Get Well Soon, Craig!

Former SBS pilot and current Supermodified competitor Craig "Hollywood" Rayvals was seriously injured in an accident during the ISMA show at Lee Speedway in New Hampshire last night.

According to reports, it appears as if the throttle stuck, and Craig had a vicious hit into the wall by the pit exit, going up and over the wall.

Craig suffered a badly broken leg, broken shoulder blade and bruised ribs. He will be returning to Canada very soon for possible surgery.

We on the #68 crew wish Craig a speedy recovery from his injuries, and that he will be in our thoughts and prayers during this time.

A Very Busy Week

After another top 10 finish last Saturday night in the Mr. SBS race at Oswego, things got even busier for the race team.
On Thursday the SBS division, running under the NORA banner participated in the inaugural Kasey Kahne Steel Palace Classic at Oswego Speedway. By the luck of the draw, Shawn started 5th in his heat race, and finished 3rd. After the redraw for the top 12 starting positions for the 30 lap feature, Shawn sat 7th on the grid. Running in the top 5, on lap 14 Shawn pulled the 68 into the pits with a broken spool in the rear end, finishing 20th, shortcircuiting what was shaping up to be a very nice run.

Friday, the crew became "shade tree mechanics" (minus the shade trees as there are none in Shawn's yard)....the rear end was torn apart, parts replaced and put back together. The flywheel was also found to be warped, so after a trip to Fulton and almost an hour of trying to find the EXACT part needed, back to Oswego and putting the new flywheel on the car. Also replaced the starter (for like the 3rd time this past week)...but with the new flywheel, the car started right up without an issue (or clunking, tin-type pings and bangs coming from it)! The car got loaded in the hauler around 5pm, ready to go racing on Saturday....7 days, 3 races for the SBS teams!

Yesterday was a day of anticipation for the crew. Was the rear end going to work? How about the starter? Shawn put 4 new tires on the car, and went out for the first practice session. After 6 laps he came in, said that he was happy and parked the car for the rest of the practice session. That in itself was promising, indeed. However, the crew had a dilemma...what to do with all the "down time" until the heat races...this is something we are definitely NOT familiar with, and we took some good-natured ribbing from Kevin Knopp and his crew about being "unemployed", etc. It was fun, though, as everyone took off and wandered around the pit area, checking out the supers and the drag cars that were there for an exhibition from ESTA Drag Park.

With the heat race lineups posted, we found we were starting outside pole for the first heat. After finishing 3rd and collecting our handicap starting position for the feature, the tire covers went back on, the car was fueled and that was it until the feature.

Feature time brought us a 4th place starting spot and the hope for another good finish. That all ended on lap 6 however, when the car just in front of Shawn (running 6th at the time) lost it going into turn 3, collecting a number of cars behind him, including the 68 and Kevin Knopp's 04 who was running just behind us in 7th. A broken upper A-arm put us out of the show for the night, and a disappointing 17th place finish in the feature out of the 22 that started.

The good thing is that the car showed real promise, and now its time to look forward to next Saturday to see if we can continue to make progress on the setup of the car.