Here you will find some highlights and event recaps from our Midget & Micro Sprint events.

(Click Photos To Enlarge)

Micro Sprint Race at Airport Speedway. This was our third Micro Sprint race. We have also participated in 4 practice sessions and one of those practices was at Airport so we had some confidence going into this event, but little exp. during a race event. During warm up we just had way too much grip - almost going over on our own a few times as the car. That was not fun. We make some serious changes to the wing angle, wing location, shocks & location of the RR. We asked to start last in our heat since we were new and good thing we did. Tight racing + aggressive drivers = wrecked cars. Starting at the rear allowed us to miss all the wrecks and it also allowed us to begin to tweak our car since now - it was crazy loose. We qualified for the feature. We started the feature 13th. Bad news is that right after we tweaked again and thought we finally had a workable set up they graded the track and put some water down. We went back and adjusted the set up again. The first 5 of 25 laps went well - then the car had a serious push and headed for the wall every lap about 1/2 way into turn 1, only keeping it off the wall by backing off the throttle. I actually had to move my hands on the wheel so that I could turn it further. Since there were a lot of cautions I was able to make adjustments to the LR shock - the only incockpit adjust I have and it was not until the 20th lap that I got the car where could I could get on it in the turns. In the end we stayed out of trouble - finally did some passing and come home 12th.

Pictures coming soon. A video of Airport can be seen in the May 5th update.

Airport Speedway: http://www.airportspeedway.com

Open Invitational Race at Lanco Speedway. Since our last race we participated in a practice however at a track configured quite differently than Lanco and while we went to practice on corner entry, exit, gear selection and shifting - we did not get a lot of practice shifting due to track conditions. So we are def. still green concerning many aspects of setting up and driving a Micro but learn exponentially each time we take the car out.

Recap: We arrived at noon when the gates opened. Warm ups ran from 2 - 3:30. Following warm ups the track was prepped for the nights racing at 5:30. Then the rains came, held off a bit, then it poured. When the rains finally stopped it look like all was lost but the track crew did a great job of getting the track ready to run - though it was really slick at first. We were the 4th heat out and def. not set up for how slick it was plus the rear wing support broke 1/2 way into the heat race which meant a huge reduction in downforce, manageable but we did not qualify for the feature during this race, only 4 qualified out of 12 cars qualified. We prepped the car for the consolation race. Repaired broken rear wing support, made adjustments to air pressure, wing location/angle & RR wheel location. The consi was ran after all the heats which meant it was after 15 heat races so the track was becoming tacky and speeds were now picking up. Again only 4 were to qualify and we started 9. Car handled much better but our plan concerning gear selection was a bit off - attributable due to our lack of exp. and seat time in these cars. 1/2 through the heat I made some changes concerning corner entry & shift points and battled back but just too late for a short 10 lap sprint on a 1/8th mile track.

Here are a few pictures from the nights racing: http://vintageracingphotos.smugmug.com/Micro%20Sprint

A special thank you goes out to Digatron for coming on board as an associate sponsor. Their data acquisition unit worked perfectly recording lap times, temps and RPM - and best of all, the information is download for review and comparison. Please visit their web site at: http://www.digatronusa.com for their complete product line.

Last event: 17th Annual Vintage Celebration, (http://www.vintagecelebration.com). This is one of our biggest events every year. 180+ cars come out to enjoy 3 days on a 1 mile NASCAR oval track, New Hampshire International Speedway. Prior to loading up we were able to start the car at our shop since we now have a starter in the car. Since this was the first time it was started in 2007 it took a few tries but once it fired - it ran real good. We loaded up and headed North. We volunteer at the Vintage Celebration so my time is divided between helping out and driving. Right before the midgets were to go out - I went to warm it up - but there was no spark. After some trouble shooting I determined the condensor was bad. I was able to find one locally that would just barely work and not hurt the car. I gave it a shot and while it did product a weak spark I did get it to turn over before I ran out of pit lane. It had a little miss due to weak spark, but overall it ran well. After some hot laps - and getting it sideways on the front stretch and recovered it (ran over some fluids) - I pulled it in. The steering had some play in it and the RF spindle bushing were shot. The work on the Micro shortened our prep time for the Midget. We are working on the Midget and will have it ready for EMMR & Thompson.

Here you will find an official event summary and a link to over 600 professional photos: http://www.vintagecelebration.com

Track Rental at Airport Speedway. Since the Micro Sprint is a new car for us we need as much practice as possible. Each track normally holds a practice or two in the beginning of the year but this year 2 got rained out, fuel delivery issues for the 3rd, missed the 4th due to a scheduling conflict but made the 5th at Lanco. Lanco was a short practice for us since we again had fuel issues for the first half but got in some decent first laps in the car, 20 or so before the night was over. Not many but it helped. We solved the fuel issue just in time for Lanco's opener, (bad reeds), 5 laps of practice, 10 laps first race followed by 12 laps the second race. Thus you can see the need for a lot more practice time.

