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2009 News

October 17th,

After many tries to figure out why we were losing oil pressure, we finally found the problem.  It ended up being a bad oil line with a small pin hole just before the external oil pump.  We decided to take the car to Orange Show Speedway for the first time.  Matthew had raced his Legends car there before but never his Super Late Model.  We didn't have any good practice tires left so we knew we wouldn't be very fast.  We did seem to have a pretty good setup though.  We were only two tenths of a second off the fastest car in the first practice session.  We made some adjustments and made the car a little better in the second session. 

We decided to not buy any new tires for this 100 laps race because we still had our tires from the last race at Irwindale that we only qualified on (the right sides had two laps and the lefts only had about 15 laps on them).  Matthew went out early and ran a good lap of 13.10.  Not bad for his first time ever at the track in his Super Late.  That time ended up being 3rd quick out of the 18 cars.  The 1st and 2nd fast qualifiers both ran 13.08, only two hundredths' of a second faster than Matthew.  The invert was 5, which meant Matthew would start 3rd.

Matthew got a good start but had decided before the race to let Linny White, the point leader, drop in front of him as Linny started outside of Matthew.  Matthew followed Linny bumper to bumper for the first five laps.  On lap five. Matthew was hit from behind which caused him to hit Linny and spin him out.  Matthew and Linny were sent to the rear of the field.  After several minutes under caution we were told the scoring system had failed so they threw the red flag.  Unfortunately for Matthew, this would ruin his night.  As his car sat for the red flag his brake fluid boiled and he lost his brakes.  He ran until lap 35 but ended up having to pull off the track because his brake pedal was going all the way to the floor and he had no brakes at all to stop the car.  

Although it was not the finish we had in mind, as a team we had a blast at Orange Show Speedway.  The promoter, Rick McCray has done a fantastic job with this racing facility.  The Tech Crew was very professional.  We wish Rick all the best next year at Orange Show Speedway.

July 11th,

We changed the clutch and sent Matthew out for the first practice again on very old tires.  He was 9th fast on the board but we were really only checking to make sure the clutch was working.  When he pulled into the pits, one of the clutch lines was leaking.  We replaced the clutch line and sent him back out for the 2nd practice.  Matthew ended up 4th on the board, just a tenth slower than the fastest car.

We taped off the car and got him ready for qualifying.  We made a few minor adjustments and sent him out.  He was just a little loose out of the corners so he ended up 7th fast for the first race and 6th fast for the second race.  Matthew was happy with the car.  We talked about what we needed to do to get the car a little better off the corners.  We made the adjustment and sent him out for the first main event.  

The car was still a little loose off the corners and Matthew struggled to get by the 6th place car for many laps.  Suddenly, Matthew came on the radio and stated he had lost oil pressure and he shut the engine off.  Matthew pulled into the middle of the track and waited for a yellow flag so he could be pushed off the track.  It appears the external oil pump has failed.  It was another disappointing night of racing for Matthew and his team who has worked so hard to get the car ready to race each and every week.  

Matthew and his team would like to thank Mike Hagerman for his assistance with the car over the last several weeks.  Mike found several issues with the cars suspension and built us two new shocks.  Without Mike's help we would still be struggling.

July 10th,

We finally got the car to turn again.  Matthew stated the car was very neutral again for the first time since opening night.  We  practiced Friday night on very old tires and ran some fast times.  When we went out for the last practice run the clutch started slipping again.  We put the car away knowing we only had to change the clutch the next morning.  

July 3rd,

We put in many, many hours going over the car again at home.  Mike Hagerman called and offered his assistance. We took the car to his shop for him to go over it.  Mike found several more minor issues that he corrected.  We then removed the rear end housing from the car and had him check it.  Turned out the housing was bent even though the toe plates showed it was straight.  We prepared the car again and went up to practice on Friday July 3rd.  The car was much better but was still a little tight in the corners.  Matthew then complained the car was acting strange as he got on the gas to exit the corners.  We decided to pull the rear gear out and have it checked to make sure it's not broken.  That ended our practice early.  

