July 20-21, 2007 Deming Speedway

The team had a very bad saturday night of Clay Cup. The two 600 did not make it to the starting line in their races. Paul's # 9 broke a $ 2.49 cluch part on the parade lap and did not start his race. Jeff's car got a vaper lock in the fuel line and the car would not start till after the green fell so he was out and done for the night. Butch Johnsen started his race and all looked good  but going into turns one and two a couple of cars spun high on the track Butch went to go past them low but they both came down the track. Butch got pinched between them and the inside wall, knocking the muffler off and bracking the bird cage in half. Three cars and we did not make a single lap guess thats racing but boy it sure hurts.

  7/20/2007 - - - - -Deming   rained out
  7/21/2007 - - - - -Skagit     rained out

Next week we are off as Deming is dark for the 360 Nationals at Skagit and we are not running the Nationals with the smaller motors.


Next race     Deming 8/3/2007
                    Skagit   8/4/2007

July  6,  2007  Deming Speedway

No heat races or time ins as it was mid season championship night. The first B-Main was in the 1200s and Butch Johnson found himself front row outside. He dropped to third but looked like he would hold on to a transfer spot till the jacobs ladder broke sending him into the wall and over on his top then he was hit by another car. Done for the night.

Paul Burdick started at the back of the B-Main as he was out for ( 4 ) four weeks with the blown motor.   He worked his way slowly up several spots and was running just out of a transfer spot when  two cars spun right in front of him, he locked it up but slid into the wall and over on his wing. The car was not to badly damaged and the crew checked it over and worked to get him back out on the track so he could at least finish the race and he even moved up a few spots with a ill handling race car.

Our 250s both started the A Main and James Vaughn blow the motor in his car. Victoria Cantu started at the back but kept at it and finished in the top ( 10 ) ten.

Jeff Westergard started ( 11 ) eleventh in the A Main and in the first lap had moved to( 7 ) seventh and was working on ( 6 ) sixth.  Another spin right in front of Jeff that he missed some how moved him to (5 ) fifth. For the next few laps he worked on the fourth place car and finally got by and into fourth place only to be tapped from behind and spun. Both cars had to go to the back of the pack and he worked his way back up to ( 8 ) eighth place.

Not a good night but not that bad as all cars rolled into the trailer at nights end after a great fireworks show.  Hope it is a better night tomorrow night at Skagit Speedway so till then keep the dirty side down.

June 22nd Deming Speedway &
23rd Berry Dairy Days Parade and Skagit Speedway

Friday June 22nd
The team was ready to go after being off for two (2 ) weeks with the Dirt Cup at Skagit and Deming being dark for the Dirt Cup.  Cars loaded, towed to the track, packed the track, timed in, only to have Mother Nature rain the show out. Boy do the cars get dirty when that happens and usually not a problem but the Dairy, Berry Days Parade was Saturday at 11:00 am. This meant that all the cars had to be washed as well as the trailers. Part of the crew pulled a all nighter as two of the cars were race ready but not show ready so Gary Vaughn, Paul Burdick, and James Bundy worked all night repainting and making the cars look much better. A huge thank you guys from team owner and slave driver the "old man".

Saturday June 23
The parade was a lot of fun for all  - - -  the team suburban with Team Owner Jim Burdick and P.R. Manger John Hunziker on board pulled one of the 28 foot trailers. A crew member Stevo rode the quad pulling the three cars Paul's sportsman sprint was man handled by Corey Cook as Paul was Sleeping so he could race that night, Butch Johnsen's 1200 was piloted by Kayla Vaughn as Butch had to work, and then Jeff Westergard drove his car. Had several people come over after the parade to ask about our sponser to ask about NASCAR trips.

Saturday night was another good and bad night. The good Devin Madonia finished second in his heat race and went on to do battle with Eric Fisher and Kivin Smith the two points leaders coming out with a second place finish in the main giving him 104 points for the night. Devin is moving ever closer to the other rookies after the set back with poor communications between the track and myself as to rather he could drive at the age of 15 or not so he missed one week there and another when Paul slid wide and took him out so with a two week handy cap he is on a march to be rookie of the year.

The bad Paul out for the first time after going over the fence and destroying the car had a tire go down in the heat race as he was trying to move into 4th place which drooped him to 7th. That meant he had to start 14th in the main. After a restart for a Aaron Smith role over in turn one Paul made a short run for the front as after getting by three cars going through turn four Jeff Voter spun collecting Jarrid Zimmerman, Kelleigh Johnson and yes Paul as well. Zimmerman went over on his side and Paul bent the new frame so it looks like another long week putting it all back together.

Hope to see everyone next week the 29th at Deming and the 30th at Skagit

June 8th & 9th Deming Speedway

Jeff Westergard timed in 5th out of 26 cars then went on to win his heat race. Started third in the 600 main and got pushed back to seventh as the car on the poll got off to a slow start. It was a fast main event with it going green, white, checkered 25 laps in just over 8 minutes. Jeff finished 5th.
FRONTIER CHEVROLET/SPEEDMART 600 SPRINTS

Fast Time; Logan Forler 10.500

Heat one winner: Jeff Westergard (Great Job Jeff!)

