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2009 Race Season

 
In Front Racing
The RE-Making of a Latemodel

How to RE-make a Late Model Racecar...


Check Back to watch the NEW #63 go together!!

 
 
2008 Season

I guess, seeing how the actual racing season is over, the team members in charge of updating the website decided they needed some "unwinding" time...

So this is just a quick mini update until they decide to attend to business!

  Rhonda Won the Mechanic of the Year Trophy!!! 

 

Dan Lowther receives the Meridian Speedway Pepsi "Driver of the year Award" along with two other trophies at the Meridian Speedway awards banquet Saturday Nov. 1, 2008. Award presented by trophy girl Danielle Dougherty
 
 Photo provided by Barnard Greenwood of Spooled Productions.

Terry finished his "rookie" year in the Super Stocks a very respectable 9th place.  Terry also finished in 9th place in the Late Model Division!  While only entering his Street Stock a few times this season, he still managed to place 16th.  I guess there really is a reason to want to take some time off away from thinking "Racing".

Dan finished 3rd in the Super Stocks and 6th in the Late Models.

 

 
 
WHAT DOES 2 WEEKS OFF MEAN?

To the In Front Racing team it means long nights at the shop, huge changes to suspension, a little welding, a little grinding and a sever automotive weight loss program.  All of those things plus over 5 hours at the track practice night, it looks like things are looking up for Terry and the # 75 Super Stock.  The crew along with some very valuable help from Rob and Ryan Mill and some advice from Paul Young, made several changes to the set up.  These changes paid off huge Saturday.

 The temperatures of the track surface made for some very loose conditions during both practice sessions.  Stagger changes were made to both the # 63 and # 75 in hopes that the cars would tighten up a little bit.

 During qualifying, the changes and new right side tires paid off for Terry.  He FINALLY broke into the 14 second time bracket by posting a lap time of 14.990 during his second lap around the 1/4 mile Meridian Speedway.  This time held on thru the rest of the qualifying earning Terry the 5th quickest qualifying time of the night.  Dan, with carburetor problems, came across the line 6th quick.

Dan started the A heat on the front row, inside while Terry started out side of him.  At the drop of the flag, Dan and Terry took off from the field.  Terry dropped to the inside behind Dan and ran there for almost all 8 laps.  A poor decision on Terry's part caused a bad entry into trun one.  This made the car push and allowed the 3rd place car to drive underneath, taking the position away.  Dan won the A heat and Terry followed in 3rd.

 Dan's good luck continued with him thru the main event.  He started 3rd row, outside.  Terry was 4th row inside.  With 2 laps Terry was involved in a minor incident with another car causing a flat front right tire on the # 75 and a yellow flag on the track.   45 seconds in the pits to change the tire and Terry was back out but had to move to the rear of the field for causing the yellow.  Another yellow flag came out when a 4 car pile up occured in turn 2.  Both Dan and Terry avoided contact.  The 30 lap mainevent ended with Dan sitting in 2nd place and Terry in 7th.

 Be sure to join In Front Racing this weekend, Aug 9th. at Meridian Speedway!  Dan will be driving the # 63 late model.  Terry will be back out in the # 75 late model (super stock) trying to secure a position in the top 10.  The # 75 street stock will be back in action this Saturday night too.  Terry will be running two cars in two divisions.
 
TRIFECTA, HAT TRICK or SUPERIORITY…

Call it what you want, but there is no doubt that it was nothing less than PERFECTION!

Dan Wins it ALL! Trophy Dash, 'A' Heat Race AND the MAIN event!

Congratulations to Dan Lowther # 63 Super Stock for showing the entire Super Stock division and the large crowd how to win not just one race, but all three.

Dan was the last car to qualify Saturday night and turned the 4th quickest time in the class, earning his front row position in the trophy dash. 

Dan took half a car length lead and drove hard to keep it. Charlie Hamm Jr. pushed hard from his 3rd place, outside row starting position but Dan was able to hold him off for the victory.

Terry qualified 6th quick, earning his position in the A heat but he man to watch was lined up right behind him, Dan in the # 63 car. Terry jumped out to an early lead bringing Dan along into second. 