We'll be heading back up to Irwindale on July 10th to practice again for the July 11th twin races.

June 19th,

As soon as we sent Matthew out on the track we knew we still had issues.  He still couldn't get the car to turn in the middle of the corners and now he was too loose off.  We worked on the car for hours but everything we did still didn't make any difference to the handling of the car.  We decided not to race the next day because the car was handling so poorly.  We loaded up and went home.  

June 6th,

We got the car back together thanks to Mike Hagerman.  Unfortunately we missed something after putting the car back together.  The car was awful all day in practice and in qualifying.  Matthew had one of those race days we would all like to forget.  It wasn't his fault.  He gave us great information as to what the car was doing but we just couldn't get the car to turn in the middle of the corners. 

He qualified worse that he ever has in any of his racing endeavors, 15th.  That put him very deep in the field.  He actually made his way to 11th at one point but then the car got such a bad push he fell back to 13th where he finished the first twin race. 

He started the second race in 13th.  He made his way to 10th but then he thought he had a right front tire going down because the car would not turn left at all.  He pulled into the infield and watched the rest of the race.  

It turned out he didn't have a flat tire but a steering component had failed.  We brought the car home and started from the rear of the car and moved forward.  We found a few things that were wrong and corrected them including replacing all the power steering components.  We decided to go up the night before the next race and practice.

May 2nd,

We finally got the car to turn better after making several changes during the two practice sessions.  Matthew was the fastest car in the last practice session before qualifying.  Matthew had us make one more minor adjustment prior to qualifying and he picked up two tenths but still ended up only 7th in qualifying.  1st through 7th was separated by a mere tenth of a second. 

Matthew would start 6th for the first twin race because the 5th fast qualifier missed the driver's meeting.  At the start of the race, Matthew was able to pick up a couple of spots running the outside groove.  He ran 4th from about lap 4 or 5 and stayed there until lap 31.  On the 31st lap, going into turn 3, a frustrated former champion who had run the bottom line the entire race and had been trying to re-pass Matthew for about 25 laps after Matthew passed him early on hit Matthew's left rear quarter panel sending Matthew backwards into the wall so hard it ended his night.  After the car backed into the wall it swung around and hit the left front suspension damaging it also.  The most upsetting part about the incident was that because this former track champion is a track favorite, he was not even sent to the rear of the field after crashing Matthew.

It was a very frustrating night because we had worked so hard to get the car to turn better with the new tires and had finally succeeded.  Now the car is having a new rear clip put on and all new left front suspension.  We don't know if we'll be able to get the car back out before the next race and do to no sponsorship the racing funds are running a bit low.  Check back soon to see when we'll be able to make it back to the track.  

Thank you to all of Matthew's loyal fans who called or sent emails checking on him.  He's doing fine he's just frustrated.

April 18th,

We still haven't figured out the new Hoosier tires yet.  The new tires have more grip and we haven't been able to find the happy spot that will give Matthew a good handling car without it getting too tight.  Although practice went okay, Matthew said the car was still to tight in the middle of the corners.  We loosened him up for qualifying and got him too loose.  He qualified 9th.  We tightened the car back up some for the main event.

Matthew started the main event 9th and actually said the car was good to start the race but as the laps went by it got tight on him again.  He had made his way to 6th but ended up losing ground as the race went on.  He said after the yellow midway through the race the car was just to tight.  He ran side by side with David Ross from lap 24 through lap 49 when David made the pass and dropped Matthew to 8th where he would finish.  A check of the tires after the race showed we lost a considerable amount of stagger possibly causing the car to get tight.  We'll work on the setup before the next race and hopefully get Matthew a car he can win with again.  Hope to see you at Toyota Speedway of Irwindale on Saturday, May 2nd for twin races.

