So let me get something off my chest since I have the ability to do so. If you haven't heard already, I lent my car out to Brad Caddick this week. Brad blew up his motor during the race the Saturday before and was unable to procure one before Thursday. He had been chatting with my brother that Saturday (July 11) before the cars hit the track. They talked about what Brad would do if his point lead came into jeopardy. The idea had come up to borrow my car if anything ever happened, but it was never decided upon, since I wasn't there to give the ok. I didn't think much of it, until I drove past his smoking car on the frontstretch during the feature. Brad called me on Tuesday and said that his car wouldn't be ready, and he was desperate for a ride on Thursday.
Here's where I want to make some sort of statement. I have recieved a lot of flak from some people for doing this. "Why didn't you charge him a lot of money?" "That was foolish to give up your car." "How do you know you can trust them to fix it if they break it?" I've heard them all. Let me tell you all something: I am the owner of this car. I am the driver of this car. I am the crew chief of this car. I am the primary source of funding for this car. Any decision pertaining to this car is absolutely none of your business. And, until you start giving me money, it will stay that way. I gave Brad this car for one simple reason: Sportsmanship. If I was the point leader and I had problems, I would have prayed for an opportunity like this. I heard of teams trying to charge him over $1000 for a deposit on the car. Do you want to know what I wanted? I told him to use your own gas, tires, and give me $50 to bring it up there.
Brad came up to the shop on Wednesday and we tore that car apart. We made a serious number of chassis changes to fix everything I had messed up. I believe it took us 8 hours to put the chassis where we wanted it. On Thursday the car looked faster, just standing still. Also, you have NO idea how difficult it is to watch your car go around the track without you driving. I was a wreck. But Brad drove the hell out of it, and we made adjustments to the chassis, cam, and ignition timing. By the time the feature rolled around, we were making small adjustments. We made one chassis adjustment and one cam timing adjustment. I leaned in the car and told him "Go kick ass".
He started around 12th, and the car looked the best it had all day. It looked like we hadn't quite hit on the engine yet, but it looked close. That car was amazing in the turns though. It could go anywhere and do anything at any point in the race. It was a fairly clean race and he was able to make it up to 8th place. To get a top ten in a car you've never driven before that day, and salvage a decent point finish out of what could have been really bad, was a win for us. I just hope I was able to help him as much as he helped me. There's now a setup in my car that is outstanding. After chasing a setup for half a year, I now have bypassed years of development, and skipped to a race winning setup. Now lets see if I can drive it that well!
Peace,
Brent
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