Post Race Update #11 July 25th & 27th 2019 A rare Thursday night show saw Billy and the #86 team head to Jukasa Motor Speedway for Round 6 of the APC United Late Model Series featuring NASCAR star and fan favourite Kenny Wallace who would be piloting the #22 normally driven by pro late model veteran Jamie Cox. Billy would be joined by Samantha with her #81 mini stock as she took part in the first ever 35-lap Mini Stock Invitational at the track before heading back up to Sunset Speedway on Saturday for a regular night of racing. Jukasa Motor Speedway: Billy and Samantha arrived at the track under sunny skies and very hot temperatures packing plenty of Nestlé Waters water on ice provided by Northern Ice. Samantha’s #81 mini stock was loose during her practice sessions but minor adjustments were made and she picked up some speed to ultimately qualify 3rd in her qualifying group before getting bumped back to the 8th position after the final group completed their qualifying runs. The #86 pro late model was lacking forward grip over the course of practice and although the team did get the car feeling comfortable for Billy, they continued to make adjustments in order to find that little extra bit of speed that was very hard to find at the large 5/8 mile track. Billy lined up for his group qualifying session and although he would come in 2nd quickest, he would be bumped back to the 12th place starting position out of the 36 cars in attendance by the time qualifying was completed. Samantha lined up on the outside of row 4 for her 35-lap feature and though she would move up into 7th after the first lap, she would fall back into 8th on lap 3. Running 8th for the first half of the race, Samantha started her move forward moving into 7th just past the halfway mark before taking over the 6th position with just seven laps remaining and then into the top-5 and 5th just one lap later. With three laps to go, Samantha made her move to get by the #51 of Eric Yorke to move into 4th where she would finish as the race ran caution free. Rolling off from the 12th starting position, Billy utilized the outside lane to make his way into 11th on lap 3 by passing the #21 of Matt Pritiko as the #54 of pole sitter Danny Benedict and the #83 of Dale Shaw pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 9 Billy moved into the top-10 passing the #29 of Ryan Kimball for the 10th position before the caution came out on lap 11 for the #47 of Jordan Sims who blew a motor. During the long red flag to clean up all of the oil around the track from the blown motor of the #47, Billy came on the radio to report that the temperature of the motor was getting extremely hot and it was not responding to the radiator fan that would normally bring the temperature back down. Since there wasn’t any water coming out of the overflow and because the temperature gauge itself was bouncing around, the team figured that it may have just been in issue with the gauge itself as the motor did not seem to be lacking any power. The field doubled up for the restart with Billy restarting on the outside of the #32 of Treyton Lapcevich and while coming out of turn 4, Billy got a little higher on the track than he wanted and into the speedy dry causing the car to drift towards the wall and forcing him to get out of the throttle allowing a train of cars to get by on the inside putting Billy back to mid-pack. As Billy collected the car and got back into the racing groove, his spotter David and the rest of the crew noticed that there were puffs of smoke coming out of the exhaust; however, they did not inform Billy as there was nothing he could do and the motor was still running fine. Shortly thereafter, Billy reported that something was wrong with the motor and that he could smell burning oil. Billy was instructed to bring the car down pit road where the crew removed the hood and quickly discovered that the motor had overheated and since there was no water in the radiator, it was determined that the water was now in with the oil and that the motor had in fact expired ending the day early for the #86. Unfortunately with the 34th place finish, the #86 dropped from being the points leader down to 5th in series points. Sunset Speedway: After switching the setup in the #81 over from Jukasa to Sunset, Samantha was not happy all with the handling of her car as she went out for practice. The car was extremely tight through the corner and then loose off, so different spring and spring rubber adjustments were made front and rear to try and loosen up the car through the corner. In her first heat race Samantha started back in the 7th position and quickly made her way up 3rd but was unable to run down the leaders and would finish 3rd. After the race, another adjustment was made to the left rear spring as the car was still really tight in the middle and loose coming off the corners. The story was much of the same in Samantha’s second heat race as the car was still really tight in the centre of the corner. Despite the ill handling car, Samantha was able to finish where she started in the 2nd position and then the crew went to work with another spring adjustment as well as increasing the rear stagger before the feature. Samantha lined up on the outside of row 5 in the 10th for the feature race where she made some gains early as she passed the #22 of Chandler Bos and the #94 of Jeff Richard both on the outside on lap 1 before passing the #88 of Rob Welles on lap 2 to take over 7th. Samantha continued her march towards the front making a 3-wide pass on the inside of the #23 of Tyler Seboyer and the #28 of Connor Maltese to move into the top-5. On lap 6 she moved into 4th and by lap 11, passed the #45 of Jason D’Antimo to move into 3rd before the caution came out. On the restart she passed the #1 of Bob Phinnemore into 2nd before the caution returned on lap 16. Restarting beside the #2 of leader Dylan Holmes, Samantha was again able to make the outside work to take over the lead and during the restarts after a number of cautions throughout the closing laps, Samantha continued to choose to restart on the outside where she was able to hold off the #2 to pick up her second feature victory of the season. Next up is an action packed Civic Holiday long weekend as Billy and the #86 team head north to Sauble Speedway for a doubleheader beginning with Round 7 of the APC Series and the Hy-Grade Shakin it Up 100 Presented by Shell Rotella on Friday, August 2nd. The front gates open at 6:00 PM with racing getting underway at 7:00 PM. Erik returns to Flamboro Speedway the next day on Saturday August 3rd for a regular night of racing and Kid’s Ride Night as Samantha is also back in action returning to Sunset Speedway for a regular night of racing. The front gates open at 5:00 PM with racing getting underway at 6:30 PM at Flamboro and the front gates open at 4:30 PM with racing getting underway at 6:00 PM at Sunset. The back half of the APC doubleheader and Round 8 of the APC Series goes on Sunday August 4th at Sauble Speedway for the Spira Beat the Heat 100. Both Erik and Samantha will be joining Billy at Sauble on Sunday for the Mini Stock Summer Showdown featuring a 35-lap invitational. The front gates open at 6:00 PM with racing getting underway at 7:00 PM. .