 8th We headed back to Irwindale Speedway to try again to beat Ron Peterson and break his 10 race winning streak. We were the fastest truck after the 1st practice session. We fell off a little in the 2nd practice session to 4th. Matthew didn't want us to change the truck at all for qualifying. He qualified 5th and the invert was 3 so Matthew would start the main event in 5th because there were no heat races for us. When the green flag flew, Matthew dove to the bottom of the track and moved up to 4th right away. It took him a few laps then he made his way to 3rd place. Now Matthew had his sights on Joe Herold and Ron Peterson, who by the luck of the draw started on the pole. Matthew could run right with the Ron and Joe but couldn't gain any ground on them. He was just as fast as they were but he needed to be faster to pass them. Lap after lap went by and Matthew, Joe and Ron pulled away to a 8 truck length lead over 4th place. Joe was able to over take Ron for the lead and began to pull away. Ron got a slight advantage on Matthew as the laps rolled off. A yellow flag came out for a spinning truck. That bunched all of them up and took Joe's 4 - 5 truck length lead away. On the re-start Matthew's truck didn't go at first. Scott Davidson ran into Matthew and then passed him. Matthew passed Scott back in less than a lap and tried to gain ground on Ron and Joe. Suddenly, Joe's truck shut off coming out of turn four. Several trucks almost ran into Joe as his truck slowed down the front stretch. Luckily for Joe no one hit him and he was able to make it off the track without being wrecked. Now Ron was leading and Matthew was in 2nd. Matthew did his best to run with Ron but he was about a 10th of a second a lap off of Ron. Ron pulled out to about a 5 truck lead until the yellow came out again. On the restart with 6 laps to go several trucks behind Matthew made moves but Matthew and Ron were never pressured. Ron won again for his 11th straight victory followed by Matthew 6 tenths behind him. We'll work on the truck to make it last longer in the main events. That's where we seem to be off. Hope to see you next week at Irwindale Speedway. Additionally, for those of you in the stands every Saturday night and can see what a competitor Matthew is and might know of some potential sponsors, please send us an email at matt@matthewhicksracing.com. We would appreciate it. June 24th We headed to a very hot Irwindale Speedway in hopes of improving our last finish in the trucks. Every week we set a plan to get better and faster both in qualifying and the main event. We did both this weekend. Although we qualified 4th this week we improved our qualifying time to a 19.75. The fast qualifier did a lap of 19.70. In the heat race, Matthew started 4th and was able to finish 3rd which put him 3rd to start the main event. The green flag fell for the main event and Matthew jumped to the bottom of the track and took the lead from the pole sitter and fast qualifier Scott Davidson. Matthew stayed there for the next 20 laps until a yellow flag came out for a spinning truck. On the restart Matthew got a little loose and that was all it took for Ron Peterson and Joe Herold to pass Matthew. Matthew's truck stayed loose the rest of the race. Matthew was able to maintain his 3rd place to match his best finish of the year in the very competitive King Taco Super Trucks. Ron Peterson set a Irwindale Speedway record by winning his 10th race in a row going back to last year. For a long time it looked like Matthew had a chance to break Ron's winning streak but it wasn't to be. Although Matthew didn't win, he did show he is a fast competitor and a rookie who has a lot of talent. We'll see you in two weeks back at Irwindale Speedway. June 17th We headed to Orange Show Speedway with the Legend car. It was hot. Very hot. The car was fairly fast but Matthew complained it was loose getting into the corners. After the practices were over we went over the entire brake system. We changed the rear brakes and replaced other parts on the braking system. That took care of the problem. Matthew qualified 1st, finally beating Tom Landreth for the fast qualifier. Matthew rolled a 2 which now put Tom on the pole and Matthew would start outside the front row for the main event. Matthew won his heat race but not without Tom all over him for all 8 laps. Matthew got a decent start in the main event but Tom was able to maintain the lead. It stayed that was the entire 35 green flag laps. Matthew had a great car but not great enough to beat Tom on this night. Tom's car was unbeatable. Matthew was able to hang with Tom for about 20 laps or so but then Tom pulled out to at least an 8 car length lead and never looked back. Matthew finished 2nd. The rest of the top 5 were Chad Schug, Darren Amidon and Ryan Schug, all running Matthew's setup. We'll be putting the Legend car away until