CHESLEY, ON- The Stade Motorsports team put a long off-season to bed when they backed off the hauler at Sunset Speedway’s inaugural Spring Derby 100 on May 4th. Eager to pad their notebook, the team utilized a number of different setup combinations through practice to help ready them for the 2014 season.
“This event served a dual purpose for our team”, explained Stade in post-race debriefing. “Racing against this level of competition is going to make you better, every single time, and this much track time allows our team to play with our setup to make sure we’re bang on for our first Sauble Speedway appearance on May 17th”
After a solid time trial effort, Stade opened up the 100-lap contest just outside the top-10, diligently working to preserve his equipment in the race’s early goings.
“We were just riding early on”, said the second-generation driver. “Initially, the car felt awesome. I fell into line behind [Tom] Walters and was reminding myself almost every lap not to overdrive the car and to save the tires and brakes”
Unfortunately, Stade’s ride began to tighten up the longer the race remained under green flag conditions.
“The car was awesome on short runs. It felt good, I was comfortable in it, and we were really able to go on the offensive”, said Stade. “But the longer the run went, the tighter the car got. Early in the race we had a solid 35-lap run and I was barely hanging on by the end of it. It’s almost impossible to pick up positions when you’re barely able to get into the corner”
Despite his frustrations with the car’s handling, Stade is able to reflect on the positive aspects of his performance this weekend.
“We had a real good effort in qualifying, and were able to run with some of the best racers in the province before the car tightened up. Even when the car wasn’t behaving the way we wanted it to, it gave us valuable intel that will be able to help us prepare for our season at Sauble”.
With the Spring Derby 100 in the rearview, the Stade Motorsports team will regroup and ready themselves for Sauble Speedway’s season opener on May 17th.
Josh Stade’s 2014 season is made possible thanks to MEI Paving, APC Autoparts, Upper Canada Tile, Kunkel Bus Lines, Ken’s Truck Painting and WIX Filters.
Fans can keep up with Josh as he prepares his Howe chassis for Sauble Speedway action via his @PrimeTimeStade Twitter account, as well as the official Stade Motorsports Facebook page.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
Discussion about this post