It's been two weeks without racing and everyone is seemingly antsy to get some dirt on their shoes... and tires. We are grateful not to have had much to change or anything to fix after last race. All adjustments were made and we were ready to run on the 24th. With the rain-out and no racing for Apple Blossom everyone is revved up for the 8th. We never fully realize the addiction until we can't have it. It is going to be interesting to see what Saturday night brings and how the new setup runs. Hope there is a good field and fan turnout.

We were feeling good at the beginning of the heat on the 17th but it was short lived. We knew what RPM the car was capable of running and it wasn't happening. We quickly realized the car wasn't sticking and wouldn't hook up out of the corners. After the engine had died on the backstretch we figured all hope was lost. A glimmer returned when Cracker found a line that seemed to suffice around lap 10. There just weren't enough laps left to pull a sixth place finish but we'll take what we can get. Seventh is better than eighth. Now it's back to the garage to configure a new setup.

The 46 car has yet to make its appearance due to multiple setbacks and a handful of technical difficulties.  After getting a few necessary engine parts and the correct clutch, we are nearly ready to ride.  Friday night (Saturday morning) 1 a.m. and ready to fire the engine for the final tuning.  Power on, fuel on and a few flicks of the throttle.  We are go for fire! Push the ignition button and a sound comparable to shot glasses in a blender arises from the starter.  Skunked again.  With no parts stores open and only twelve hours from load time, we knew we weren't running for a second consecutive race. 
We watched Saturday night and everyone is itching to get back in the pits and on the track.  We are hopeful to do well this season with multiple replaced parts and the jetting problem solved.
The changes in the track seem to make for some interesting changes in the grooves being run.  We are all looking forward to being out Saturday night, and with some practice laps and a little luck, we are confident the 46 car will find a good line.



*Special thanks to Brett Rose and the always loyal 46&2 Crew.

First and foremost, the crew here at 46and2 Racing would like to extend our most heartfelt condolences to the Rose family.  Our thoughts are with you in this time of loss and sorrow.  

We've had an interesting couple of weeks here at 46and2 Racing.  The rain canceled race two weeks ago really helped us make a successful engine swap over to the 46E and make the necessary adjustments to get that car ready to go.  We went to the track with high hopes last week, thinking the change in cars might be just what we needed to finish higher than 16th for once.  The car was a little off, though.  The exhaust fell off the header again and for some reason, oil leaked from the dipstick.  We managed to hang on for 17th place, our fourth 17th place finish of the season.

Our successes or failures were completely forgotten, though, when we saw the car of our good friend Keith Bass climb the dirt ramp at the entrance of turn one, go airborne, and shear off the light post after the checkered flag fell on the first Twin 10.  I'm not sure any of us really know what happened, but everyone involved was extremely lucky.  There was about 10 feet of chainlink fence and electric cable wrapped around the driveshaft when the car was towed into the pits.  The inside of the car was littered with glass and chunks of wood from the light pole.  Keith made it through the ordeal without a scratch and is working on getting his car fixed to make a return trip to the track.  

We made some minor adjustments on the car to get ready for this week's two-feature night.  We were excited to welcome Keighley, Levi, and Jeff back to the pit for the first time this season, and Ethan for the first time since his driving debut at the beginning of the season.  

At the end of the second Twin 10, we discovered that the engine had puked oil at the dipstick again and that the radiator hose had been sliced by the cam pulley.   We finished 12th even though we were sliding around the track in our own oil and the engine was missing.  Some quick repairs and borrowed oil from the #20 four cylinder team of Richard Hawkins had us ready for the heat race to qualify for the night's feature.

We finished 6th in our heat, landing us a 10th place start in the feature.  We had an oil fire through the entire race and the car overheated a bit, but Graham drove the car to an 11th place finish for our best of the season.  The car was probably the strongest Graham has had to work with all season, and it seems like we may have finally found some of that speed we've been looking for on the start.  We've got high hopes for some even better finishes the rest of the season.

We'd like to thank Richard Hawkins for the oil and Keighley, Levi, Jeff, and Ethan for all of their help this week.

