#55 2006 Year In Review

Well looking back now that the racing season of 2006 is completed and my first half a season behind the wheel of a Retread Racing machine is behind me, I thought it would be a perfect time to look back at the year since I’ve joined Retread Racing back in late June. So take a trip back with me through time when I revisit some of the good times, and the bad times in the #55 Kenworth Ford Fusion and Mello-Yello Mercury Milan, as we say good bye to those two name plates on the front of the #55 car to make room for the newly coming Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.

I was totally taken by shock when Greg Artlip, better known as his code name of Retread, asked me to become his teammate over at Retread Racing late in June. I had run my own team since getting back into online racing about a month after I got back from college. I had run Chevrolet’s, Dodge’s and was in the process of running a Toyota out of my own stable. But alas the success I enjoyed with NASCAR Racing 3 and NASCAR Legends had disappeared with the newer simulators, or so I thought. I was struggling to finish races and never ran near the front, so when Greg asked me to move my team over to his, I decided to take it.

The results almost came instantly for both my team and the #06 car that he runs. My debut race at FastTrack Racing at Pocono in July, saw me and the #55 Kenworth Ford Fusion run within a lap of taking the victory. Running up front nearly all race and leading much of the race only to come down to the last corner on the last lap to lose control and hand the win over to Rod Wheeler. We saw something was on the horizon for me here.

The second race at Indianapolis saw much of the same thing out of me and the Ford only to come down to getting the short end of a fuel mileage race. Followed up by the race at Watkins Glen in which Greg didn’t show up so I was left carrying the banner, and carry it well is what I did. In my third start at FTR I led only seven laps and won at my second worst (Infineon being the worst) race track. However, things weren’t going to be uphill from there.

Missing the next week at my home track of Michigan International Speedway my next few races were disastrous. A DNF at Bristol, 6^th at California and limping home at the next two races at Richmond and New Hampshire, left me and my crew wondering what had gone wrong. We started a climb back up when I ran up front at Kansas and then decided to take the week off at a track that we’d never finished at in Lowes to regroup. The next weekend at Martinsville we started seeing the results again that I wanted, running up front and survived.

So from there we wanted to see where this road of faith would lead up to. Atlanta we got a taste of it when we ran strong in practice and the first 30 laps of the race, even taking the lead and holding it, until the pit stop and a lap car took us out. But we came out with our heads held high knowing that we could still do it. The next week at Texas, we did it, our second win after leading 52 of the 151 laps with Greg coming home third.

Phoenix wasn’t as kind to us as we finished 4^th but off the lead lap. Knowing that we want to make a run at the 2007 FTR Cup Championship, we knew we needed momentum. So after a win at the Texas Motor Speedway and Phoenix being somewhat kind to us, we decided to go out on a high note if possible in the season finale at Homestead. However a problem with my performance pedals left me scrambling and eventually breaking out a old set of pedals that had never been used. Not being used to them we got the fastest time in practice, sat on the pole for the first time in FTR and from there, turned our attention to the 121 laps that was before us. Leading 81 of those 121 laps we came out with our third victory and second in three weeks.

Overall in the short time behind the wheel of Retread Racing’s #55 race cars has been one of the best years of my online racing career. We came out with 2006 FTR Rookie Of The Year Honors and look poised to make a run at the 2007 Championship. I look forward to learning more from Greg and our newest driver Beas, of whom I’ve raced against before, in the off-season and running the entire schedule next year as well as helping my friend Angelle take over the reigns for the start of her racing career. Between the championship and getting her used to the game and her #42 Guild Wars Mercury Milan, I’m going to be busy next year. But you know what, I wouldn’t trade it for the world with the teammates I have.