4/1/2014
Joshua Hodges
Win at Motiva Speedway and 2014 Early Season Recap
The start of this 2014 season for us at Hodges Motorsports has been a pretty good one and it got even better this past Saturday night when we were able to get the first win of the year at Motiva Speedway with the NMMRA non-wing sprint cars in Albuquerque. 7 of the 8 races we’ve ran this year have been without the wing and we’ve been able to finish in the top 10 in every one of them (the other race was with the World of Outlaws in Tucson where we missed the feature by one spot). We’ve also been in the top 5 on 4 different occasions, one of them being this recent victory. Although we didn’t win, I’d say our best run of the year came on January 31st at the Winter Challenge when I was able to battle with Dave Darland for the win; without a few mistakes on my part, I think we could’ve won that one, too.
I think that, while we still have some improvements we can make on the car and behind the wheel, our non-wing program has gotten tremendously better at the start of this year. I have to give a lot of that credit to Chad Boespflug and Gary Taylor who both stepped in the car at the end of last year and got us pointed in the right direction. I also have to thank Derrik Ortega for coming with us to Western World and giving us his input, as well. At the start of this season, we were also fortunate enough to work with Cal and David Landis who were phenomenal help on the car and knowledgeable, giving us some new perspectives. My family has also been outstanding, as always, putting in the hours to keep things clean and work on the racecar, especially when I’m gone during the week at school. I’m hoping for some more success this year in the non-wing car and I also think we have some good things to try on the wing car with the 360 and the 410 after receiving some good pointers from Maxim Racing.
Motiva Speedway Recap:
I started the night drawing pill #4 which put me on the pole of the 3rd heat race. The track was still pretty wet in hot laps and I couldn’t get a good read on the car so we kind of headed into the heat race blind. The track was pretty slick by that time with a strip of moisture around the bottom about a car width wide. I was able to get the jump on the start but after a few laps I slipped to second when I started missing the bottom on entry. I was a bit too tight for the moisture but too loose for the slick and I figured out that I just needed to slow the car down a bit more on entry. On a restart with a few laps to go, I was able to reclaim the lead and take the heat race win. That was enough to get me in the top 8 redraw where I drew #2 to start outside the front row for the A-feature.
The track narrowed a bit more where there was only a half-car width of moisture for the start of the main and it was a bad place to be starting on the outside. I slipped to 3rd on the first lap but on lap two I was able to advance to second. A few more laps in, I was able to catch and sneak by the leader, Austin Mansfield, when he left an opening on the bottom. After that, us two were able to distance ourselves from the rest of the field until a caution somewhere around lap 10. My car had great forward bite but I was struggling getting it slowed down enough to hit the bottom at each corner and the track was also rough. I would lose the front end quite often on corner exit and that hurt me through the middle of the race. After a lot of mid-race cautions we got back going and I got some pressure for Don Grable who charged from the B main to second. At that point, I just concentrated on hitting the bottom on entry of the corners and making it a drag race at both straightaways and I actually started pulling away again at that point. At the end of 25 laps, I was able to take the checkered flag and it felt good to get a win after a while.
I got to say thanks to Mesilla Valley Transportation, Parts Plus, Ortega's Appliance, Maxim Racing, KN Filters, ButlerBuilt, Wilwood Brakes, FK Rod Ends, Art's Radiator, Ostrich Racing Engines, Jackson Compaction, Hinchman Racewear, The Oil Medics, Keizer Wheels, Smiley's Racing, Conroy Pneu Control, HotHead Heaters, and everybody that has supported us. I’m looking forward to the rest of this year!
Submitted By: Jack Hodges
