IRM44s Racing Team

Some great photos of the 91 car at Evergreen Speedway last night. Unfortunately we continue to be plagued with little things, like a collapsing top wing tree that gave Driver Scotty Aumen some grief in the feature. No downforce means no passing and cooked brakes trying to turn left. Finishing 18th after qualifying 4th quick is not what we expected. Still we had some good moments and will address some other issues this week. We will be better at the Daffodil Cup. Congrats to Andy Alberding on a big win. Too bad his son Kyle had some misfortune and ended up with a DNF after leading for much of the race.

Waiting for our heat. 4th quick in qualifying. First 4 all from BC. Scott starts 10th in heat 3. Has to get to 6th to start 8th in the main. 27 sprints timed in. A stout field. Hot here.

The crew have been working hard to prepare the 91 sprinter for the big Rory Price Memorial race at Monroe this Saturday night. The team practiced last Thursday after repairing some shock damage caused during the Strawberry Cup weekend at Western Speedway several weeks ago. That explains why the car would not turn well but we still don’t know when it happened during the weekend. The thing is shocks are critical, but when the guts give out its hard to see the damage. Fortu...nately it was spotted during preparation for this race and the repairs have been made. Now we have to figure out the quick way around the 3/8 mile track at Evergreen Speedway with the new chassis. We have some base line ideas but will only get to play with it in hot laps Saturday afternoon as the Friday night practice has been cancelled. So Scott, Kenny and the crew have to figure things out quickly. They have done it in the past so we are confident. Time will tell. We need a little luck as that part of the equation has eluded us so far this year. This is a big race and we hope to be at the front at the finish. See you at the track! See more

Home after the second night of the Strawberry Cup NSRA Winged Sprint Car event at Western Speedway. We started the afternoon in 2nd spot in points for the weekend after a great 2nd place finish from 14th in the main Friday night. We hoped to carry the momentum through the Saturday night race card but it was not to be. Qualifying was fun to watch with 4 cars very close in time. Aaron Willison in the 14 car came out on top with the last qualifying time of 13.406 for a new t...rack record, breaking Scott Aumen’s 2014 record time of 13.49 something. Scott had a 13.662 for the night, 3rd quick. Congrats to Aaron and the 14 team for their track record. We hope to challenge it at the Daffodil Cup race in mid August. Aumen started on the outside front row in the dash but clearly was saving his tires for the heat finishing 4th. The crew continued to make adjustments for the feature and thought they had it dialled in, but on the first lap it was obvious that something was wrong as the car had a push. Then Scott got involved in an incident which sent him spinning into the wall in turn 1. Fortunately the damage was slight, with a flat left rear, which was replaced but he had to go to the back on the restart. The car handled no better and Scott was mired near the back of the field, passing a few cars in the remaining laps to finish 15th. There was a problem with the suspension that was diagnosed after the end of the race. Not what we expected as we have a great car and driver but in racing there is always the unexpected. We are up to 5th place in NSRA points but have some ground to make up in the remaining 6 races. So we continue to ride the seesaw this season. Some good nights, some bad nights. A new chassis, some different shocks and springs, all affect the learning curve. We hope for better results when we visit the Evergreen Speedway in early August for the Rory Price Memorial race. As always we thank our sponsors for making this possible- Mid Island Engines, Upland Excavating, K&D Contracting, Bailey Western Star Trucks, A&A Performance, Tiger Towing, Quality Inns (Meridian), Coastline Towing, Praxair and Cr Metal Fabricators. We give our best wishes to our buddy Darren Yates, former driver and owner of the 91 machine, who has some back issues that took him to hospital on Saturday. He is out and recovering at home but needs some rest time and maybe some surgery. We are thinking of you Darren and hope you can slow down a bit and deal with this medical issue. Serious stuff my friend, get better. All of the 91 team are behind you on this. We look forward to seeing you healthy in the near future.

Back home and rested after a hectic weekend at Meridian. Saturday night? Not much to say really. We started with an ill handling race car, struggled in qualifying, ending up 8th. Changes were made and the heat race was uneventful but not much forward progress after throwing a big change in the setup. For the main the car was dialled back a bit and Scott was on the move on a long stretch of green flag racing. Then with 4 to go, having moved up from 10th to 5th, he got s...pun and that was that. Finished 14th and not a happy driver or crew. Luckily the car is not damaged. But we made a lot of progress and Scotty showed he still has the touch. As always Meridian Speedway is a great place to race, with excellent facilities, management and fans. 23 cars both nights. A big crowd, too many classes of cars and a very congested pit area, but still a fun place to race. It was an interesting start to our season. We hope for a better result at our home track. We thank Scott, Kenny, Danny, Brad and Bray for their effort over the 2 days. We will be ready for the Strawberry Cup in 11 days and hope to see you all at Western Speedway.