Live From The Dirt Nationals

[Racinjj]

We made it here Thursday at 5:00pm and went to the track for practice.  All went good, the track is very fast and in my opinion a little too large for Legends cars.  We had one roll over, a serious incident when the 3H car of Howard Hunter ran over the rear wheel of a car after the checker was thrown, Howard took a nasty flip and was transported to the Lehigh Valley Medical Center with reported injuries of three broken vertebra, six broken ribs and a collapsed lung.  Grant and I had 3 successful practice sessions, ony my final session I thought I had Mario Andretti's talent entering turn one and spun the car and backed into the inside wall.  Only minor stub damage and a bent bumper.

I will get you some more updates tomorrow night after the first day of racing.

**Edited info on the crash Thursday night, the driver was seriously injusred.**

[legendcar49]

Great Stuff! Keep the updates coming!!

[bback58]

Best of luck to you and all the guys from this site that made the trip.  Race safe.

[Racinjj]

Update from Friday Night:

We had a good turnout with 27 Masters, 27 Semi Pro, and I think 17 Pro cars.
Practice went without issue Grant and I both had the cars handling pretty good.

Grant had some handling issues in qualifying where he ended up 24 overall.  In his heat race he ran well early but a wreck in front of him without a yellow ended any chances of a good finish, he finished 5th in his 6 car heat.

I ended up third in qualifying but according to the time sheet it was a tie for second that put me last in the heat.  On the first lap the second and third place cars wrecked sending one car for a roll, I had a heck of a time avoiding it but I made it through.  On the restart I immediately went to the bottom and went by the rest of the field and pulled away to a convincing win.  That was a great boost going into the championship race.  I elected not to run the race of champions after seeing the carnage from the heat races.  The ROC was a a very good race, the top 5 were side by side and nose to tail for the last 10 laps.

I did put some pictures on my website of the track and our work are at the hotel with the million dollar view.  The scenery here alone was worth the trip. 

www.jeffsteenbergen.com

[justfreaky]

Best of luck guys!
Thanks for keeping us up to date.

Race Safe,

Steve

[djracing]

Nice pictures. Good luck tonight guys.

[IraceLegends77]

Hey guys,

Just got home from the Nats. and had a great time again this year. I will sit down tomorrow and tell you more about it but I finished 5th and my teammate 12th. Jeff and Grant where great guys and glad I got to meet them. I'm worn out and need some sleep. We did a little celebrating last night. I will try and get some PIC's tomorrow also.

Scott

[justfreaky]

 I'm looking forward to your recap of events and pics.
Congratulations on your finish!

Steve

[Openwheeler37]

It was nice to meet you too Scott! Nationals turned out to be a pretty good time. I wasnt really sure on what to expect.Practice on Thursday went pretty well. Got a good feel for the large track and changed a few set-up items after realizing that I messed up scaling the car earlier. Friday wasnt so hot. I just couldnt get a feel for the track. I ended up qualifiying like 2nd to last in my class. The heat was a little better. I finished 5th but after 2 people got DQ'd I ended up 3rd. Saturday I started 19th out of 24 cars. I just set my own pace and really started to get into things. I drove smart and avoided the wrecks and before i knew it, I was picking a few cars off each lap. By he end of it all, I ended up with a very satisfying 7th place.

[justfreaky]

Grant,
 A very smart way to race. Congratulations on your finish!
Thanks for the update.

Steve

[Racinjj]

Scott, it was nice meeting you and hopefully we can meet and race again some day.

For the feature I started third and was just pacing myself at the begining and ended up getting into second place on lap 2 or 3 when a yellow came out.  On the restart I dove under a lapped car that was second in line and spun myself out.  Luckily everyone avoided me and and I kept it running and rejoined the race about half a straightaway behind the field with no yellow.  I caught the field in about 2 laps and started passing cars.  With the help of a couple yellows and some smart driving on my part I worked my way back up to fourth place by lap 16 or 17.  I was able to make my car work one lane lower than anyone else was running and that helped a lot going through the pack.  After all of that work passing 22 cars I started seeing smoke come out the LF of my car.  It kept getting worse until lap 24 it started on fire ending my race.  The top end oiler hose loosened up and came off where it connects to the block.  It was a disappointing end to what would have been a great come back.  Overall I had a lot of fun, met some nice people and am looking forward to next years nationals.

I will try to get some more pics up today.

[justfreaky]

Jeff,
 You have run a very good season. Sorry that you ended with a problem.
I appreciate the updates from the Nationals.
Thanks!,

Steve

[Tjar]

Jeff,
I don't remember you  passing the 21, 611 or the 22 to get back to 3rd

[Racinjj]

I did right before the smoke started getting really heavy.  I was a good ways in front of them when it caught on fire.

[Tjar]

The top three checked out from the rest of the pack. My son was running 3rd when you started smoking.