22/08/2026
8/21/26 EchoPark Race Recap:
I hope you brought a lunch - this is a long one (but eventful).
PRACTICE:
We showed up with a plan, but mother nature wanted to throw us a curveball. We intended to run a few sessions to get the tires good and scuffed in, but a weather delay due to lightning in the area put a stop to it. The car felt good, but we wanted a little more track time before qualifying.
QUALIFYING:
The tires still weren't quite where we wanted them yet, but we laid down a respectable lap. The car was on the tight side, but overall it felt pretty good. Not super fast, but not terrible. We were set to roll off 4th in both features.
FEATURE 1:
We certainly got some seat time in this one. I'm not sure what the record is for number of green flag laps in a Chargers division feature, but this one has to be up there with 32. For those that don't know, Chargers run a time limit instead of a lap count. We go for 10 minutes + 2 laps.
We got a good start, but the 2nd place car missed a shift somewhere around the flag stand. With virtually no time to react, I gave him a pretty good shot. We're not sure if the rest of the field thought the start was waved off or what, but the entire field checked up pretty hard. I saw an opening underneath the 2nd place car and took it. The car was still a bit tight.
We held onto 2nd until lap 18 where we fell to 3rd. As the 69 car was passing me going into turn 1, I widened my entry and attempted to cross back underneath him. Unfortunately, I misjudged clearance and turned down too soon. Our left front tire smacked the 69's right rear pretty good (This was completely my fault. The 69 and I talked about it after the race and we're all good - just a racing deal). From that moment, I had lost my left front brake. A few laps later, I had absolutely no brakes. I knew we had a good bit of distance on the rest of the field, so I was simply trying to hold on from that point on. I limped it to a 4th place finish. I accidentally put a dead battery in the GoPro, so we did not get any footage from this feature.
Looking over the car after the first feature, we figured out that I boiled the brake fluid and bent the left front steering arm. Ian and Charlie jumped in and got us fixed up and we were reset for the second feature.
FEATURE 2:
We got a great start. Going into turn 1, the 2nd and 3rd place cars got together which gave me just enough room to make a move I think Dale Sr would have been proud of. We were three wide coming out of turn 2, and I managed to clear the inside car on the back stretch. We had 2nd in the bag at the stripe. A few cautions and a red flag gave our engine temp a chance to chill out for a few minutes. At the end of it all, we brought home our first 2nd place finish! We'll have footage posted of this race.
All in all, it was a fantastic night. Shoutout to Brian Cosier for coming through for us with a steering arm as well as Ian and Charlie Hampton for getting us reset and ready to roll after that first Feature. We even had some fine folks local to us come see us! I'm glad we were able to put on a good show for them.
If you made it to the end of this, just know that you're a real one. Drop a comment letting us know if you read this novel lol.
THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!!
Two Wheels BBQ
Buster Goss Body Shop
True North Operations Group
We literally can't get any closer to a win.. We've been knocking on the door. It's about time to walk through it.