Today we participated in a track rental at Airport Speedway. Airport is also a 1/8th mile track but with much less banking than Lanco. Anyone can rent the track out for $500 and the cost is then divided up by who shows up. On this occasion approx. 7 teams were going to participate but in the end 11 showed up for the practice, (a real good deal). All divisions were in attendance: 125, 250, 270 & 600cc. The track started out real slick, (too slick), but then dried out a bit. I was told the track normally has less grip on rental days then on race nights. Well we found out just how slippery it was when we (slightly) hit the front stretch wall with the RR coming hard out of turn 4. Our main goal of this practice session was to practice shifting, corner entry and corner exit. Due to the track conditions we had limited time to practice shifting but we learned how much throttle lift it took to get it in gear, became real comfortable with the car - enough to charge into the corners and carry that speed through the turn. A little harder was getting a good exit even if we did not enter real well. You could feel it bog slightly so getting it unwound and pointed straight is critical for such a low powered car. In total we ran about 75 laps.

39 MB video (decent quality, preferred download), 9 mb video (low quality, dial-up only)

2007 Micro Sprint Opener at Lanco Speedway. 143 cars in 5 different divisions. We are running in the 270 2-stroke divisions. The #14 "Vintage Garage Special" a 2003 King Micro performed well in warm ups after having discovered broken reeds at the completion of practice the week before. A special thanks goes out to Mike Dicely (who later in the night won the 270 feature race) for lending us his back up reeds until more stock arrived. Since we are a rookie we had to start at the rear of the field, and at Lanco that is a good thing (when a rookie) - Lanco is where the best of the best compete weekly. So we hung back a little keeping pace increasing our comfort level and speed with each passing lap. For those of you who do not know, a 270 2-stroke differs from a 600 Micro and a Midget in the fact that you need to shift between 2 gears to get around the track the fastest possible way. This took a little getting used to. Kind of equates to the Sprint drivers of the past who had one hand on the wheel and the other on the hand brake. We took some video this night to aid in getting up to speed as fast as possible. We hope to have that posted here soon - along with some on track photos. Stay Tuned.
PS - We will be missing Lanco this Saturday to get ready for the Vintage Celebration.

Vintage Garage and Watson Racing have completed the re-build the 270 Micro Sprint and have prepped the car for practices at local tracks. I have included some before and after photos.

Practice at Airport Speedway was rained out today. That makes the third practice this year. Trailways, Lindas, now Airport.

Vintage Garage and Watson Racing Team announced today that they have formed an exploratory partnership and will be entering the highly competitive 270 Micro Sprint Racing circuit located within Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey on a part-time basis in 2007. Equipment has been secured and is currently being prepared for open practice in March. Primary and associate sponsorships are now available.

Vintage Garage (headed by Vaughn Rockney) and Watson Racing Team (headed by Brian Watson) have been active organizations within the Vintage Racing community since 1970, restoring and campaigning numerous competitive racing cars. Apart from the 270 Micro Sprint, both organizations will also be campaigning vintage midgets during the '07 season.

Vintage Garage: http://www.vintagegarage.com

Car & updates can be seen here: http://www.vintagegarage.com/king270.html

Primary and associate sponsorships are now available. Please contact Brian Watson at brianwatson@watsonracingteam.com today to learn how your organization can benefit from becoming a part of this newly formed first class professional racing team.

We thoroughly enjoyed the full night of racing as well as our warm up and race event. We took the Midget in hopes of getting some track time with the vintage group. As it turns out we were the only Midget in a full field of Vintage Stock Cars from the Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club, http://www.gsvscc.org. When one hears "Vintage" they tend to think of fragile - not with these guys - these guys really run hard. We started in the back for safety, (since they were twice as big and three times as heavy) but had a blast passing anywhere from a car to two a lap - on the straights and in the corners...only if there were a few more laps...

A special thank you goes out to Lewis F. Brubaker, (lbrubaker@penndata.com), for these nice photos.

32nd EMMR/WGOT CONVENTION, Thurs PM Track Time at Susquehanna Speedway, Fri PM Track Time at Williams Grove Speedway, Sat & Sun Afternoon Track Time at Latimore Valley, Sat. PM Track Time at Trailway Speedway.

Brought the car down to French Grimes for him to work his magic on it. He was able to do that real easy with a starter in the car...

Completed install of Tilton clutch / starter in the midget. This was quite an extensive project but we highly recommend it. The results speak for themselves. A special thank you goes out to Don Kenyon & Tilton for all their help. Click HERE for a video clip of the car being started. Well worth the download time, 90 mb. Click HERE for 51 photos.