Terry was fighting an very ill handling car and it wasn't long until his lead was gone. Following a pretty impressive spin that covered the entire back straight and the beginning of turn 3, Terry brought out the yellow flag and Dan took over the lead. 

A few short laps later, Dan took the checkers for the second time in the same night.

The main event found the 63 car lined up right behind the 75 car again, this time on the outside row. When the green flag dropped the outside row began to move forward. Dan was able to get the nose of his car under Terry's ill handling car.

With Terry in the outside grove and getting freight trained backwards, Dan marched forward. When the first and only caution came out, for debris, not Terry's acrobatics, Dan had already worked his way into the lead.

When the green flag flew, Dan took off to extend his lead. Several laps later, Charlie Hamm Jr. moved into 2nd and began a run toward Dan.

On lap 35 Dan crossed under the checkered flag for the third time in the same night taking home top honors for the division.

With those honors came 3 trophies; one for the trophy dash, one for the main event win and most importantly one for the Dee Forrey Memorial main event win. .

Great job Dan and congratulations from a very proud In Front Racing Team! 

 

The Super Stock division is off until August 2nd but Dan will be towing the late model down to Twin Falls this coming Saturday.

Terry's son starts his Hunter's Safety class this week and Terry will be with him this coming Saturday at the rifle range.

Good luck to Dan in Twin and to Ben in Hunter's Safety!
 
Diamond Cup Weekend

Diamond Cup Weekend 

In Front Team finishes 2-3 in Friday's Race  Dan came in in the # 2 position with Terry pushing hard at him at 3rd place

Saturday, another Rain out.

My apologies to the young fans  that visited Dan & Terry in the pits on Friday, the first night of the 2008 Diamond cup races.  I promised them their picture would be on the website yesterday.  We got busy preparing for Saturday night race and it did not get done.

The In Front team appreciates the fan support and really enjoy meeting with them after the races.  Especially the young fans.  Both Dan and Terry have young ones of their own and know how excited the younger fans are about meeting them and seeing the race cars up close.

Dan & Terry with young fans at Saturday's Diamond Cup Race
 
BACK IN ACTION!

IN FRONT RACING, BACK IN ACTION:

After 3 long but productive weeks off, the entire In Front Racing team will be back in action again this Saturday night, May 10th at Meridian Speedway, Meridian, ID.  Both cars have been up-tuned.  Dan and Terry will be competing in the Late Model Divsion on the quarter mile oval.  Both cars have undergone some changes over the past 3 weeks in an attempt to make them faster and handle better.

Saturday May 10th marks the start of a very long month for the cars and team.  Between the 10th and the end of May, the team will be competing in 15 races covering 3 divisions, Late Models, Super Stocks and Street Stocks.  Yup!  You read that correctly, STREET STOCKS.  Over the past 3 weeks, the team has been wrenching on the 2007 Championship street stock, repairing it's damages sustained in Las Vegas during the 2007 Fall Classic.  Terry will have it back on the track for the first time this year on May 17th where he will be pulling double duty, racing his Super Stock and the Street Stock in the same night.

Come on out this Saturday, the weather is going to be great and the racing will be fast.  Gates open at 4, qualifying starts at 5 and racing starts at 6.
 
A GOOD NIGHT FOR THE IN FRONT RACING TEAM

Dan #63 put on a driving show that brought the crowd to their feet!

During Dan's second qualifying lap, he decided to add some spice to the night by going around just once and then decided to go around twice in one lap..


HOW??? Easy according to Dan.

"I felt the back end coming around and I just gassed it up!" "It was a blast!"


On his second lap, Dan completed a 360 degree spin on the back straight and without missing a beat, brought the car out of the spin, pointed it into turn 3 and continued on with his last qualifying lap.
The last lap was not his quickest, but it was by far his prettiest!
Dan's first lap was fast enough to take the 4th quickest qualifying position and put him in the pole position for the trophy dash.

Terry ran a couple of qualifying laps but compared to Dan's they were pretty boring and much slower.

Dan took the green flag to start the trophy dash and walked away from the other 3 cars.
Dan took the checkered flag, the trophy dash win, earning the first trophy of the year for the In Front Team.
After the races were over and fans were mingling in the pits, Dan took his trophy dash trophy, autographed it and gave it to a young fan.
You should have seen his eyes light up.
Not only is Dan a gracious winner, he is also a fantastic representative of how a driver's relationship with the fans can help promote racing in the Treasure Valley.
Not only did Dan make this boy's night, Dan also earned a fan for life and a lot of respect from his fellow racers!

