The racing season has finally arrived for Jody Rosenboom and the Team Crown Racing sprint car team. A double dose of Jackson Speedway for their opening weekend awaited.
Friday night Jackson hosted it’s 3rd Annual Spring Nationals, and the fans were treated to a strong field of cars. Team Crown pulled in hoping to make a good showing and with a bit of luck they showed they’re ready for the season with a decent finish for the first night out. Team owner Jason Johnson commented on the night, “I always get a little nervous when a big show comes up thinking about all the little things that can go wrong. You always kind of wonder if you really belong with the caliber of cars that an event like this draws. We started out the night with an unproven fuel setup in our car and we had to tweak and tune on that most of the night until we were fairly comfortable with what the motor was doing. We didn’t have a really good heat race as far as the car and motor all working in tune with one another like it should. Unfortunately we held our position and didn’t make the A feature via transferring out of our heat. By the time our B feature came though, we were pretty confident we had a good setup and the motor was going to react like it should. Jody ran good laps there and we were able to take that one pretty easily. For the A feature we really didn’t do much different than what we had out there for the B. We passed a lot of cars there in the A, but not as many as we’d have liked. It seemed like every time we’d pass a car or two, a caution would come out and we’d have to move back a spot and then have to pass that car back again. I know for sure it was at least three different times that happened. All in all with the field of cars they had, and the starting position we were faced with, I’m pretty happy with the way the night turned out. Our speed was pretty consistent with most of the cars that ran up front, and we really had a pretty good shot at running in the top five with a little more luck in the caution department. In order to be in the hunt for a win or a top five at a race like this, you’ve got to put a complete night together, and we weren’t able to do that early on.”
Saturday saw the second night in a row at Jackson Speedway and a very dry race track. With winds approaching 40 mph and higher temperatures, the track crew did what they could to make it the best it could be. “This is our kind of track, and we tend to shine when it gets like it was.” stated Jody. Starting 5th in the A feature, Jody quickly moved into 4th and then in contention for 3rd before contact with the 1w of Chad Meyer. “The loss of momentum after the contact really hurt our chances there, and then the track really started to rubber down and everyone was as fast as each other”, says Jason. “We were as good or better than the leaders there, but we didn’t get a very good start right out of the gate. In just a matter of a couple of laps though, Jody made up for the start and passed a couple of cars to get into 4th. We had 3rd there, but that contact wasn’t what we needed and the track just took care of the rest. Towards the end of the race, we lost a cylinder and pretty much rode our way to 4th.”
The team is very happy with opening weekend, and looks forward to another double header in two weeks at Jackson Speedway.