Newton motorsports with driver Jason Newton readied itself for 08 competition this weekend at the Antioch speedway practice. After some minor motor concerns on Friday night and a late night call to fellow east side racers Jeff Delte sr. and Earle Stanton to raid their shelves for valve cover gaskets the team headed out to Antioch to try out a new fuel pump and to put the #31 valvoline sprinter though some pre race paces, or should I say pace as it turned out. After being among the first teams to arrive for the announced 2 pm start for the practice day the team found itself still sitting in the pits at 4:30 without having turned one lap at speed. While the other classes of cars were granted track time the powers at the track added classes to the line up in front of the winged sprint class after telling us that no adjustments could be made to the line up when our driver asked if the line up could be altered. While listening for the call for our turn on the track we realized that the line up had been changed and we were being shuffled to the back of the line. When we were finally called to line up (I think we were actually bypassed the first round) we discovered that the water truck was sent out onto the dry rock hard and dusty track. They had planned on bypassing us once again in the line up and watering the track and starting the process of running classes all over. We were lucky to get the water truck off the track but not before it had dumped a shitload of water down the front chute and halfway into turn 2. This lead to half of our our session being wasted by having to run in the wet part of the track. Oh yeah, we were the only winged 360 there so it was just us running in the track. The other half of our track time was reduced to coasting down the front chute and turn 1 and then trying to accelerate down the back chute into 3 & 4 and then braking on the front chute to avoid spinning on the slick surface. All in all a very disappointing day. The track was terrible from the get go for those who showed up. It seems that tracks these days feel they have no obligation to offer anything to racers after they take their money. We worked hard on our car and put in a lot of effort and money to get it to the track as I am sure the other racers did as well. I wish the track would have put forth some effort. The one good thing I have to say is thanks to the tow truck driver who was there for us promptly to fire our motor for us early in the day. Thank you. Other than that the place was a joke. I was talking to another winged sprint driver who was spectating sat. and he said he was there for the session the week before and felt as if he was treated like a red haired stepchild. While there were quite a few classes of cars, the amount of cars in each class was small. Yet it seemed to take forever to run the program. Call me a crybaby, call me a jerk I don't care. Just don't call me to go back to Antioch very soon. The car ran fine and is in one piece and ready for the wright one 360 series opener at ocean speedway on april 4.
we hope to be updating our website www.newtonmotorsports31.com with stories pics and vids. we are a bit behind as of now but will get caught up as bruce velo from www.cmpvideo2go.com is hard at work editing footage for us. check out those sites and try to make it to a race soon. sprintcar racing in this area needs your support.
