TireSmoke.org

XSLR Season 9 Race 5 Wild West Race Report

Wild West was built into the hillsides near Sparks, Nevada. Sadly it closed in 2020, though it live on in the digital universe!

This is the second time I've raced at this track with this league. I put in some practice, and I like this track, which showed up in the results as I qualified P2 out of 17 trucks. I won my heat race, and started the feature P2. On lap 1 T2 I went a little wide and slowed way down to recover my exit line. With 15 trucks behind this was a bad idea - and one of the guys directly behind hit me pretty good. As fate would have it that pushed me forward and that guy ended up getting sideways and caused a big pileup in that corner. No one was eliminated but it did open up a gap so I only had one truck close behind. Well I slowly pulled away for about 9 laps then I started making some minor mistakes and that guy was getting faster. As he was just about to make a pass he went a bit too far inside in T2 and got his RF up over the wall and got stuck there. We had a 6+ second gap back to P4 so I had decided I was going to let him go and not screw up a podium finish if he could make a move. From there I played just a bit conservative and finished P2. P1 was 8+ seconds ahead so there was no chance I was catching him.

Best two finishes so far have me up to P3 in points.

So far I don't like my chances to repeat that performance at Bark River this Sunday. Coverage starts at 8:10 PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3T_EdrbnXU

XSLR Season 9 Race 6 Bark River Race Report

Bark River is a fun track but its quite technical. After extensive practice I' still giving up well over a second a lap to the leaders. Still I qualified P5 of 12. I finished 3rd in the heat race which meant I had to go to consolation race to figure out starting position. I did start P1 there but I wrecked my race before turn 2. I was side by side with a guy at a small jump there halfway to T2 and you have to make a little left turn going into the jump. I didn't and ended up scrubbing the fence and the RF wheel went up over the fence which landed me in last place.

Starting from P12 I made quick work in lap one, passing 2 trucks before T2 and three more before the lap was over. From there I capitalized on a couple other incidents to get up to P5. One of those was pretty harrowing as I came over a jump only to find a truck sliding out into my path. I hit it pretty good but luckily these are rugged and I was able to continue. I was racing pretty close to P4 but a couple mistakes set me back just a bit too much. P5 was a decent result and it was a fun race so I'll just take that and move on.

Up next on Wednesday 4/3 is CCiS racing at Oulton Park with the Toyota GR86. The tack is in UK and its definitely an old school club track which is also fairly technical. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEF-CWK9pLg

CCiS 2025 Season Race 3 Oulton Park Race Report

https://www.youtube.com/live/AEF-CWK9pL ... U7VQ0e9Pxa

Qualified P18 of 38. Was a little shaky the first couple laps, and I overshot my pit stall, but still managed a P14 finish. Oddly with a P18 qualifying position I was given the first pit stall, which is very hard to get into on this track.

XSLR Season 9 Race 7 Atlanta Rallycross Race Report
https://www.youtube.com/live/1jv4OeiBYz ... L9fcyJYboY

Qualified P2 of 12. Made it through heats with a P4 start for the main. Got into an incident just before the hairpin and unfortunately ended up spun out. This cost me a spot or two and I finished P8.
Holding P4 in points

CCiS 2025 Season Race 4 Road Atlanta Race Report

https://www.youtube.com/live/ir00z4KV5j ... nGUOvngwKw

The car we ran for this race is the BMW M2, and we do not get along well at all. I’ve upgraded the paint scheme to flaming brown to represent how I feel about this car. CCiS league admins created a modified setup which was much better, and we used it during the practice race. Unfortunately due to clerical error they went back to the original setup – meaning I was practicing with the wrong setup!
Qualified P28 of 34, and ended up just over 1 lap down in P20. No major drama, just lacked pace.
Holding P13 in points. Currently no drop weeks in effect.

Spec 5 Season 17 Mid Ohio Race Report

https://www.youtube.com/live/mS5AEWS7vP ... N4hug7uUKk

Qualified P16 out of 26. Open class leader was not present. Open class P2 started in the back and was not a factor. Open class P3 got caught up in someone else’s mess. Was able to hang with a group with decent pace and dodge several incidents and work my way to the lead of open class. Unfortunately the class leader ended up spinning in front of me headed into Thunder Valley and I was not able to avoid that. Had to take a second stop for fast repair and ended up P20. I’m not in the points chase since I’m not running the full season. So disappointing the stars were lining up for a chance to finally win a race in this league which sadly ended with the crash.

Up next
Sunday 4/27 8:10 PM is XSLR racing Pro 4 trucks at Crandon. This will be the last race on dirt for the season, and its completion will be the 1/2 way point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od--j7ngnqo

Spec 5 Season 17 Mosport Race Report

Kinda last minute decision to do this race. Race video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qacit44mmPA

Total of 24 cars took the green flag. I qualified P17 just a couple tenths off my personal best at this track. I like Mosport it has a lot of high speed turns and only one hard braking zone so it reminds me a bit of Nelson Ledges that way.

Race was pretty clean and while I lost just a little at the start, I was fairly quickly back to my starting position and in draft with a large pack of cars for a while. Unfortunately I missed Moss Corner a bit one lap and dropped about 5 positions. A couple tiny mistakes later and I was out of the draft of the cars ahead. After the pit sequence I was the second last car running. A couple mishaps ahead and one legit on track pass and I ended up P19. Had about a 6 lap battle to gain P19 – first I had to get to racing the guy ahead so he would fall out of draft of the cars ahead of him, then I used the draft on the back straight to get alongside and race through the last sequence of corners. In the end I was under 30 seconds behind the leader after 45 minutes. Insane that I finished that close to leaders and that far back in the pack.