Laughlin 2007
The 2007 SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge has been a long time coming for team Wisdom Racing. After the M.O.R.E. Freedom 250, the car got an entire rebuild and then some. The front end was redone, incorporating some shiny new Fox bypass shocks, the motor and transmission were rebuilt, and Scott had to do his best to determine the right tires for 2007 to be used with a car he is still pretty new to. Besides not getting the skid plate mounted up, everything seemed to be ready to go for Laughlin, except the motor. The motor simply did not have the pep it did during it's last two races. So Scott asked Ken Major of Major Performance if he would be able to look at it in Laughlin. Ken is not one to leave a customer hanging, so without a second thought, he agreed.
Thursday January 18, 2007:
Scott arrived just in time to register and suit up for the Leap. We had three good (although still underpowered) runs and he loaded it on the trailer to wait for Friday's contingency and pre-run.
Friday January 19, 2007:
Friday was contingency and pre-running. The weather wasn’t exactly cooperating and neither were our stickers. We eventually got it together though and a couple hours later after the usual tech socialism, Scott was off to the pre-run.
After making it around the track a couple times, Scott brought it back in and gave us the word. The “pre-run” was more of a pre-race, race. Full speed passes, rollovers and broken parts were a few of the things that could be seen on the track. It eventually got so bad, Sal came out telling people to slow down and that it “isn’t a race”. But even more worrisome for the team was the motor. It seemed to be running even worse then before, so all we could do was wait for Ken from Major Performance to take a look and see if he couldn’t pin the problem.
About an hour later Ken arrived and took a look at the motor.
After some trial and error, the issue was diagnosed and fixed. Although much
of the power was regained, it still wasn't right on target, but it was
the best it was going to get for the weekend.
Saturday January 20, 2007:
The team arrived at around 6:45, and moseyed around until about 7:30 when Scott went over to staging. At the start of the race, Scott beat his competitor off the line making him the first car on the road, which he would hold until Stan Potter caught him midway around lap 2. Scott tried to hang with him as best he could, but started falling back and a little later in the race fell back to 3rd on the road, being lead by Potter and now Noe. By the end of the race, Scott held onto 3rd on the road, but was 5th on corrected time, missing Cameron Steele for 4th by 4 seconds. A little discouraged the team packed the car and awaited Sundays race.
Sunday January 21, 2007:
Overnight Scott got very sick, and was unable to drive for Sunday. So at 5am Scott gave Frank Wagner of JFK Race Cars a call. He agreed to take the wheel.
During the race, Scott gave split times over the radio, and through skillful driving and motivation (and a little luck), we came out with a 3rd place finish, just 1 second ahead of a 4th place Tim Noe. We had a great time in Laughlin and are now in great position for the rest of the series. Thanks to all who helped out and see everyone in San Felipe.
Pictures can be viewed here.