Well, it looks like we're back to the drawing board all over again.  On lap five of the feature, we were forced into the outside wall by the 5 car, and the broken car slammed into the inside wall, before coming to a stop.  Thanks to some quick "body work" and a tire change by the crew, we did manage to finish the feature, minus the nose of the car, in fifteenth, for our best of the season.  We lost another right front tire, bent the motor mounts, destroyed the bumper, the nose is no longer usable, the hood is crumpled, and the hood pins are bent, so we'll be switching over to the 46 E until someone destroys that one, too.  Once again, many thanks to Brett, Keith, and Devon, and welcome back, Matt.

  Well, we had our first DNF of the season this week.  We drew a 17 in the pill draw, landing us the pole in the first heat, and finished sixth.  We started tenth in the feature and were holding onto eleventh until bad luck struck again.  Just a few laps into the feature, a car was stopped between one and two, we went low instead of high to get around it and nudged it with the right front.  A piece of metal bracing from the center of our stock radiator wrapped around the front of the fan and punctured the radiator.  So we had to park the car and watch the rest of the feature from the trailer.  On the upside, though, this is one of three weeks without a flat right front tire.
     We've spent a lot of time in the garage the last couple of weeks.  There was an unexpected head change because of a broken lifter boss and a carburetor change because so much fuel was shooting through the vent that it looked like Old Faithful.  We changed the transmission and rear end gear yet again, trying for that perfect gear ratio.  A lot of work has also been done to try and get the handling fixed.  We changed rotors and brake pads before last week, and one of those new brake pads was the key factor in our flat right front in warm-ups last week.  One of the clips came off the back of the front pad, the pad fell off and the tire was punctured.  Many thanks to Devon and Keith for running out to get the parts to get the brakes fixed for the heat race.  For this week, we changed the steering rack and did some more brake work.  We worked on the toe, but will probably have to fix that again after our little on-track incident.  We put the car back on scales and tried to work on the weight distribution as well.  The handling still isn't quite right, and we're looking for a little more power on the start and coming out of the corner, but we'll get that radiator changed and be back at the track next week.  Once again, we want to extend many thanks to Jay, Brett, and Keith for all of their help in the garage and at the track.

     46and2 Racing's first season as a fully operational two-car team began opening weekend of the 2008 season at Winchester Speedway.  The 46E car made its debut with Ethan Smith at the wheel by melting a clutch and destroying a bellhousing and flywheel on his first ever warm-up lap at the track.  The team had high hopes for Ethan's second attempt at warm-up laps on week two, only to have them go up in a puff of smoke- literally.  After about five laps, the 46E had to be parked with a golf ball-sized hole in the block.
     The 46 car returned in its original incarnation this season to be plagued by electrical problems and carburetor troubles for the first four weeks of racing.  The team has had their tire changing abilities tested two of the four weeks and our spare tire count is dwindling.  Graham has made all four features and has had finishes of 21, 17, 17, and 16, respectively.  After four weeks of racing, Graham is listed as 19th in points.
     46and2 Racing has been very fortunate so far this season to have the help of Brett Rose, Keith Bass, and Jay Drummond both in the pits and back at the garage.

The first night of our first Winchester 200 kind of left us wondering what all the fuss was about.  When only 18 4 cylinders showed up to qualify on Friday evening, we were left scratching our heads wondering where everyone was; a lot of the regulars were missing ( Keister, Moreland, Sturtz, Hoffman, Gageby, etc.,etc.).  We ended up finishing sixth in the heat, earning an eleventh place starting position.  We had no way of knowing that Saturday night's A-main would hand us just about all the excitement we could handle.  Coming out of turn two on the first lap, we were collected in a five car pile up that ripped open the right hand side of the car, flattened a tire and sheared the hub off the steering wheel.  Thanks to a quick tire change by Keith Bass and the crew and a borrowed steering wheel, we were able to return to the race.  A few laps later we got tangled up with the 15M to bring out the fifth caution.  The caution landed us in the back of the pack, which now consisted of only 8 cars due mostly to attrition.  By lap 25, we climbed to sixth for our best finish of the season, dragging sheet metal the whole way.  We've got a lot of work ahead of us to get ready for the Virginia Nationals; our brand new bumper got sheared off at the welds, there are a lot of dents to pound out and a lot of rivets to replace, but we're hopeful.   The 46and2 race team extends a big THANK YOU to Keith Bass and the number 6 "Shady Grove Barn Burners" pure stock team.