September because of race date conflicts with the truck. June 9th-10th Before we get into the race news let me start with thanking our sponsors J & M Auto Body and Lyle Hunter Tax Service. Dean Kuhn and his crew Kenny and Steve. Our former Legends driver John Isabella and his girlfriend Tonya. And lastly, Daniel Glass, Matthew's spotter and excellent crew member. Without their help our job to get Matthew out on the track and put him in a competitive truck would be very difficult. We headed up to Irwindale to practice after the crash from the last truck race. We got the truck finished and ready early and headed to Irwindale on Friday the 9th. We sent Matthew out on old tires to shake down the truck to make sure it felt ok and handled ok. Next we bolted on four new tires. Every session we made small changes and the truck got faster and faster. By the end of practice on Friday we were confident the truck was fast and ready to race on Saturday. Saturday's two practice sessions went great. Matthew was in the top 5 in each session. With the weather much hotter than we practiced the night before we made a small adjustment for qualifying. It worked very well. Matthew qualified 3rd. This was Matthew's best qualifying effort so far in the truck. He was only .04 of a second off of fast time and only .004 off of 2nd fast time. The fast qualifier spun the wheel and it came up 8. Matthew would start the 1st main event 6th. On the start Matthew's line didn't go and he fell back to about 12th. The truck was fast but it was a little too tight the whole race. Matthew was only able to fight his way back to 7th. The winner spun a 6 which meant Matthew would start 7th in the 2nd main event. We loosened up the truck for the 2nd main event. It helped some. Matthew got a good start and moved up to 6th. He fought back and forth for 5th several times until he was finally able to make the pass stick. A caution came out after two trucks in front of Matthew crashed. Matthew was now in 3rd. He ran there for many laps then a caution flag came out. That brought the 4th place truck up to Matthew's bumper. It would be a green-white-checker finish. Matthew got a good start and so did the 4th place truck. The 4th place truck dove low to pass Matthew. Matthew was able to stay in front of the 4th place truck until turn 4 of the last lap. The 4th place truck ran Matthew high up out of the groove and hit Matthew causing Matthew to wiggle ever so slightly. That was all it took for the truck to pass Matthew at the line by .13 of a second. May 20th Not much to say after a horrible day in the truck. We showed up and were 6th on the board after the 1st practice on old tires. We bolted on 4 new tires and lost almost 3 10th's. We couldn't get the truck balanced and it never was fast from the 2nd practice session on. Matthew qualified 13th and he complained the truck just wouldn't turn. We loosened the truck up for the heat race but still the truck wouldn't turn well. During the main event he moved up to 10th but the truck started pushing again and he fell back to 13th. At the end of the race on the last lap going into turn 3, a truck spun after banging together with another truck and struck Matthew in his right rear wheel sending Matthew hard into the turn 3 wall. The truck had a lot of damage and we have a lot of work to do to get it race ready. This was one of those race weekends that you hope doesn't happen but we must forget about it and get the truck prepared to race the next race. See at Irwindale next race. May 6th Back to Irwindale Speedway with the King Taco Super Truck. Because of limited tires that can be bought for the truck series, we decided to race this week on 2 week old race tires and save the new ones for later in the season. It didn't make much of a difference. Although we were only 10th on the board after the 1st practice then 7th in the 2nd practice we felt the truck was going to run good for the main event. It ran consistent laps during both practice sessions. Once again Matthew ran the same lap time in qualifying as he practiced. Other drivers picked up slightly and Matthew ended up qualifying 13th. There were no heat races for us this week so Matthew started 13th in the main event. When the green flag flew for the main event Matthew didn't waste any time moving forward. By lap 2 he moved up to 10th and by lap 5 he was in 8th place. The truck was handling great. Lap after lap Matthew was passing trucks. He never said a word on the radio. On lap 21 the fast qualifier's transmission broke. Matthew was now in 5th place. On the re-start, Matthew passed Pat Mintey Jr. to move into 4th. He ran there for many laps until the 3rd place truck pulled off the track with a broken rotor. The race went green the rest of the way. Matthew finished with his season best 3rd place and was the Hard Charger for the division. It was a great night of racing