SNORE Rage at the River 2009 Race Report
by Ryan Plowman

Driver: Ryan Plowman
Co-Dog: Jason Plowman & Jeremy Stafford

Day 1 – I decided that starting mid pack, around a group of single seaters, I needed to be conservative and just run my own race. I didn’t want to destroy the car and not be able to race the next day, and bank on attrition to move me up the ladder. My brother, Jason, was my co-dog for the day, and we set a good pace. Had some transmission issues that set us back and cost us some time. For some reason, it didn’t like going in and out of 2nd or 3rd gear, especially down shifting into corners. This made for a few close calls and definitely slowed our exit speed. Along with this, we seemed to be running a jet that was far too fat for the weather conditions, and the motor would load up in the corners. This made it fun and a new clutch may be needed, it was used a lot to keep RPM’s high and allowed for better exit speed. On Lap 3 the car decided to completely shut off coming out of a corner in the infield. We aren’t sure what happened, but all the breakers reset and killed the car, cauing us to loose so very valuable time. It took about 30 seconds for everything to come back to normal, it fired right back up and we were on our way, loosing 3 spots in the process. Knowing we were behind, I kept it cool and tried not too push it too hard to make up lost time. We ended the day finishing 8th, all in all not too shabby for our misfortunes.

Day 2 – SNORE decided to inverted the Top 6 guys for Sunday’s race, so Jeremy Stafford and I started on the outside of row one next to Brad Wilson. Today was all or nothing, time to lay down the hammer. The flag flew and we were off. After changing the jet and pulling the valve covers to check everything that motor, the motor was pulling Wilson from the start. Later in the lap we were quickly caught by the faster and lighter single seaters, no match for them in the long, uphill sand wash. Knowing we were at a disadvantage, I pushed harder to keep ahead of the cars behind me. Next thing I know we are passing 10 cars and setting a fast pace, still dealing with transmission gremlins all race. On lap 3, we go into a corner just a tad too fast, almost putting the car end over end that would have sidelined us the rest of the day. Not skipping a beat, I pushed harder and soon realized I had not been passed by a car in our class since the 1st lap, awesome! From the ridge, I could see that the next closest car was roughly 3-4 miles back, we had this thing in the bag. After we overcame a close call with putting the car end over end, we finished the race 5th on the road, 5th on the day, and 5th in class for the weekend.

All in all we had a good weekend; I can’t thank all my guys enough for their hard work and dedication. My parents for allowing me to live my dream, especially Mom for putting up with this addition we all have; Scott Stafford for all the time he puts into prep, maintenance, and parts running; Jeremy, Sean, and Justin for helping me every step of the way; Derek Kreger and Oscar for their continued support, I can’t say enough about you two!

Look for us at BITD races next year. We’re on a mission, and I’m coming for you.