Tuesdays with TMAC – New Beginnings!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Note: Knoxville Raceway has asked Bill Wright to keep fans updated on two of our "favorite" (you may substitute as needed) drivers, Terry McCarl and Wayne Johnson, that "hit the road" in 2007. We'll alternate between the two every week.
by Bill W – Terry McCarl’s weekend on the bullrings of Attica Raceway Park in Ohio and Tri-State Speedway in Indiana were a successful beginning with new crew chief Brian Kemenah. The team had 16th and 9th place finishes at the two tracks, respectively. McCarl emerged from the weekend remaining in sixth place in the tough World of Outlaws season standings.
With high hopes going into Attica on Friday, a rocky start awaited as soon as TMAC drew for a qualifying spot. “With my great drawing skills, we drew 51 out of 55. I’m notorious at Attica for driving off the race track. Sure enough on the second lap, I drove off the track!” A lap time that registered 40th in the 55-car field was TMAC’s reward.
Expectations were especially high as Kemenah hails from northwest Ohio. “I wanted to do well, because we were so close to Brian’s hometown. It didn’t start well with drawing the bad number, but Joey Saldana drew a bad number too, and timed well, so no excuses.”
McCarl mastered his heat race. Starting tenth, and needing to get by five cars to make the feature, he did just that, avoiding a situation that could have landed him in the C main. Locking himself into the feature, TMAC knew it would be a hard road. “In the feature we started dead last basically (23rd), we passed some cars, but sealed up our tires. I thought we had a shot at the top ten, but our tires kind of quit on us. We were up a little higher than we finished, but ended up back in 16th.”
Haubstadt Happenings
The team was ready to tackle the beautiful quarter mile at Tri-State Speedway near Haubstadt, Indiana on Saturday. “The car was absolutely perfect in qualifying. We got stuck behind a slow car in the heat race, but made the transfer. We seem to qualify in that ‘no-man’s land’ (5th through 8th). If you don’t finish top two in the heat, it makes it tough,” said Terry of the format that allows the top two heat race finishers to start the dash.
Nonetheless, things were running well come feature time. “We were running well and the car was awesome! We got by Joey (Saldana) and Danny Smith on the start, as well as (Danny) Lasoski. We were all over Chad (Kemenah), and we were really moving up! We got into traffic and we could move around all over the track. The car was absolutely perfect,” TMAC remembers.
Then enthusiasm turned to worry. “I started to see a little smoke come out of the motor. The yellow came out and it was really hot. I was worried about blowing the motor up. So the last fifteen laps, I basically never really gassed it again. The last few laps especially, I never went over half-throttle. I locked myself to the bottom, and Danny (Lasoski) ended up getting back by us. I was worried about blowing the engine, so I was really coasting there at the end trying to get a good finish.”
“It was unfortunate, I think we had a top five car. You never know about that, but I was really happy with the crew.” The crew for Tri-State included Californian, Rodney Tiner Jr., who joined the TMAC Motorsports team over the weekend.
Terry looks forward to working with new crew chief, Brian Kemenah. “It’s going to take a while to mesh, you know. We think a lot alike, though. Our setups are real similar. We’re going to work well together.”
“Back Home Again in”…Iowa
Jim Nabors will not be in Knoxville crooning about TMAC’s return to Iowa, but return he will, as the World of Outlaws return to the Knoxville Raceway on Saturday. TMAC finished fourth in the WoO’s last visit in October. “I’m really looking forward to Knoxville. We’ve got a week for Brian to go through the cars, take them apart and put them together the way he wants them. The schedule is nice right now, because we can be in the shop here all next week too.”
TMAC ran fourth in last October’s WoO stop at the Sprint Car Capital of the World after starting in the eighth row. While most floundered on the bottom, McCarl hit the high side of the track and was up to sixth by lap four. He’s looking forward to best that finish in his return to Knoxville!
On the Air
Listen to Terry live on the air this Friday morning in the central Iowa area on KGGO (94.9 FM). He will be LIVE in-studio at 8:00 a.m. with Lou Sipolt.
Burlington IRA
Don’t forget the Interstate Racing Association (IRA) will be competing at 34 Raceway in Burlington, Iowa on Sunday May 6. It will be the first visit ever for the 410 touring series, and the first 410 show since May of 1998, when Kenny Jacobs bested Frankie Kerr and Gary Wright in All Star Circuit of Champions action (1999 and 2000 scheduled dates were a wash). Don’t miss this great show at this beautiful facility! Yes, TMAC will be in action!
In"Terry"gation
Alan Thompson from Sydney, NSW, Australia asks: Any plans of coming to Australia again? I know a lot of fans would like to see you competing in AU.
TMAC answers: I would love to go back to Australia. I really love it there and the people are great. I have been there three times but only went there to race twice. The first time I was driving Sid Moore's car and won a World Series Race, so the experience was a good one for me.
These past few winters I have been busy getting my WoO team together and this past winter I wanted to give my broken leg a rest. If the opportunity comes my way again I would love to come back.
Got a question for TMAC? Send it to us at sprntcar@iowatelecom.net, and we may answer it in this section! Put "? for TMAC" in your subject line.
Did you know?
Terry is the only driver to win six Knoxville track titles in a row (1999-2004).
Website
Check out updated Photos in “Terry McCarl” gallery. The “Schedule” page has been updated to include TV dates and times.
Keep up to date with McCarl Motorsports at www.TerryMcCarl.com. We keep it fresh for TMAC fans!
Front Row/Ultimate Challenge Update
Order your tickets for the Musco Lighting Front Row Challenge and Searsboro Telephone Ultimate Challenge today! Call McTwo Promotions Tuesday-Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 515 957-0020 to order!
Infield Party Passes are $20 in advance or $25 the day of the race!
For more information on the Challenges or on TMAC Motorsports, visit www.TerryMcCarl.com.
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