Well as you can see, the title of my new blog will be: "Fueling the Fire with Mama Gas"

Special thanks to John Satriano, he was the lucky winner of the new sweatshirt.

Thanks to everyone who submitted ideas, I had many to chose from and some really interesting ones as well. Thanks again. I will try to have more interactive activities for our readers as time goes along.

We headed back to Texas this past week end for the November Sprint Shootout at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, Texas which is a suburb of Fort Worth. The 5 Dovers made the trip along with Randy Lawrence and Aaron Allgood. Our crew chief, Wayne; joined us, as these are his stomping grounds. The track is a neat little ¼ mile track with lots of banking. On Friday the track stayed a little too heavy for my taste, and made everyone fast. Not a whole lot of passing going on. Saturday was a little bit better, but really never did slick off.

Twenty nine cars were in attendance, not as many as I thought, as a lot of guys have headed to Australia for the winter. We drew #30 and had a 2nd row outside starting position in the 3rd heat race. Jack finished 3rd, on a track that saw hardly any passing. In the qualifying race we started 3rd row inside and finished 4th missing the lock in position for Saturday by one position. We decided not locking in for Saturday night was not a bad thing, as this would give us a chance to get a feel for the track on Saturday with a “B" feature run.

Jack was in the pole position in the 1st of two “B” features and pretty much ran away with it. This earned him a 4th row inside starting position in the “A” main. Jack had a rough start and shuffled all the way back to 13th in the main event. About 5 laps in, Jack elbowed up and starting racing towards the front, he had figured out how to run through turns 1 and 2 and was passing cars like crazy; he had worked his way back up to 6th only to have a yellow fly with 11 laps remaining of the 35 lap race. 6th place with 11 to go on a restart, we knew Jack was going to go for it, and then they decided to put the laps cars back into the mix, like 8 of them, between the top 6 cars. It appeared to me like maybe there was a little hometown favoritism going on, and I really hate to see lap cars put back in there, I think people like to see the fast cars race each other and not have to deal with lapped cars. Well the lap cars cost Jack a position or 2 on the restart and you could see his frustration building, as he was driving harder and harder into turn 3 every lap, Marc and I knew what was coming and on lap 31 Jack blew into turn 3 way to hard and jumped the cushion. The car spun around in a flash and was headed for the concrete barrier backwards, Jack was braking, but he still hit really really hard. The frame broke completely in half, and the tail tank was destroyed. Jack tried to restart but realized the damage to his mount was just too much and pulled into the pits.

Jack had hit his right leg on the bottom part of his seat and frame upon impact, and was having a severe muscle cramp, to the point where he could not walk, we all were a little concerned as this is the leg he broke in the trailer accident. The paramedics looked at it, and said it was just a tight muscle, so we were all relieved. Jack’s leg is doing fine, and he didn’t seem to have any muscle problems in the days that followed. Well, the time has finally come, the racing season is officially over, and even though we are relieved and ready for a break, we would all still load up and head out if there was another race. But for now, cars are being disassembled, inventory is being counted and parts are being made ready to sell, all in preparation for next year. There is a ton of work to do in the shop, to prepare for the winter months and make sure everything is ready for racing in February.

I will be doing a recap of the season in the next couple of weeks where I will reflect on our 2007 racing season. Check back often.

Be sure to check out our parts for sale, there is enough parts listed to build at least 3 cars if not 4 or 5 sprint cars. There are many good deals on all sorts of sprint car racing parts.

Upcoming events:

Even though the racing is done, we are still busy with many other events. This Saturday we will head over to Iowa once again for the annual Knoxville raceway banquet. We were not going to attend, but after having many people tell us, that this is one you don’t want to miss, we decided we would go.

In December we will head to Florida for the PRI show in Orlando. As of today our party includes 15 people. The PRI show is really something to see, I really enjoy seeing some of the big name drivers, and being able to get up close and personable with some of them. It is a really good time.

In January we will head to Oklahoma, for Jack and Trish’s running of the Chili Bowl……..look for more details on this in the near future.

In February, back to racing as we will head to Florida for “Speed Week”

So as you can see, we still have plenty going on, and our winter months will keep us all very busy.

If you or anyone you know of would be interested in co-sponsoring Jack and Trish’s Chili Bowl rides please give us a call. They are both looking for sponsorship partners for this well known race. Sponsorships of any size are welcome and available. What a great way to be a part of such an outstanding racing event.

With Veterans Day being this past week end, I would just like to say thanks to all of our veterans who served and those who are serving now.  Thanks, you are the best!

I’m hoping to write something for the blog at least once a week….but no promises, as sometimes there just isn’t enough time. So, in case I don’t get back here before next Thursday, I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you are as fortunate as I am and can share the day with your loved ones. Happy turkey day!

To all of you, who so faithfully follow Team Dover, thanks, you guys make it all worth it.

See ya at the track! (In a couple of months)

Team Dover trivia:

First person to answer correctly will get a Jack Dover t-shirt (limited sizes)

Jack’s nickname, “The Gas Man” originated from?