Finally a top three finish for the Berlin City/Dion Bros Race Team
06/01/07: It was a great night of racing with perfect weather at the White Mountain Motorsport Park on Sat. May 26. The 150 lap "Pass" race along with the all the support divisions put on some great racing and the large crowd on hand didn't leave disappointed.
Practice went pretty well for the Dion team although the car was bottoming out in the turns and the power steering was acting erratic but Dave assumed that it wouldn't cause any trouble in the race. After some suspension changes the bottoming out seemed to go away and the car held it's speed pretty well with the new tires. With a great draw (outside pole) for the heat the team went on to their first heat win and would start the 150 lap feature from the pole. Right around this time "Willis" came up with the comment "Don't you love it when a plan comes together?"
With a little down time before the feature the team got to visit Stub Fadden who was there with his great grandchildren, which were racing in the other divisions that night. Everyone was in agreement that tracks like White Mountain are like a homecoming for all of us and are a pleasure to come to. It was nice to see the big smile on Stubby's face as all his old friends and peers stopped by to see how he was doing.
The feature lined up right on schedule and it was time to see how good the car would be on a long run as there was still doubts in the team's mind on a few issues. The car jumped out front and ran well until the caution waved on the 20th lap. The restart put Mike Rowe outside of Dave and Mike took full advantage of the opportunity, winning the battle going into the first turn. Dave stayed close and pressured Mike all he could but with Mike's experience, getting the lead back was not going to be easy. The battle continued for awhile until Dave's power steering started binding and he smacked the wall at the flag stand. With the erratic steering and some damage from the contact with the wall the car continued to lose positions. As the race wound down, some of the front runners ran into trouble and Dave was able to gain some positions and close up on Mike and Benjy at the finish. The team was disappointed that the car had a mechanical failure as they take great pride in their preparation but it was Dave's call and he under estimated how bad the problem was.
The irony of the whole situation was that the only time Dave drove one of Mike Rowe's cars he fell out of the race with power steering trouble. Mike said he was sorry that he didn't put a better system in the car and Dave said he never has power steering trouble with his own cars. It's funny how things go full circle in this business but the Dion team was glad to see Mike get a victory.
The Dion team would like to thank their friends from Berlin City for supporting their team Sat. night and for all their help for over 20 years this year. Next race for the team will be at "All Star Speedway" (it used to be called Star Speedway) in Epping,N.H. June 28-29. Look for more info.on the web site in the next week or so.