April 4th,

After a good opening night we had one of those race days to forget!  With no indication that we had a clutch problem in the 100 lap opener we sent Matthew out for his first practice and the clutch gave out.  We found a broken hydraulic line to the throw out bearing and the clutch was soaked with fluid so we tried to clean the clutch off with brake cleaner hoping it was just soaked with oil because we had no time to change the clutch before qualifying since it started 5 minutes after our practice session ended.  We sent Matthew out to qualify and learned that it was worse than we thought.  Matthew qualified 14th with a very bad slipping clutch.

With help and parts from fellow racer Dan O'Donnell we got the needed clutch parts and fixed the clutch issue but we still didn't know how the car would handle with the new compound tires that the track changed to.  The lack of practice would hurt us.  Matthew started the 1st twin race in 14th and moved up to 10th but he complained the car was too tight throughout the whole race.  When he finished the race we talked about what we should do for the 2nd race.  We decided to loosen the car up significantly because of how bad it pushed in the 1st race.

Matthew started the 2nd race in 10th and moved to 9th but gave back the position late in the race.  He still complained about how bad the car handled.  He stated the car still wouldn't turn at all and was forced to stay in the high line.  He finished in 10th.  It was a poor performance for our team but there was nothing Matthew could do to improve his position because the car just wouldn't turn to the bottom of the track.  

We took the car home in one piece which was about the only good thing that happened to us all weekend.  On Sunday, the day after the race we took a look at every possible thing that might have made the car not work.  We found a few problems and hope that next race we're back up front where we think we belong.

A big thank you goes out to the O'Donnell's for the use of the clutch parts and several other teams including the Ross racing family who offered help and parts to get Matthew back on the track.  We'll see you all back at the track on April 18th.

March 21st,

Matthew started the 2009 season with high hopes.  He had plenty of time in the car last season to get used to the Super Late Model Division.  With one win and five top 5 finishes running a limited schedule in 2008, Matthew was ready to make a run at a championship.  

Because we had practiced two weeks before the season started we didn't run too many practice laps.  The car was fast on old tires so we didn't feel the need to make a lot of laps.  For qualifying, we bolted on just two new right side tires and ran the left side tires from the Showdown in January that only had a few green flag laps on them.  Matthew ran faster than he had all last year in qualifying by more than two tenths of a second.  He qualified 18.11 and was the fastest car on the board until he was knocked down late in qualifying.  Matthew ended up 6th fastest.  The fast qualifier ran a 17.95.  The second, third and fourth fast qualifiers ran 18.08.  The fifth fast qualifier ran 18.10 and Matthew ran 18.11.  As you can see it was real tight from 2nd through 6th.

Matthew would start 4th after the fast qualifier rolled a nine.  The fast qualifier ended up starting 7th because the 7th fast qualifier broke as he started to enter the racing surface for the start of the race.  Matthew got a great start at the beginning of the race and made it to 2nd place real quick.  He ran in the 2nd position most of the race.  At one point on about lap 60, Matthew went low to pass the leader and eventual winner but I told him on the radio to drop back behind the leader and wait until the end of the race to try to make the pass.   That may have cost him a possible win.  With 10 laps to go, I told Matthew there were 10 laps remaining and if he had anything left to take the lead, now was the time.  He radioed back that the car wasn't turning as good as he needed to get the car to the bottom of the track to attempt the pass.  Matthew was about 15 car lengths ahead of the 3rd place car.  It looked like he would finish 2nd.  Then the 3rd place car closed that 15 car length gap in about 4 or 5 laps and was now right on Matthew's rear bumper.  Matthew held him off until the last lap in turn 3.  Matthew was passed for 2nd and finished 3rd.  All in all it was a great start of the 2009 season.  Matthew had a great car all night.  He ran his fastest lap on lap 46. 

We hope to see all of Matthew's fans this Saturday night as he looks to get his first win of the season.