It was a Bitter Sweet feeling for Martin Motorsports at Colorado National Speedway August 19. CNS is what every racetrack should strive to be like.
A bad race effort at CNS is still more amazing than great weekends at other race tracks across the west coast. The amount of fans and support for the teams is 2nd to none and the management is always a pleasure. Competitive racing and then there is the weather.... Unexpected and inconsistent.
Friday practice brought cool temperatures and overcast skies as the track was very fast. Martin decided to load early as his team was happy with the lap times and the rain was on its way. Saturday proved to be a different day for everyone as it rained all night and cleaned the track of all its rubber. Teams fought for speed all afternoon trying to compare from the night before.
For the second time this season, a combination race brought 36 of the best teams from the Midwest and Southwest Series to compete against one another.
Qualifying was tight as Martin ended with a strong 3rd place effort overall with a time of 16.203. Tim Schendel claimed his second "Bud Pole" of the season with quick time at 16.177. A 6 invert placed David Mayhew and Rip Michels on the front row to lead the field to the green flag.
The start of the "United Power/ Touchtone Energy 150" took off with Michels jumping into the lead for the first 8 laps before Carlson got to the inside, which led Michels to slide back to 7th before he could get back into line.
The first 60 laps passed by pretty uneventful as Martin had moved into a very comfortable 4th place, lying back watching Holmes and Schendel race each other. By lap 70, the top 5 drivers were in heavy lap traffic as Martin was passing the traffic on the low side when his race machine started to fall on its face coming off the corners. As Martin was exiting turn 4, his Carburetor caused his #28 machine to loose power with the #11 of Richardson on the high side. Muhler in the #95 running 5th had no place to go and got into the back of the Martin causing him to spin through the front stretch infield before he got his car fired back up and on its way still remaining on the lead lap. The lap 77 caution closed the field back up with Muhler's great run coming to an end with a wreck in the turn 3 wall. The green flew on lap 82 and Martin had to stay on the high side for his car to run trouble free. By lap 95, Martin had worked his way back into the top 10 overall in 9th position just patiently waiting for opportunities to make all his moves on the outsides. Dan Fredrickson brought out the lap 95 Caution as he decided driving through a lapped car was the best way to pass around CNS.
This caused a major bunch up as the field tried to avoid the spinning lapper coming out of turn two. Martin slowed but the #11 of Richardson wasn't able to, and he got into the back of Martin's Machine spinning it around causing damage to the rearend and body. Martin's crew was able to reconstruct enough of the damage to get Martin back on the track for the final 15 laps and they gained one more position and a 13th place finish in the Southwest portion of the event.
After the race Martin had this to say. "All weekend we had this car dialed in. I can't ask for anything better to drive the past few weeks! Luck bit us this weekend but it can't take away how strong this entire team has been this season. I'm just ready to get this car put back together and try to put Martin Motorsports, Strictly Toy-Ondas and Rockett Race Fuel in Victory Lane at the last points race ever for the Southwest Series at Altamont Raceway Park. "
The next and final points event for the Southwest Series is September 23rd at Altamont Raceway Park in Tracy, CA. That event will mark the end of the 20 year old Southwest Series. Although the series is scheduled for one more event at Phoenix International Raceway in November following the Toyota All Star Showdown, it is not a points race.
