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Clay's
Blog
The team left Phoenix and drove to Fontana CA to drop off our new race rig at Werner’s Fontana truck facility. The entire team flew home for some much needed rest. Mike flew home scratching his head trying to figure out just why this car was not going down the track. Early upon Mike’s arrival home he called me and he was driving to Brad Hadmans chassis shop. Well no rest for the crew chief. Mike and Brad spent a few hours going over a few things and decided just what was wrong with the car. The crazy thing is it was very minor but Mike was sure that our problem was solved. (Notice I did not tell you what was changed.) a
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d v e r t i s e m e n t I made a few runs up and down the drag strip before Dalton flagged me down and said he was ready to show his old man the back of his Honda. After Dalton saw the back of my Kawasaki 4 races in a row he looked very sad under his helmet. I asked my very dejected looking son if he knew how I beat him. Dalton replied by saying it was probably because I shifted better and could take off better and could just ride better. I told him it was none of the above he is a much better rider than I am. So I told him, I just could not hold it in any longer. Bucks County Kawasaki had bored out the quad installed different cams and ported the head. This was a lot of fun beating Dalton in this drag race but now he is ready for me to send his motor and have the same work done. No matter what kind of racing it is, spending money is always involved. Bucks County Kawasaki will be getting to do a Honda motor soon. Well after having won the Sugar Creek Nationals it was time to go to the Winter Nationals. Mike and I flew in a day behind the rest of the team and they had most of the changes done to the car when we arrived. The following day we would find out if Mike had our car figured out. Thursday I got all suited up and hopped in the car and hoped for the best. The car was smooth going through the early part of the run, at this point I was smiling from ear to ear. The finish line came real quick, Mike called over the in car radio and said we just ran a 4.52 at 312 mph. Talk about a spirit booster the entire Werner Team was relieved. I cost us a few hundredths by shutting off a bit to early. In typical driver fashion my excuse is we had not used the parachutes on the new car during testing. ( Driver Excuse #368) Most drivers have the excuse book handy when they make a mistake. The Werner team made a few more decent laps through the rest of qualifying. We finished in the eighth position and got to race Melanie Troxel first round. Chances are if you are reading this you know Melanie won the race. I am glad Melanie got her first event win this was great for her and her sponsor Skull Gear and Mr. Evan Knoll. This is going to be a good race season for all the fans. There are a lot of good cars out there that can win.
What’s your take? Drop us a line at comppluseditor@aol.com.
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After all the winter work, skinned knuckles and hurt feelings we just returned from Pomona. The season could not start soon enough for the Werner Enterprises Team. We made a total of 20 laps between Las Vegas and Phoenix testing. Yet had no luck in getting down the track. Mike Kloeber may not always have the quickest car out there but you can bet he usually gets the car down the track. So when we left Phoenix and decided not to take one more shot at testing the following week in Las Vegas before heading to Pomona some people thought we were crazy. Mike makes this decision and we truly trusted it was the right one. 
For me I had a huge and important drag race to be run right here at home. My son Dalton loves riding his 4 wheeler, a Honda 450R. Our team owner Kenny Koretsky has a Kawasaki dealership ( Bucks County Kawasaki ) and for Christmas he gave me a new KFX 400. Dalton has been hearing it from me that I was going to beat him in a drag race with my new quad. Dalton is only 13 but he knows a 400cc quad will not beat a 450cc quad so the discussions about this race sounded very much like the show “Pinks”. What Dalton has not figured out is never judge your opponent by what his race car looks like or in this case his 4 wheeler. Unknown to Dalton before my 4 wheeler ever left Bucks County Kawasaki my 4 wheeler had under gone a big transformation. Marty Smith who runs the dealership had put his best team of quad specialist on a mission to make my stock appearing quad dust Dalton and his bigger 450. When I arrived home my new quad had arrived there too by way of Kenny’s Pro Stock transporter on the way to the last Vegas test session. Dalton and I loaded up and headed to the Sugar Creek Trails, this place is just a few miles down the road from where I live and it has some great places to ride. It also has one great long and flat dirt area where our race is to take place.
© Competitionplus 2006
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