for Matthew. He was extremely happy with the way the truck handled all day and night. Matthew ended up running just .07 of a second off the winners fastest lap. He can't wait to get back to Irwindale to race the truck again. As a side note, we purchased a new rear end for the Legend car to replace the bent one in the car and 4 new tires. Matthew wants to run a few more races this year in his Legend car to stay fast just in case we head to Georgia this year for the Legend car nationals. Stay tuned for the video of this race to be uploaded soon. Our laptop computer we use to make the video's finally was repaired and I will pick it up this week. April 8th We decided to head up to Orange Show Speedway to run the Legends car. With all the problems we had, we probably should've just stayed home. The car was loose all day. No matter what changes we made we couldn't get any grip off the corners. Although we were fast, it wasn't fast enough. Matthew qualified 3rd. That would start him on the outside of the front row for the main as the fast qualifier rolled a number 4. We made more changes because we had a heat race to try them out. They didn't work. The changes we made loosened the car up on entry so bad that Matthew just gave up and dropped to the rear of the field. We made more changes to the car and fixed a possible brake issue. Matthew started the main on the outside of the front row. He dropped into 2nd and ran there for several laps. The front 5 cars were bumper to bumper. Suddenly Matthew pulled up high out of the groove then pulled off the track just as a yellow flag came out. We found one of the coil wires had come unplugged. He was running on only 2 cylinders. We fixed it and sent him back out. He was 2 laps down. Matthew ran his way up to the 3rd position on the track from 14th in about 10 laps. Again the darned coil wire came undone. He came back off the track, we fixed it and sent him back out to run more laps for fun. We really have no idea where he finished. We're deciding on if we will run the Legends car next week. We may take the car down to the frame to see what could possibly be bent. Stay tuned. April 8th After running into traffic on two freeways heading to Irwindale from Santee, we missed the first truck practice. We prepared the truck for the second practice session. We didn't get our new tires for the second practice session so we ran on one race old tires. Matthew was 16th out of 38 trucks. That put him in the second fast group out of the four groups for qualifying. We put the new tires on and made a small adjustment to the truck. Matthew picked up a tenth of a second over his last race qualifying effort but he only qualified 14th. He started his heat race in 6th. He was only able to make it to 5th place by the end of the 8 lap heat race. Matthew would start 13th in the main event. Because of so many trucks racing, they ended up running a B-main to cut the truck count to only 32. We made a few more adjustments to loosen up the truck. Matthew started the main event and got a good start. He moved past two trucks on the 1st lap. He ran in 11th for several laps. He moved into 10th and ran there for several more laps. A couple cautions came out, then the big wreck happened. The leader, Joe Harold and the 2nd place truck got together. Joe crashed hard into the front stretch wall then into the track exit wall. A chain reaction crash happened as trucks were going low to avoid Joe's spinning truck. Two more trucks crashed hard. Pat Mintey Jr. hit the wall in turn one with his driver side. Paul Brennan crashed hard into the inside track turn one wall. Luckily all the drivers were okay but not their trucks. After a long red flag to remove the trucks and repair both the track exit wall and the inner tracks turn one wall the race restarted with what was supposed to be a green-white-checker finish. The trucks restarted and Matthew attempted to pass for 6th. A truck behind Matthew ended up crashing into the turn two wall and his truck slid down the entire back stretch wall on it's side. A yellow came out for that truck and they ended up calling the race. Matthew was 7th. We weren't happy to finish 7th that way. Three real good trucks were taken out and that moved Matthew up three positions. We'll continue to work on the truck to make it better. Although it wasn't the best night possible, we actually picked up and ran within a tenth of a second of all the trucks in front of us. We hope to race the Legend car on April 15th. Hope to see you there. March 25, 2006 This was the
first race night of 2006 for Matthew Hicks Racing. We headed up to
Irwindale Speedway with both the Legends car and the Super Truck. We had
many months to get everything ready and Matthew was anxious to get back to
racing. Legends were first up to practice. The car was
horrible. Matthew complained that the car was very loose going into the
