APRIL 19, 2010 –-- Friday night was the first race of the 2010 season for the Taco Bravo 360 series at Watsonville’s beautiful Ocean Speedway.

This night did not have a happy ending so there will be no dwelling on the details!

There were 31 cars and Evan qualified well at the sixth spot but did not transfer out of his heat race. He started off-pole in the first of the two B Mains and won it going away. This finish allowed him to get his qualifying time back and gave him the sixth starting spot in the Main Event.

In the feature Evan quickly moved to fourth place by lap four. On a restart the car behind him tried an “interesting” move by passing on the right when there was not enough room between Evan and the straightaway wall.

This resulted in turning Evan over, bending our chassis and putting us out of the race. We got out of bed early Saturday morning and with the help of long-time friend and crew member Brian Poe, we got the car stripped down and ready for the trip to the frame shop for repair.

Saturday was a new race day so we loaded the 410 car and headed up to Petaluma for round four of the Golden State Challenge-King of California Series.

Regretfully, Petaluma had just nineteen entries but it is an interesting place to race and the competition is always good with Golden State.

Ev was the fourth car out for qualifying and the track was still pretty slick but he managed to time-in eighth. He finished second in his heat race which meant he made the Dash. Finishing the Dash fourth gave Evan a stating spot of second row outside in the Main Event.

The motor ran real hot in the Dash and boiled the water out. We refilled the radiator for the Main but did not know at that point that the water pump impeller had broken and we were without a functioning water pump. We had a red flag about halfway thru the Main and Evan told us the motor was not running well. The temp gauge was reading high but there was no water under the car…..little did we know the water was already boiled-out!

The good news is Evan was able to nurse it home in fourth but the bad news is the engine is on its way to our friends at S&S Automotive for repairs. A rough weekend for sure.

I want to thank a couple of special people for their support this week. As usual, Rick Santos was there Friday night to pitch-in when we needed help and Jeff Pippin, of Pippin’s Property Maintenance who has for two races paid Evan’s race entry fee. Thank you to both of you guys.

Additional and obvious ongoing thanks go to our small crew of Richard Brown and Brian Poe. Evan feels like Richard’s input is really making a difference as to how the car performs. We really appreciate both guys…good race night or not.

This week we race once which will be round five of the Golden State Challenge when it makes its first stop of the year at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway. We hope to see you there Saturday.

Thanks for following Evan’s site

Suggs Family Racing