2010 SVS Late Model Champion. . .

          The month of May is just about over; Indianapolis Motor Speedway has fallen silent.  All of the teams and drivers have gone home.  There are no more fans to sign autographs for, or pictures to pose with.  It is all over, and for 32 drivers it didn’t end the way they wanted it to.  Dario Franchitti, however, is probably pretty happy with the way things turned out.  For the third time, Dario has won the Indy 500.  In doing so, he has joined a very distinct group of men who have that honor.  Whether or not you agree with what happened or how the race ended, his face will be on the Borg-Warner trophy this year.  This year’s race will go down as one of the best Indy 500’s in a very long time.

            As for me, I am counting down the days until my season starts this year.  I cannot wait until we leave for Summit Point Raceway.  Our car gets its technical inspection next week, and after we get the proper signatures on some very important papers- we are good to go.  The car looks really sharp, and all the set-up numbers are coming back just how we want them to, so we are expecting a good outing.

            An article was brought to my attention earlier today via e-mail.  A young boy of 12 years who is named Tyler Morr, died earlier this week.  He was injured while racing at Auburndale Speedway in Florida.  I guess there is a class that allows 12-16 year old children to compete in mini stock races.  My Family and I wish to extend our sympathy to the family of this boy.  I cannot imagine having to bury one’s child.  While it may seem, to some people out there, that children do not belong in racecars- this is a sport, and younger people are encouraged to participate in its entry levels.  While I do not know the details of what happened, I only know that I started in go-karts, and worked my way up from there.  We took as many safety precautions as were available to us at the time, but I still took some pretty good shots and I flipped a couple of times.  I hope the decision to put this boy in this car was based on the experience he had, and not on anything else.  Please keep this family of this boy in your prayers.

            As we look back at the 2010 season, a season which saw me in my very first ride, I will tell you it didn’t start out like I had hoped.  RPM Fabrications Inc. was preparing the cars for competition for the season.  We put my seat in the car and got everything to fit me the way it needed to.  The team had set-up a test for me to shake down the car, and get used to the new car.  I was used to a big spring car and this one was a coil-over car- so it felt a little bit different, but a racecar is a racecar- no matter what.  Not only did the weather not cooperate, but we had a top end miss in the motor.  The test ended with almost no laps being turned at speed, and the team not sure what was causing the miss.  Our first race came and went, with us finishing 3^rd, but the motor still had the miss.  Turns out- on a MSD Ignition 6ALN Box, the Purple wire doesn’t match the Purple wire on the Distributor.  In fact, Purple goes to green and green goes to purple- it makes me smile every time I say it- kind of an inside joke of sorts.

            Once we got that straightened out, it was game on.  As we got into the heart of the season, we had a string of 4 straight 2^nd place finishes, and we ended the season with 2 straight wins to put the exclamation point on our Championship.  We also set the track record during qualifying for our last point’s race.  Patience, and only taking what the car had to give each race, and not putting myself in any avoidable bad spots was the key to our on track success.  A good crew was responsible for giving me what I needed to do my job.  On September 25, 2010 I was able to lock up my first driving Championship.  Sundance Vacations Speedway Late Model Champion- I was proud of what we were able to do as a team, and proud of myself for proving I could do it.

            Next week I hope to have all my loose ends tied up and will be able to breath easy until we leave June 15^th for Summit Point.  Check out the website for the results, and check me out on twitter @justinonderko for updates during the weekend.  We will also have video from the weekend, so everybody will be able to see what I see from inside the car.  Another step in the right direction for us, stay tuned.  Till next week. . .