Great job Dan! Keep up the good work.

The main event was almost as fun filled and exciting as Dan's qualifying lap.
The 30 lap race went almost half way before the first caution flag came out.
Both Dan and Terry missed the wreck and the debris scattered all over the track.
On the ensuing green flag, 5 cars spun sideways on the front straight, Dan was in front of the chaos and unaffected but Terry was smack dab in line with a destructive crash...
Somehow Terry managed to squeeze the # 75 Super Stock between the spinning cars and the solid cement wall...
I wonder if he had his eyes open....
The rest of the main went by fairly uneventful.
Dan managed to move thru the field of cars and take home a 3rd place finish.
Terry..... Well, he managed to finish on the lead lap, without wrecking himself or anyone else and not in last place...

GOAL ACCOMPLISHED!

Congrats to Dan on a great opening night!

Make sure you join the In Front Team on May 10th when both cars will be back out running with the late models.
Also be sure to wish Ben Lydell a happy birthday.
Ben is Terry's youngest son and he will be celebrating his 10th birthday that same night, May 10th.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!

 

 
 
Saturday April 12 Late Model Race

Dan's New 2008 Paint Scheme

Terry's New 2008 Look

 

Both In Front Super Stocks were in action for the first time in 2008. Dan and Terry took the cars out to compete against the local Treasure Valley late models.

Terry's first time in the car in a competitive environment went pretty good. During the first practice session the car was good. The soft spring set up that the car came with wasn't working really well on the flat track at Meridian Speedway. It was very noticeable that a spring and ride height adjustment had to be made. A stiffer right front spring was installed and an adjustment was made. The car was better thru the corners but a loss of 3/10ths of a second per lap was noted. During the second practice session some adjustments to the stagger were made, hoping to loosen the handling up a bit. We went just a bit too far and now the car was too loose. Now, for qualifying, we had a good idea where we needed to be.

On the # 63 Super Stock, a rear end gear change was done before practice even started. Trent stopped at the shop on the way to the track and pulled the rear end gears out of the Terry's street stock. At the track, the other gears were being pulled. After the gear swap and during the first practice, Dan was dealing with some minor handling issues but man was he fast. Terry posted a respectable 14.5 second lap time in the first session but Dan blew that away posting his fastest ever time of a 14.0 second lap... and he said it was handing weird... Yeah, right! On the second practice, Dan too lost a couple tenths of a second.

Qualifying: Terry declared with the track officials that he was running as a rookie in the late model division so no matter how Terry qualified, he had to start in the back. Terry turned a 14.8 second lap which would have put him on the pole (front row inside). Dan posted a very respectable time of 14.4, placing him as the 6th quickest qualifier out of 13 cars.

Heat races: Terry started front row outside in the B heat, consisting of 6 cars. Fighting side by side with a late model, Terry hung in there until the inside car pushed up and scrubbed Terry high into the corner between 3 and 4. The other cars in the B heat shot underneath both front running cars, shuffling Terry into last place. With the never say die attitude of the In Front Team, Terry took off after the pack, not only catching but also passing the car that scrubbed him into the corner. Terry crossed under the checkers in 5th place in the B heat.

Dan qualified into the A heat. 4 laps into the 12 lap heat race, Dan was sitting pretty in 3rd place but was aware of a grinding noise coming from the back of the car while cornering. After a short red flag for oil on the track, the heat race resumed. Dan managed to hold off all challengers and retain 3rd place in the A heat.

Main Event:
Dan started third row outside, Terry, running rookie, dead last in a field of 13 cars. Three of the 13 cars were actually Super Stocks. The other 10 were true late models. In a night filled with caution flags and red flags, the 40 lap late model race went start to finish without mishap.
Dan finished a respectable 7th place, Terry right behind him in 8th.


NEXT UP?

Saturday April 19th. Dan and Terry will be at it again. Only this time it will be in the Super Stock Division. Come on out and cheer the team on, they need your vocal support for the Best Looking Car competition.