Factory Five Nationals @ VIR

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After the disappointing season we've had to date, we were looking forward to the Factory Five Nationals being held on our home turf at Virginia International Raceway (VIR) for the Cobra. With nothing to lose, we brought a new suspension, brake, and tire setup. The real question would be how much we could improve in such a short period of time. Making it more fun was buddy Steve Marcus' addition with three pro drivers – all nice guys and very fast. A top 10 finish would be ok and a top 5 would be great.

Elam leads McIver, Riha, and Dobyns through turn 3

Friday's practice was methodical with us working on the changes and doing our best to learn the car. We weren't too worried about lap times at that point. Qualifying was Saturday morning and we felt like the run was ok until we saw that we had only qualified in 9^th place. The Saturday exhibition race inverted the field so we started way back, but a nice start up the middle had Dan working on the leaders and took over the lead a few laps into the race.

Unfortunately, Dan pulled a dumb move when – while leading the race – he put the car into first gear instead of third. The result was a spin that did some damage to the car that Donny Edwards was driving. Some suspension problems resulted in another spin later and Dan was content to bring the car back. Fellow competitors Jim Schenck and Gordon Levy found a key problem that was causing the suspension to bind and Levy's crew chief was kind enough to perform some welding at the track for us. (The FFR community is incredibly wonderful!)

Sunday's race was the one that counted. When the race started Dan did not get a great start, but managed to get past one of the pro drivers before having to give back the position. From there he was supposed to run with regional teammate Brian Cates to get some daylight, but Dan was being pressed constantly and had to run some defensive (slower) laps until he was able to finally get some daylight. By then there was a gap up to Rob Mau, but Dan was sitting in 5^th place. Quite an accomplishment

One car had worked his way up the field and nearly overtook Dan on the long VIR backstretch, but Dan held on into the top of “rollercoaster” and began the entry into “hogpen” knowing that he'd likely lose the position to the more powerful car. Unfortunately, the two cars came into contact at the same place where Bobbie had been wrecked a few weeks earlier. Dan was spun around and ended up in multiple collisions.

The car suffered some pretty serious damage, but once again the car held up very well and all Dan ended up with a slightly sore knuckle. This may end the 2004 season, but we got back to work on Monday repairing the car. Once the car is together, we'll see what our racing future holds.