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Onderko finishes 13th after mechanical problems in the nelma 100 challenge

 

10-25-09 - Sundance Vacation Speedway, St John’s, PA –  After a dismal start to the weekend, Sunday turned out to be sunny and cool with a tremendous amount of racing action in the last race of the year for the Onderko Motorsports Team.

 

 

As the team started to unload, we caught up with Justin to talk about his chances in today’s race. “This has been the week from hell; we dropped a rear in testing on Tuesday and  a power steering pump on Thursday. We had ignition problems in between all of that. So when you ask me what my chances are in today’s race – I would say darn good. We are at the track and ready to race. The team has done a fantastic job this week. There were many late night getting ready for this one. I am going to do my best to bring home a win today. We have not had much success here in the past here – but I feel good about this one today.”

 

As the sun came up over the trees and the teams were getting their machines ready we spoke to the 31’s Crew Chief. We asked the mood of his team and driver today as they prepare for the race “Justin was in a good mood this morning when I spoke to him on the phone. He was cautiously optimistic about today. The team was staying busy getting the car ready. It’s times like these when it’s best to stay busy, do your job and stay focused. This is a big race for us and we have done all we could to put the best mount under Justin today. He will do his job.” 

 

Qualifying was set to begin and Justin would be the 12^th car on the track for his attempt at qualifying. The team made their last minute preparations and rolled the 31 to the scales and then moved into line.

 

As the 31 came off turn four to the take the green flag, Justin was right up next to the wall on the front stretch and quickly dove down into turn one, through turn two and out to the back stretch.  Justin seemed to be carrying a fast line around the speedway. Justin let the car float up to the wall coming off turn four to take the white flag for his qualifying efforts. Once again into turn one, through turn two and onto the back part of the speedway. Driving hard into turn three and out of turn four for the checkered flag.

 

We were able to talk with Justin after his qualifying effort and asked him what he thought of the run. “The car felt good. It was a little tight in the center of the turns, but all in all, I think we did good. We will have to see what the official times are.”

 

When the official times were released Justin and the 31 were in the 14^th spot, outside row seven.  As the Late Models rolled onto the track, the sun, now high over the speedway, the NELMA 100 Late Model Challenge was about to begin. The cars rumbled out of turn four to the green flag and the field of 23 cars flew past the front grandstands for the first time in this 100 lap event.

 

At the end of the first 25 laps and through multiple caution flags Justin had moved up to the 11^th spot with some slight front end damage. The next 25 laps saw Justin sustain additional front end damage due to a wreck in turn one with really no change in position.

 

At the break the team brought out the 100 mph tape and began to tape together the nose of the 31. She was definitely bloodied, but there was still allot of fight left in her.

 

We spoke to Justin at the break while the team scrambled to make the adjustments on the car. Through sweat filled eyes and drinking Gatorade, Justin remarked, “The car gets better on long runs. We start off losing the nose in the turns and then it catches and snaps loose. We are going to make some changes to fix that. I think we will be OK for the last 50. It also didn’t help that we cut down a right front tire. I am surprised we ran on it as long as we did.” Justin’s crew chief added “Justin is doing a great job out there; he’s keeping the 31 out of trouble which is key in short track racing. You have to keep the fenders on it to be able to win here. We’re making the adjustments to make the car handle better for him.”

 

The word came that the second 50 would start; the drives buckled in and once again brought their engines to life. Justin would be starting the last 50 in the 11^th spot and as the green dropped the cars roared down the front stretch. At the end of 75 laps Justin had moved the 31 up to the 6^th spot.

 

The caution on came out on lap 81 for a wreck in turn two and as the 31 slowed going into turn two, Justin began to slow and pulled to the inside. He got on the radio and said “… it just shut off”.  He switched ignition boxes and tried to fire it again and nothing. As the wrecker pushed the 31 into the pits the team scrambled to add fuel to the car while the hood was lifted to see if any problem could be found.

 

They needed to get him out before the drop of the green to keep him on the same lap as the leaders. The crew buttoned him back up and the push truck began to push the 31 down the back stretch when it finally fired going into turn three. Justin got on the radio to his crew, “… you guys did a great job of getting me back out here, fantastic job!”

 

However the problem would rear its ugly head not more than two laps later when Justin slowed on the front stretch still under caution. “She shut off again; I think it’s a fuel problem. Something's wrong with the fuel pickup.” Justin said.

 

Once again the crew scrambled to try and see what the problem was but the 31 would not fire again. Justin and the 31 would be finished for the day.Officially, Justin finished in the 13^th spot turning in his fastest time on lap 54.

 

Justin spoke to us after the race, “I feel really bad for my team today. They worked so hard this week. They put in so much effort to get us here.  I cannot begin to thank everyone who helped out today. My sister Dana and my Mom were in the pits helping out today. We all wanted this one. We wanted it real bad.” Justin added “We didn’t have the fastest car here today, but we had ourselves in a position to get a run at the leaders at the end, we just came up short.”

 

When asked what’s next for the Onderko Motorsports team Justin concluded “We are going to be running at Shangri La II Speedway next year in New York, it’s a half mile concrete oval. In the brief time we were there we have had good success averaging a top five finish.”

 

Justin’s crew chief gave his final remarks of the season “The team we have assembled is young and eager to learn. They have done one heck of a job this year; they have all stepped up their game when it was needed. Justin is a young, talented driver and continues to mature with every race he runs.”

 

 The Onderko Motorsports program has several irons in the fire for 2010 with several possible avenues to go, all of which are going to bring this driver and this team into the headlines once again for 2010.