E D O M O T O R S P O R T S
Race Report: Willow Springs International Raceway, May 2005

Coming into the first event at Willow Springs International Raceway of the 2006 season, we had set our eyes on the track record which was set back in 2003 by Ryan Flaherty with a 1:35.397. We were aimed to go faster than that and increase our track records list. But one thing against us was that on occasion the transmission would pop out of 4^th gear. This started at Buttonwillow and we hoped that it would last one more weekend.

Saturday:

Edik set the pace in the practice session with a 1:35.692. In the qualifying session he set the fastest time and took pole with Jeremy in 2^nd place, Sam R. in 3^rd, Stan in 4^th and John H. in 5^th place. Even though Edik qualified 1^st , the tranny problem was getting worst each time out. We tried using a bungee cord to try to hold the shifter from coming out 4^th gear. The race started out with Edik holding the lead for several laps with Jeremy right on his tail. Edik was struggling, as the tranny did not want to cooperate and started to come out of 3^rd gear as well while going through turns at over 90MPH. That caused the car to go unstable which forced Edik to countersteer many times through almost every turn to save the car from going off. Sometimes 4^th gear wouldn’t engage until the 2^nd or 3^rd try. Throughout most of the race he had to hold the shifter in place with one hand and steer with the other so that he can stay in 1^st place. After having a big slide in turn one, Jeremy was able to pass Edik to gain the lead. Edik was not able to catch up to he settled for second place with Jeremy taking the win. Sam R. was able to fight off Stan, Benny and Ryan to take third place. Jeremy had the fastest lap of the race with a 1:35.470 and Edik less a tenth off with a 1:35.549.

Since we were not able to continue with the same transmission the next day, we packed up and headed home. Of course, we did not give up. We had a spare transmission with no LSD and stock Final Drive. We spent the rest of the day changing the transmission to be able to race the next day and collect point for the championship.

Sunday:

We got the track and unpacked and set up our pit area again. Edik went out to practice to get a feel for the tranny. He was not able to go flat out through most of the turns but still drove to another great lap, 1:35.675. Edik was outqualified by Jeremy by 2 tenths of a second with Benny in 3^rd. In the race, Edik stayed right behind Jeremy even going through a lot of traffic. He was not able to get out of the corners fast due to the lack of LSD and therefore did not have a good chance to pass Jeremy. Edik had a minor off which left him with a lot of grass on the front of the car. The grass blocked all the air flowing to the radiator and engine. This caused the water and oil temperatures to go up a lot. Edik slowed down to save the motor, but was still able to finish in second place with Benny in 3^rd and Jeremy taking his second straight win.

The weekend did not go as planned, but Edik was still able to collect two 2^nd place finishes. The consecutive wins by Jeremy brought him 20 points closer and only 5 points behind Edik for first place in the championship. We will get everything together and be out for the next race at Buttonwillow on June 10, 11, see you there.

I'd like to thank our sponsors for helping us get out to the race track.
http://edomoto.com/sponsors.html

results are up here: http://mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=130690

rest of the pics are here: http://edomoto.com/images.html