Heat two winner: Britton Lorentzen

600 Sprint “B” Main: 1/ Phil Schemenauer 2/ Lance Sargent.

600 Sprint “A” Main: 1/ Ben Hogarth 2/ Britton Lorentzen 3/ Brett Scott Jr. 4/ Logan Forler 5/ Jeff Westergard 6/Mike Severson 7/ Brad Davidson 8/ *Phil Schemenauer 9/ Dustin O’brien 10/ Tom Waggner 11/ *Lance Sargent 12/ Forest
Metcalf 13/ Mac Brown 14/ Steven Hendrickson

Our 1200 mini-sprint would not start, so it was a scratch for the night.

Kayla Vaughn got out for the first time and her first time in lap was 14.2 and the second was 14.0 which is slowerthat most the others but she had never been in a sprint car before.  In her heat race and the B main she was in the mid13 second range, and doing much better till she spun and tagged the turn 4 wall.

Victoria Cantu had trouble getting the handle and was trying so hard to move up to a transfer spot that she spun twice and was done for the night

Saturday June 9th

We got rained out, but the team had a big birthday party for Paul as his birthday is the 9th and several others have birthdays this month.

Next week is the big Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway, a three day race for 410s so the V-BeeRacing team will be off that week  as Deming is also dark that week end.  We will be back out racing on the 22 at Deming with all four cars as Paul's motor came in on the 8th just did not have time to get it going as there was so much that had to be done to build a new car to replace the one Paul destroyed at Deming on June 2nd.

June 1st & 2nd Deming Speedway

The extra hours the V-Bee Racing Team put in over the long, hot, last week of May was well worth it all. The sunny, eighty-degree weather Friday brought to us made it a beautiful night for racing at Deming Speedway. After packing and the many hot lap sessions, drivers and crew quickly found out that it was going to be a sticky night for racing. The humid weather and tacky track was peeling like an onion by time-ins rolled around. In the 250 class, Victoria Cantu timed in at about the middle to the end of the pack, while Jeff Westerguard, in the 44J, 600 timed in seventh. Also, in the 1200 division, Butch Johnson had a fast couple of laps and timed in twelfth.

Finally back from her three week absence due to a head injury, Victoria made her first come-back race starting last in the second heat race. Still a little out it, she finished where she started. After timing in seventh, Jeff had the rest of the night set into place. Starting on the pole position, both driver and car were out for the win. Becoming his own leader, Jeff took the eight lap race and came out on top. In the remaining races, Butch Johnson fought the battle for fifth were he held it for the remainder of the race. Happy with their finishes, all drivers moved on into the A-main.

After the Kasey Kahne Jr. main event, Victoria, as well as the rest of the 250 class, went out for theirs. Starting dead last, she gained positions on the many restarts. Fighting to keep her spot in the touchy race, she spun out and
lightly hit the inside wall out of corner two. Starting in the back again, she began to do some passing on the restarts. Shooting up a few more spaces when, coming out of turn one, the steering shaft landed in her lap, while the steering wheel spun, and the tires cranked right. Nearly going over after hitting the wall, she walked away without so much as a bruise. Starting eighth in the A-main after a spectacular finish in the heat race, Jeff had a forward and backward and far, far forward race. After passing fifth and gaining on third, he was doing amazing. Unfortunately, after passing the fifth place car, there was some unnecessary bumping and Jeff was taken out. Spinning hard into the inside wall, the front end was crunched. Upset and uninjured, we'll get Jeff back for next weekend.

Following the 600 main event, Butch Johnson was the teams 1200 Extra extraordinaire. Taking full charge, Butch started last and after weaving through a tough bunch of crashes, he found his way up to eighth. Eventually,
the twenty-five lap main was over and he finished eighth and happy as ever!!

Saturday nights racing at Skagit Speedway also was a win and lose situation. Still with the eighty degree weather beating down and a tacky Skagit racetrack, we thought it was going to be one of the best tracks we had seen all year. By
the time time-ins rolled around we found out we were precisely correct. The track was glorious. When Devon Madonia pulled in the sixties, he lined up sixth and finished fourth, qualifying him for the middle of the A-main. Paul Burdick
drew a low four or five he ended up starting outside front row. Seeming to pull strait away from the pack with the first place car, he finished with a somewhat easy second place.

Once the main events lulled around, both V-Bee drivers geared up and got in. Paul starting outside, front row, again, and Devon starting in the middle of the Sportsman Sprint class. Once the green flag waved, Paul skyrocketed away
from the entire pack leaving, even, Kevin Smith in his dry dust. On the many restarts Paul and his blue number nine repeated that same flurry, while Devon caught up and got into fifth. Before Devon could get any higher in positions,
Paul had quickly caught up to lapped traffic where, just coming into turn three, he passed rookie Aaron Smith. When Smith came high, Paul had no where to go but up. Up is profoundly where he went. Straight up into the wall where he bent the fence and thoroughly destroyed the car. Quickly recovered, Paul climbed out and they towed the car away. For the rest of the race, Devon Madonia gained another spot and shortly finished in fourth.

All in all, the V-Bee Racing Team had a pretty sublime Friday night at Deming Speedway and Saturday night at Skagit Speedway. Things could have gone worse and things could have gotten better but, overall, we were all pretty pleased with the conclusion at the end of both nights and the end of a long weeks work.