corners and tight in the middle and off the corners. He was only 9th on
the board. As he got out of his Legend, we found oil all over the front of
the motor. We cleaned up the oil and thought we found the problem, a
slightly loose oil line. We made some adjustments and prepared the
car for the 2nd session. Next up was
the Super Truck. We ran the practice day tires to shake the truck down in
the 1st session. The truck ran pretty good on old tires so we didn't make
any changes. We were about mid pack of the 32 trucks that took
times. Matthew went
back out in the Legend for the second practice. Matthew picked up time but
dropped down to 11th on the board of the 34 cars. He complained the car
still handled the same way. We also evidentially didn't find the oil leak
because the motor was again covered in oil. We cleaned the oil and
discovered the same oil line that we thought was leaking was actually covering
the real culprit, a small broken bolt on the front crank cover. The motor
was pushing oil out at high rpm. We worked hard to fix the problem and
finally we were able to get it repaired. Now we had to figure out what was
wrong with the handling but first we had to send Matthew back out for his second
Super Truck practice. We bolted on
four new tires for the Super Truck. We hoped Matthew could pick up about
three to four 10ths but it wasn't to be. He only picked up two 10ths. That put
him about mid pack again. Matthew would go out to qualify with the 2nd
fast group in the Super Trucks. Back to the
Legend car. We made multiple changes due to the fact we didn't have any
new tires for 2006 because none have been shipped out from the manufacturer.
At the end of 2005, we dismounted and threw away all our 2005 circle track tires
to mount the road race tires for the Road Race Nationals. Our 2005 circle
track tires were all worn out and would not have been legal to run. All
we had were 2004 tires left over from the coupe we sold and they were hard as
bricks. We sent
Matthew out to qualify the Legend. He actually put down a good lap but he
was only 10th fast. That would put him outside row 5 to start the main
event. Next was the
Super Truck. This would be Matthew’s first qualifying attempt in the
Super Truck. He ran faster than he had in practice but he ended up only
17th out of 32. Luckily the Super Trucks got a heat race. This was a
chance to improve his starting position. Matthew started 9th in his heat
race and raced his way to 4th. Now he would start the Super Truck main
event in 12th. His first
main event was the Legend. He started 10th but moved to 7th right away.
A bad crash behind Matthew would end the night for many racers. As the
green dropped to start the race again Matthew tried lap after lap to move into
6th. The car in front of Matthew put up a good fight. A few yellows
for spinning cars at the rear of the field bunched up the front runners and kept
them basically bumper to bumper except for Tom Landreth who was walking away
with the race. Matthew's car was handling better but was now loose in the
middle and off the corners. It was hard for him to get grip to make passes
coming out of the corners. With about 2
laps to go, there was another caution. On the re-start several cars in
front of Matthew banged bumpers. Matthew took advantage of this and passed
3 cars to move up to 4th where he would end up finishing. Not a bad night
for having to run on 2 year old tires and a not so good handling car. Next up,
Matthew's first Super Truck main event on the 1/2 mile. Matthew took it
easy to start the race to see how these guys would race each other. He
passed a few trucks and made it to 10th then fell back to 11th. There were a
couple cautions including one for a truck that spun two trucks ahead of Matthew.
Matthew moved low and avoided the spinning truck. Now he was back in 10th.
He was only able to make up one more spot to finish 9th in the 40 lap main but
he was very exited to bring the truck home in one piece in his first race.
All in all
it was a good race night for Matthew. Although he's used to winning in the
Legends and he knew the Super Truck was going to be more of a challenge, he's not
disappointed in the outcome. We will move forward and build on this night
and hope to get better and faster as the year moves on. Thanks again to
all the help we received at the track from Daniel Glass, John Tipps and Pete
Sands from D&P Motorsports. See you April 8th at Irwindale Speedway.
It was a busy off-season for Matthew Hicks Racing and we could've never made it to the start of the 2006 racing season without the help from the following people and businesses: Lyle Hunter of Lyle Hunter Tax Service. John Tyczki of J&M Auto Body. Billy Peppard of Intimidator Fabrication. Dean Kuhn of Oceanside Transmission. Darren and Pete of D&P Daniel Glass John Tipps John Isabella
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