{"id":20656,"date":"2016-06-06T20:55:43","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T00:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=20656"},"modified":"2016-06-06T20:55:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-07T00:55:43","slug":"tough-run-for-eddie-macdonald-at-devils-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/tough-run-for-eddie-macdonald-at-devils-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Tough Run for Eddie MacDonald at Devil\u2019s Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"photo

photo by RPM 360<\/p><\/div>\n

By: Dick Casey<\/em><\/p>\n

The 17th<\/sup> place finish for Eddie Mac in the American Canadian Tour\u2019s Merchant\u2019s Bank 100 at Devil\u2019s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vermont on Saturday<\/span> was not the typical run one might expect from the team. After a devastating crash on the last turn of the last lap at the Waterford Speedbowl on May 21, Eddie Mac was forced to activate the old tried but true back-up \u201cflame car\u201d while necessary repairs were made to the EXIT Realty\/Hancock Electric Chevy owned by Freddie Peterson.<\/p>\n

With time constraints plaguing the team, the usual meticulous preparation in the shop could not happen with crew chief Rollie LaChance saying, \u201cWe literally took the car out of moth balls and tried to get it ready for today\u2019s race. We also had to strip the Chevy of the damage, get it to Dale (Shaw) for a new front clip, and take the engine out to be checked out. We lost a lot of time there so we really didn\u2019t have a week to get the car ready. We could only put in a basic set-up and hope we could adjust. We only had three twenty minute practices and that wasn\u2019t nearly enough time to make the adjustments needed. This is a winning car and if we ran it for a number of races, I am sure we could get it performing as it once did. I was hoping for a top half of the field finish but we fell a few spots short.\u201d<\/p>\n

The car was tight in and loose off for Eddie Mac and even though the EXIT Realty\/Hancock Electric Pontiac posted a fifth fastest time in the second practice the disappointed driver said, \u201cThe fast time was misleading because I was able to arc the car in the turns with no one around me. In the heat and the race I wasn\u2019t able to do that in traffic so the car was really tight in the center and so loose off I couldn\u2019t mash the throttle and had no power down the straight. We knew it was a longshot with the car when we uncovered it in the shop and not being able to get it ready as we would have liked was tough but this is all part of racing, We lost the point lead but we were able to hold on to second place so now we will get the primary car back together this week so we will be ready for the next ACT race at Speedway 51.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eddie Mac started 20th<\/sup> in the 28 car-field and struggled right away falling as far as 23rd<\/sup> with the leaders closing. Nick Sweet and Wayne Helliwell set a torrid pace around the flat, half-mile oval as they quickly began lapping cars. By lap 40 in the 100 lap event honoring John Bruno, the #17 went a lap down to the leaders as they continued to march through the field. Despite the handling woes, Eddie Mac was able to keep the leaders in sight and it was not until lap 76 that the third place car was able to make the pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car improved a little as the race went on,\u201d said \u201cthe Outlaw.\u201d \u201cIt isn\u2019t much fun being out there in a car that is not competitive but we did our best to try to make the best of a bad situation. When you run for the championship things are going to happen to test you and the fact that we were able to get this car, that has not run in three years<\/span> since winning the Bond ACT Invitational at Loudon, ready in less than a week is a credit to the guys in the shop and the crew at the track, Everyone worked so hard on both cars I am very thankful to all the guys. Tomorrow<\/span> is Sunday but everyone will be at the shop to start putting together Freddie\u2019s car for Speedway 51 on the 18th<\/sup> and working on the K&N car for Stafford Springs Speedway on the 17th<\/sup>, As you can see, we will be busy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks as always to sponsors Derek Beatrice from EXIT Realty and Ken and Scott Thompson from Hancock Electric for their continued support,\u201d said Eddie Mac. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t do this without help from our K&N owner Rob Grimm, Stilo, Schroth Racing, and HMS Motorsports have been with us for a long time and their support is greatly appreciated. We hope to see all our race fans at Speedway 51 and if you can\u2019t make it watch for Jolene\u2019s (Drandson) updates on Grimm Racing Buddies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Dick Casey The 17th place finish for Eddie Mac in the American Canadian Tour\u2019s Merchant\u2019s Bank 100 at Devil\u2019s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, Vermont on Saturday was not the typical run one might expect from the team. After a devastating crash on the last turn of the last lap at the Waterford Speedbowl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,201,1,14972,200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-act","category-devils-bowl","category-uncategorized","category-touring-series-news","category-vermont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}