OWEN SOUND, ON- Longtime Sauble Speedway Thunder Car regular Jason Legge has made advancements with his in-house Crate Engine-powered Late Model program all season long and hopes to continue his rise through the division in Wednesday’s ‘Dash for Cash’ invitational.
The Legger’s Race Shop founder most recently carved out a 4th place finish at July 11th’s ‘Battle at the Beach’ event, giving his team hope for a strong run in July 29th’s annual invitational.
“Driving a Crate Motor to a top-5 finish here is almost like a win,” smiles Legge when asked about his most recent outing. “This program has been a labour of love for us since the winter months. We’ve put a lot into it – and it’s fantastic to see it start to pay off”
“I’ve heard it for as long as I’ve been in the pits here ‘Sauble is a built motor track – a crate motor will never work here’. So, obviously, I wanted to see for myself if we could make it work or not,” continues the former road course competitor. “It hasn’t been easy, but I truly believe that we’re starting to make some gains now”
Legge is quick to admit that the experiment has not been without its pitfalls, though through the tireless efforts of his mostly volunteer crew, the pros are beginning to outweigh the cons.
“It’s just trial and error,” says Legge. “We’ve thrown a number of different combinations at this car already, just to see what will work. It’s not like there’s a half-dozen guys here running a 602 that we can compare notes with. In a lot of ways, we’re on an island. So we have to figure it out all by ourselves”
“We learned a ton on July 11th, and we’ll go home and see what we can do to make it better for the Dash on July 29th,” adds the veteran. “We plan on running this car as much as we can during the Playoff Season in September and October, so any start we make until then is something we can utilize as a testing session”
For Legge, the work does not appear to be coming to an end any time soon. But, as long as there’s progress, the self-proclaimed ‘hardhead’ is prepared to put in the hours.
“It’s awesome to make some headway,” smiles Legge. “Because, at first, it felt as though we were beating our heads against the wall”
“I think there’s a lot more we can do with this program, and I think this car can get even better if we stay on top of it. We’re only scratching the surface of how good a Crate-powered car can be at Sauble, and I’m excited to see how far we can take this.”
Details for Wednesday, July 29th’s Dash for Cash event can be found at www.SaubleSpeedway.ca.
Fans can keep up with Legge’s progress by following @LeggersRaceShop on Twitter.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
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