1/1/2011
Joshua Hodges
Hodges Motorsports Update - USA Raceway
Day 1 of the New Year and the Roger McCluskey Classic is over here at the USA Raceway in Tucson, AZ. We kicked off the night starting from 4th in the our heat race, and finished 3rd on the fast, wide-open track. Next up were the qualifiers, and I started on the outside of the front row for that. I got a good run around the outside and opened up a straightaway lead in the first 7 laps before a caution came out. It was a green white checkerd after that, but a red came out. We tried it again, but there was another red just before I got past the line. It turned out the third time was the charm, and I got the qualifier win. That set us up to start 3rd in the A feature. We made some changes, because the track had gotten extremely slick all the way around, except for turn 1. On the initial start, I got a good run and jumped into second place into turn 1, but it was called back. The second start was not as good, and I fell back to fourth. Within a few laps, I got back to third, before a lap 9 yellow. After the caution, the car came alive, and I gained ground on Johnny Herrera in second before he moved his line. Soon after another caution came out with just about 5 or so laps to go. After that, the car was not the same, and it got evil tight on the right rear. When I came in, I found that we cut the right rear down, and the tire pressure was only at 2 psi. I fell back to 4th, just hanging on. It was a good run, especially because we got to load it in the trailer (at least 5 cars turned over in ruts or by hitting tires). We're back at it tomorrow, another day show, and we hope to improve
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