We finally made it To Duane Howards farm & race shop last nite! Man, what a GREAT time! Duane pulled up with his daughters just as we did! The Finch that stole Christmas was already in the shop! Duane signed the roof and gave Eric a couple of hats and photo cards and invited us into the shop! They have 3 cars they are readying! The Syracuse Troyer car will now be the Bridgeport Big-Block car with an option of a Tony Feil or Doug Meyers big-block! 1st race for this car will be Selinsgrove.
The next car is is also a 4 year old Troyer that will be powered by a Main motor for use at Big Diamond! This car has been stripped down and repainted! The 3rd car is also a Troyer that will have a Main motor and used as a small block! The shop was not huge, but very neat and CLEAN!
The Bridgeport car will have a similar paint job as the Syracuse car! Duane said that Chad like black, so the other 2 cars may be black! All will carry the #4! I asked Duane about the Syracuse experience and he was quick to answer! It was tough when they got there, timing in the 30-35 place times! They worked hard through the week doing alot of scaling and changing set-ups through Billy Colton (TROYER). The big difference seemed to be when the Integra shock guys came down and they gave them a try, the 1st time out they timed 13th!! Well, that was an easy decision, so they stuck with Integra! Penske was NOT pleased by any means, but you go to win!
Duane said near the end of the race he was running 1/2 throttle down the straights to conserve fuel! He said he could have passed Sheppard & Cozze with no problem, but needed to conserve fuel! They also thought that Cozze would run out & the race was between himself & Sheppard! Well, Cozze remarkably didnt run out and a 3rd was impressive for not being there for 13 years! He said they only had 1 1/2 gallons left and Cozze still had over 2 gallons running over 153 laps on 1 tank!!
They will make the decision later in the year on returning to Syracuse or not! We talked about CVD and his new Troyer and his getting back with Chad! I asked him if he thought Craig would struggle with a chassis he has never run? He quickly stated that Grinch errr...Finch will be helping him with set-ups and that Craig will not have any problems at all adjusting! He said that Jeff & Craig are the master of Grandview! He said they are so tough to beat there! He said alot of nice things about Craig & Jeff! He mentioned that he doesnt think Grandview will be having the DIRT show (Traffic Jam 100) this year! SUCKS! Duane did say he will be at Grandview for the 76er and any Thunder show with Modifieds!
I brought up that I was pretty upset with him leaving Grandview how & when he did! He said he was frustrated at the time and needed a change! He thought Jeff would have won anyway and there is no battle between himself & Jeff, but a battle between teams ( Hyneman-BPG)!
Duane was GREAT and very easy to talk too! We were there about 40 minutes! He invited us to bring the kids back and hang out again whenever we would like too! GREAT TIME!
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