The Claucherty Racing Team dropped in the old trusty backup motor to run the Joy Fair Memorial at Flat Rock Speedway. Justin clocked in the 5th fastest time in qualifying and was scheduled to start the race on the pole after a 5 car invert. However, a questionable ruling by tech officials in regards to the body specifications, resulted in Justin being relegated to start the 100 lap feature event from the last position. Against a stout field of cars Justin was able to work his way up to finish 5th, despite there only being one early caution flag to aid his progress.
|
In Justin's first trip to Gingerman Raceway for his first Hoosier Super Tour event, he qualified 3rd for Saturday's event. After missing a shift at the start of the race and dropping back to 9th, Justin was able to make his way back up to finish a solid 3rd.
Sunday's qualifying was in the rain and Justin put in the 4th fastest time. The feature event was also in the rain, and Justin was able to bring home another podium finish of 3rd place in his first ever rain race. With Baer Field postponing the Main Event Outlaw Tour event due to wet conditions, the Claucherty Racing team decided to open the year at Flat Rock Speedway. After a disappointing 8th place qualifying effort, Justin had worked his way up to 2nd in the feature, and had just began his challenge to take over the lead, when sudden engine troubles ended his night. Due to the engine issues, the next outlaw race will be May 25th back at Flat Rock Speedway. Justin will be competing in an SCCA event on May 18th & 19th at Gingerman Raceway near South Haven, MI.
The weekend started out very promising on Friday night as Justin qualified 2nd with a personal best lap of 14.80, despite sub par track conditions. After heat races were rained out on Saturday, the starting lineup was set for the feature with an invert of the whole 17 car field. Sunday's feature started out by Justin quickly climbing to 3rd place with aggressive 3 wide moves. Contact with the 2nd place car put a damper on the progress and Justin had to settle for a solid 3rd place finish.
The Claucherty Racing Team had a very enjoyable trip for their first ever race at the Onaway Speedway for the Can/Am Northern Nationals. Justin was able to set fast time in qualifying on Saturday. With the invert, Justin started Sunday's 50 lap feature in the 12th position. Track champion and regular feature winner Todd Rosebrugh started just ahead of Justin in the 11th position. Todd and Justin quickly sliced their way to the front of the field, with Todd getting to the lead first. Justin was able to mount a challenge in the middle stages and in traffic, but in the end wasn't able to get by the black #1. Todd's brother, and Onaway regular, Tony Rosebrugh rounded out the top 3.  After a respectable 3rd place qualifying effort, Justin was on his way to the front in the feature race, before a questionable call sent him to the year. Without the aid of a caution flag, Justin was only able to battle his way back to the 4th position.
A broken lower control arm in hot laps sent Justin for a wild ride off the edge of the turn 3 banking and into the weeds. The crew worked quick and feverishly to repair the damage so that Justin could make qualifying, where he clocked in the 3rd fastest time against a stout field. After starting 6th in the race, and enduring a long rain delay on lap 38 of the 100 lap event, Justin was able to bring home a solid 5th place finish. The car was just a little off, but en lieu of the days events there was no shame in a top 5. Special thanks to the competitors who offered assistance and parts. Also a special thanks to the track crew at Owosso Speedway for carefully removing the car from a precarious position without further damaging it.  Birch Run: Planned back to back races at Birch Run Speedway (Friday) and Springport Mid-Michigan Speedway (Saturday) got off to a bad start when the motor dropped a valve at the beginning of hot laps on Friday. Since that was the backup motor and the primary hadn't been repair yet, the prospects for racing the following night were looking bleak. Jim Galloway and Jesse Vanavery reached out to Justin late that night and it was determined that the team would be competing in the #38 car owned by Galloway the following night.
Springport: The team worked feverishly making adjustments to the #38 car all day to dial it into the driver's liking. A 4th place qualifying effort was backed up with a respectable 4th place finish. Special thanks to Jim and Jesse for allowing us the opportunity to race! With the SAS Auto Club primary motor not expected back for a couple of more weeks, the team has circled the August 11th Main Event Outlaw Tour race at Owosso for their likely return to the track. Unfortunately that rules out competing in two of the biggest races of the year with the New Paris Summer Sizzler and Kalamazoo Klash. Things were looking up when Justin set fast time in qualifying. After starting 11th Justin was working his way to the front when the transmission broke around the halfway point of the race. The team will be taking a much needed weekend off before a double header weekend the following weekend.
26 cars showed up for the $2,500 to win Old Glory 75. Justin qualified 3rd and started 8th after the invert of 10. Despite an ill handling race car and a very competitive field of cars, Justin was able to move up the the 3rd position and maintained that position until the last lap of the race. Contact with the 4th place car on the last lap resulted in an oil cooler line getting torn off and Justin spinning in the oil slick that was being laid down on the track. Due to the long green flag run and the fact that so may cars were lapped, Justin actually ended up in the 8th position. The starvation of oil to the motor resulted in enough damage that the backup motor has to be put in. Next up is Springport again on July 14th.
|
AuthorJustin Claucherty Archives
May 2019
Categories |
RSS Feed