My week in Akron was a lot of fun -- right up until race day. As crew chief it is my job to
make sure that we put a competitive entry in the field and this year I was not able to do that. I know I let a lot of people
down. And for that I am very sorry.
I have never entered a race without the objective of trying to win. But this year I fell far
short of my goal. I have come to realize that to be a winning team you have to surround yourself with great people and one
person can't do it alone. I now see that one reason Mark Overmyer's team rose to the top was because he had strong team support
from everyone on his team. In addition to a good driver [which I believe we had in Julie] you need a wheel specialist [which
I am not], you need an ultra competitive car which has been race tested with your race day wheels so you can make adjustments.
We did not follow that strategy and on race day we found ourselves unable to make the adjustments necessary to run fast.
There are many people I want to thank for helping me this year:
I want to thank Tuna Murphy and his family for their hospitality and help to me in storing
and transporting my racer during the past week. I also want to thank Jim Stevenson and his family for lending me his daughter,
Julie, to drive our car and for his financial commitment to allow us to try to put together a winning entry.
I also want to thank Dan Troyer for his help throughout the year in testing wheels and for
his friendship. I want to thank Rick Locklear for providing support in the runout area by making sure that our ultra heavy
racer got safely returned to topside after each run and for making sure Julie was safely returned as well. And I want to thank
my good friend John Wargo for all of his help during race week.
Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out the way you plan it. We just weren't competitive
on Saturday and I was very disappointed. I guess that's just racing. Only one team can win and this year it wasn't us. Whether
we'll return for 2011 remains to be seen. At this point I'm not sure what we'll do.
Thanks to everyone who supported me financially and personally in the past year.
Below are some pictures of the 2010 entries.
This link will take you to Ken Morrow's Picasa album showing each driver, crew chief and support
team:
Thanks, Ken!
