I said when I had news to share, I’d post it here. So I guess I’ll fill you in!
After my week long experience in Orlando with Dan Snyder, I finally got the phone call I had been waiting on since the week of Christmas.
A long time friend from my modified days suggested I visit Andy Santerre because he was putting together FOUR K&N Pro Series East teams for the 2010 season and could be looking for help. I drove straight to Andy’s shop and inquired about a spotting job with one of those teams. Andy informed me while I was there that they would also be running a NASCAR Whelen All American Series Late Model Stock Car team with a rotation of six different drivers over the course of a Firday-Saturday weekend at two different tracks.
I immediately offered to spot for both racing programs because a lot of you already know I have no desire to go back to Bowman Gray Stadium this year after they raped Derek Stoltz and our team out of a legitimate championship.
Saturday night was my first night “on the job” as I spotted for California driver Jason Romero at Hickory Motor Speedway. I traveled to a test earlier in the week at Greenville-Pickens Speedway with the K&N East team and driver Darrell Wallace, Jr. so I was ready to “knock the rust off” and get ready for the new season.
Andy was the crew chief on Jason’s car Saturday night, so there was a lot of “self imposed” pressure to do the best possible job I could and prove to myself and Andy that I could do the job at this level. Thankfully, I think passed the test with flying colors.
Everyone was happy with my spotting skills and even one member of the team who has known me since my childhood days in Connecticut told me I was “too good to be spotting at the Saturday night level, because you sound like a Cup spotter up there.” To me, that was the best seal of approval I heard all night.
So we head to South Carolina and Greenville-Pickens Speedway Saturday morning to spot for Revolution Racing (www.RevolutionRacing.net) and driver Ryan Gifford (www.RyanGifford.com). Lee McCall is the crew chief and he has previous Cup racing experience with Ganassi Racing and drivers Sterling Marlin and Jamie McMurray. Our driver Ryan Gifford is under a development contract with Richard Childress Racing and has four previous starts in the K&N Series with a best finish of second on two occasions.
Another cool thing is all these races on the K&N Pro Series will be televised on SPEED Channel, abeit on a tape-delayed basis. So, it’ll be cool to go back and watch the races from the couch and see what elese was going on during our races.
I’m really looking forward to this opportunity, and thankful for the friends who steered me towards it. Now, it’s time to get all my gear ready, and do the deal.
Wish us luck at Greenville, and I’ll be sure to blog about our race when I get back.
