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AT THE HALF WAY POINT…

After four races, Tatro Racing Team is still looking for the right stuff.  “We survived a very rough night” Tatro said. The team started off with the third best time of the evening. “We just have not figured this new set up out yet, and having a tire that grew over an inch and a half bigger than it should of, did not help”.  Even with that, the team searched for several possibilities to solve the problem.  “It wasn’t that we wanted to solve the entire world’s problems here, we just wanted to make the car stable, and the car was not overly stable with almost nine inches of stagger”. The team asked a few 410 teams that run the splined wheels, but it appeared that those that had extras were not extra friendly about letting us borrow a left rear that would allow us to swell the left rear up.  That’s okay though, we have a long memory.  I suppose that we are just used to the 360 teams all working together to help one another out.  Even though Tuey is one of our biggest competitors, they still are there if something is needed.

The dash was the next event, and that was testing with all the extra stagger. Dave was very aggressive and we felt he had the better handling car, but we had the better position and held it for the win. It was the first race that “super model” Chloë was pictured in the winning photo.  In additions, Danny Durango was pictured as well.

The heat….what the heck? Let me see, my first thought was I would follow Kyle Vanderpool through the corner and get us set up for a battle between me and the hard charging rookie. That started to happen, when Willie something something, and Dave center punched Willie because of that.  Willie crossed the track and hit Kyle, I then gave Vanderpool an unintentional  reminder that I was following him. Then somehow Kenny Kinchen got bent, and I came out of the mess in a good position. Oops… restart. Here we go again… and this time I moved to try and clear Kinchen, and restart. Then I fought to reclear Kinchen and was not able to because Tuey, in trying to clear us all, took away the room that I needed to move to clear him. In all, that was fair I did the same when Dave tried to clear Willie.  He opened up the bottom and I cleared them both. With nine inches of stagger, I should have been able to run the bottom all night! We finished a disappointing 4^th but 2^nd-4^th you could through a tarp over. Mean while Kyle was in cruise control to take his first heat race win.

Because we felt that this stagger would play to hinder us from lap 15-50 in the main event, we decided to put an old marked tire on and reduce the stagger. We were told, despite the rule indicated other wise that we would have to forfeit the front row and go to the back of the pack if we changed tires. Now here is were I have a problem, the rules clearly state that you can only run two new tires. We originally thought about that and decided that if we put last race’s tire on we would not have to forfeit the outside pole. Apparently with all my education (which is extensive) and my 40 years in racing I am stupid when it comes to interpreting the rules. Nevertheless, Ken said that if we could get everyone to agree, then we would start in the front (and abide by what the rules state, instead of some interpretation that was completely different). Before we could clear five feet, one team already stated they agreed with Ken. Everyone else we talked to agreed with interpreting the rules the way they were written. But I hate complaining, excuses, and crying, so I didn’t.  So, I licked my wounds and when to the back.  

The race was going okay, we have quickly moved to third and just could not find the grip to move up any more.  Lap 36, found us in the wall, thanks to AJ Russell wanting to make sure that we were still friends. Actually, AJ blew a line off the motor and slid in his own oil, and I was the victim.  Fortunately, the red flag did two things for us, first it allowed my tire to cycle and cure, and it allowed us to change the destroyed left rear wheel. After the restart, spotter Kevin Tatro was on the horn trying to keep my cool which was blown by having to go to the back…I am still pissed. “You’re picking up the pace and your lap times are decreasing significantly (that’s the kind of feedback you get from a kid with 158 IQ)” I replied, “You mean I am catching the field?” “Yes, that is what I said.”  And with every lap we gained grip and positions.  I cleared Jackson, Vanderpool, and Northhammer.  Now back in third, the encouragement still came in from Kev. “Come on! Are your going to let Kinchen drive it in deeper than you?” I am not sure if that was encouragement or a challenge, just to make sure, I drove it in 2 car length deeper.  “That was nothing, you can do this!” So I drove it in deeper and found myself on the heels of Kinchen. Already coming up this far in 8 laps, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Then the radio scratched “Great, a million dollar race and your going to give it a fifty cent finish?” Seriously?  So I looked to see where Kenny was running (down low) and drove it around the outside of him. On exit, I am not sure if KK did not see me, or his spotter told him to move up on me, but I was there… Up against the wall and with Kenny scrubbing the inside of my tires.  As I contemplated whether to back off or attempt to not wreck, the radio scratched… (Oh hell, now what?)… “Troy would do it!”  ‘Troy doesn’t have to pay for his car!”  By the time the conversation was over I was through it. Okay, now in second place, lap 49, Who else but Troy? Trying to chase down Burgess, hits the trigger with me on the outside, and moves me up against the wall.  With my wheels grinding the white exterior walls, and grinding his outside wheels… the radio scratched.. (Oh my God!....Now what?) “if you let off… KK is going to pass you! If you don’t, you may not come out of this twice! I say… roll the dice” and as a result, we finished second and left a 75 foot black mark down the front wall.  I know that we did not win the race, but you would have never thought that. The team continues to fight through a lot of adversity. They continue to succeed despite the continuous 2^nd place finishes.  “We are making progress, we don’t have Grant setting up the car, and we don’t have a full time set up guy” So I believe that finishing 2^nd with 8 ¾ inches of stagger, we did pretty well. 

I talked to a disappointed Kyle Vanderpool who lost his power steering and finished I believe 4^th or 5^th.  He said the car was great earlier in the day, and at the start of the race, but with no power steering it became very difficult to hang on. I told Kyle that we never learn to drive an ill car if our car is always great. You may not feel that you got anything out of this race because of the finish, but in reality, you probably learned more this race than all the others combine.  I let him know, this is only a bad race if you did not learn from it, and I told him, we tend to learn more from our failures than our successes. He agreed.

Jason called after the race to tell me good job, he also told me to tell everyone that inquires that he is doing well.  He should be home at the end of July, and in time to attend his children’s birthdays.  He also met up with one of my best buddies from the Navy, F18 super-pilot Mike Elrod.  Half way around the world, both from Fresno-Madera, they run into each other at the air base in Afghanistan. Small World.

Tatro Racing wants to send our support and prayers to those that, like us, have someone in the military.  We all are so proud of the men and women that do what they do to give us the chance to do what we do.

Jason and my buddy Mike (Army and Navy resp.)



Below is a picture from half way around the world...  Jason is front center/right in the picture.

Below Jason said that he has an interpreter so that we can figure out what Justin Tuey is saying!

 

 Outside of Kabul...



Another two for all the Stephamaniacs on Jackson's Crew!

   She's got the look!


Super Model (and Super Daughter) Chloë