After a tough year of bad weather and mixed results at Kalamazoo Speedway, we decided to try one more race to finish out our 2009 racing season. Last Saturday we traveled to O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana to try a totally new setup in our #96 McDonald’s, Exteriors of Kalamazoo, Biddergy.com, Big C Lumber modified. Boy, were we glad that we went. A broken distributor part hampered our practice and qualifying efforts, leaving us 9th in qualifying. We were able to get things fixed prior to our heat race where we started 3rd. When the green flag flew, we stumbled on the start and fell back to 4th by the time we reached turn one. Things got better quick as we began to work the bottom of the track and began moving back through the field. The car worked in both the high groove and low groove, and we were able to pick up the win in the six-lap race.
Things were even better in the thirty-lap feature race. Because our qualifying effort was not our best, we started in 9th position for the race. Our car was running on a rail as we were able to make passes in both the bottom and top grooves of the track. With the laps winding down, we were in 3rd and were the fastest car on the track. We were running both fast qualifier Mike Carroll, and the leader Herb Johnson, down, and needed a caution flag to make up the distance to take the win. The caution flag never flew throughout the race and we ended up with a solid 3rd place run. We learned a lot in the race about our new setup and even think we can make it a little better before next years “Night Before the 500” race at the track, where we should be a strong contender.
Saturday night marked our fourth heat race win of the year, three of which came at different tracks. 2009 was a growing year for Frazier Racing. The year began with a big move. My family and I moved into a new home which also became the new home of our team’s race shop. We did a lot of work to make the race shop a very functional facility, and knew when we began that the time spent working on the race shop would not leave as much time to work on the cars at the start of the year. However, we were confident that when the dust cleared we would be far better off for the future.
A car destroying crash just before mid season set us back some, but by mid season things were looking up. With assistance from good friend Harry Foote Jr. our crew was able to come up with a setup that started working for us at Kalamazoo Speedway. With a setup similar to the one we raced at ORP last weekend, we had a qualifying lap that was 0.15 seconds faster than any other we had ever run at Kalamazoo Speedway.
While all of this was going on, Nate Frazier was making great moves as a rookie in a senior division with his quarter midget. Nate finished 3rd in points in the Heavy Honda class with the Capital Quarter Midgets Association in Lansing, Michigan. Nate’s best finish of the year also came near the end of the season when he finished 2nd in a points race.
Crew members Chuck Williams, Delaneo Haskins, Harry Foote Jr., John Shipe, Charlie Opalewski, Mike Ames, Robert Prater, my wife Sam, and my son Nate all proved to be worth their weight in gold this season for several different reasons.
Even through these tough economic times we were able to maintain and even gain sponsors, where several of our competitors had a tough time with sponsorship in 2009. Our fans remained loyal throughout the year were a big part of why our team has a great relationship with our sponsors. At this moment work has already begun for the 2010 season and we hope to be able to announce our teams plans in the very near future.
See you at the races,
Dan Frazier #96
