{Bill W) August 14, 2012 – At the Knoxville Nationals, things need to go your way.
Tuesdays with TMAC – Not His Year!
(Bill W) August 14, 2012 – At the Knoxville Nationals, things need to go your way. For Terry McCarl, it was clear it was not his year. Things mounted after misfortune hit in his heat race on qualifying night, and it was clear the deck was stacked against him. Saturday finished disappointingly in the B main, but he will be back in action this Sunday night at Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota, where he holds the point lead.
Things started well with Thursday’s qualifying. TMAC timed in seventh quick, but couldn’t make it through the heat after a mishap. “The car was fast,” he says of the TMAC Motorsports #24. “With seventh quick, and what looked like fourth in the heat…that would have probably put us in the A on Saturday pretty easily. It was pretty disappointing, but that’s part of the Nationals.”
TMAC worked his way up to fifth in the heat, one spot out of a transfer. “Everything is so important,” he says. “You can’t win it all in the heat race, but you can lose it. We would have even been o.k. running fifth in the heat and making it through the B. I wasn’t that worried.”
Geoff Ensign was running in the fourth and final transfer spot. He blew and engine and skidded up the track, collecting TMAC. “I was coming down the back straightaway following him,” he says. “He was going to be disqualified for losing a muffler anyway, but I didn’t know that. I saw sparks coming out of his car, and he started moving towards the bottom. That’s when I went on an emotional roller coaster in about one second.”
He tried to avoid the incident, but caught the rough stuff and tipped over. “I thought I would make it through, but all of a sudden his car veered to the right,” says TMAC. “It wasn’t his fault at all. I had every intention of running up the fence and back down to finish the race. I about had it. Unfortunately, it was so deep coming down that my nose dug in and we turned over.”
The front end was repaired to get ready for the B. Slated to start fourth, TMAC pulled into the work area before it could begin. “We had a bunch of people jump in and help us,” he says. “Unfortunately, the left front brake locked up before the B main. When things like that happen, you know it’s just not your year.”
The new Friday format gave TMAC a second chance at Saturday’s A main. “With someone like me, it gives you a second chance. We were able to qualify well (12th) and make it through the heat (1st). We were starting fifth in the feature and it seemed like we could run fourth.”
TMAC would end up seventh. “We ran something over and put a hole in the right rear tire,” he says. “We were lucky to finish seventh. Danny (Lasoski) had a flat and didn’t fare that well. On one hand, it was pretty amazing we finished, but you know it’s not your year.”
Lining up thirteenth in Saturday’s B main, the car suffered issues that landed TMAC 14th. “We were the fastest car in hot laps,” he says. “It sounds like craziness, but I check this stuff myself. We left with ten and a half inches of stagger and came in with twelve and a half inches. The right rear grew an inch, and the left rear shrunk an inch. We checked the pressures and they were right on. I was just so loose the way the track was.”
The team will bounce back this weekend. “We’ll be back at Huset’s,” he says. “Hopefully, we can hang on to our point lead there and at Knoxville and grab a couple track championships.”
Category: Driver Updates, News, Terry McCarl
