Wait till you see the MitiGator Ford at the next race!
Only have time for a short update today, I am heading out the door right now to head up to North Wilkesboro for the PASS Series race as our crew chief Jody Lavender is running a Super Late model this weekend, and I am going to head up there and help him out. On a side note, I am going today to help him during practice, and the high is suppose to be 96 degrees! But when the rest of the team shows up on saturday for the race the high is suppose to be 79... just my luck. Oh ...
So you want to race?… Be Prepared for a bunch of late nights.
There are times where there is nothing more fun then racing, and then there are times where there is nothing more frustrating then racing. The good times like where we finished 2nd at New Smyrna Speedway earlier this year always out weigh the bad. But there are days like today where we finished up working on the car and loading the trailer at midnight for our upcoming test tomorrow at Concord Speedway. We have to leave tomorrow at 7 in the morning tomorrow for the test, so needless to say its going to be a short night. But with it ...
NASCAR could learn a few things from the IZOD IndyCar series
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="330" caption="Milka Duno's recent struggles have left the series with some difficult decisions. "][/caption] Usually I update this blog with what has been happening with our race team, and trust me we have a lot going on right now with the MitiGator Ford Fusion. But I am going to go off track a little this evening. This evening I came across an article by Nick Bromberg and it is something that I found really refreshing. The article addresses Milka Duno's recent performance in the series. Milka is a female racer who is best known for her run in ...
Next race – Concord Speedway!
[caption id="attachment_207" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="the next race for the MitiGator Ford Fusion will be at Concord Speedway on August 28th. Make Sure you visit MitiGatorinc.com to listen to live radio communication during the event!"][/caption] At our last race at Iowa Speedway the MitiGator Ford Fusion was caught up in a wreck on the opening lap. Someone missed a shift in front of us and we had no where to go and was caught up in a multi-car accident. Luckily my seat had been equipped with the MitiGator Cushioning system, so I didnt even come out with a bruise! This week ...
Sometimes things don’t always go as planned
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="324" caption="Sometimes things happen outside of your control, this is exactly what happened that left the MitiGator Ford Fusion looking like this"][/caption] Each year we make the trek out to Iowa Speedway for one of the biggest races of the year. the drive is over a 1,000 miles from our shop in Statesville, N.C. But, I have to admit the trip is always a fun one. Plus Iowa has always been a good track for our team. Our last 3 races have ended with 2 top ten finishes and a 5th place last year. We knew we were going ...
The choice to miss a race can be a hard one…
Sometimes in racing you are faced with difficult decisions - sometimes these decisions have to do with what's happening on the track: If I move this car out of the way, is he going to return the favor? Other times though decisions have to be made on what is best for the race team. I was faced with one of those decisions this past week. We have an upcoming race at Motor Mile Speedway on July 17th, the MitiGator Ford Fusion was just about ready to go to the track, but this race was going to be crucial though in ...
USAR Pro Cup Driver Blog now Mobile Activated
Image by Getty Images via @daylife Want to keep up with your USAR Pro Cup Blog, have a mobile device and want to be able to read whats going on in the world of High Speed Auto Racing while on the go. Well, now you can! We have enhanced this blog with Mobile Access right from your IPhone or Android phone, or any other Mobile device that gets internet. We continue to bring you the very best in Extreme Sports and the latest in technology! Enjoy the ride, we sure are.
Follow along as we hunt down the 2010 USAR Pro Cup Championship
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Follow along this year, as I will update this blog to give an in depth look into what it takes to race week to week in the USAR Pro Cup Series"][/caption] I consider racing to be an addiction, and any real driver out there will tell you that racing gets in your blood. When it does, its over... It's all you can think about. I decided to do this blog after my boss came up with the idea. I didn't need much convincing; the idea is to chronicle everything that our team and myself goes through in ...
Only have time for a short update today, I am heading out the door right now to head up to North Wilkesboro for the PASS Series race as our crew chief Jody Lavender is running a Super Late model this weekend, and I am going to head up there and help him out. On a side note, I am going today to help him during practice, and the high is suppose to be 96 degrees! But when the rest of the team shows up on saturday for the race the high is suppose to be 79… just my luck. Oh well, at least it will be nice on Saturday.
But I decided to write about our upcoming race today, if you follow MitiGatorinc.com you will have noticed that the MitiGator Ford Fusion will be honoring the 9/11 victims at our race at Bristol on September 11th with a special paint scheme. Well I just finished the design, and I can’t wait for it to hit the track! It looks spectacular! Make sure you log on to MitiGatorinc.com on September 11th if you can’t be at bristol to tune in to the race via our live webcast to see the design.
Until next time.. I’m off to Wilkesboro!
There are times where there is nothing more fun then racing, and then there are times where there is nothing more frustrating then racing. The good times like where we finished 2nd at New Smyrna Speedway earlier this year always out weigh the bad. But there are days like today where we finished up working on the car and loading the trailer at midnight for our upcoming test tomorrow at Concord Speedway. We have to leave tomorrow at 7 in the morning tomorrow for the test, so needless to say its going to be a short night. But with it being the first race of the championship series, we have to make sure our car is good and we have a few things we want to try on the car.
People ask me from time to time “What do I need to race?” and whether they are looking to get in our series, or any other racing. I honestly believe that time is just as important as money when it comes to racing. I guarantee you the car that is bringing home the checkered flags in your series, is throughly prepared and maintained throughout the week. Races are not won at the track, they are won in the shop. And don’t misunderstand me sometimes you stumble into a victory or a good run, but the majority of the time your running good because of the hard work that is happening in the garage. You need to allocate as much time as possible to your ride to ensure that when you show up at the racetrack you have the best chance of winning. This is what we are hoping we are going to do at Concord on Saturday night. Don’t forget to log on to MitiGatorinc.com on Saturday evening around 7pm to watch the race live and listen to onboard communications between the MitiGator Ford Fusion and the rest of the team.
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Milka Duno's recent struggles have left the series with some difficult decisions.
Usually I update this blog with what has been happening with our race team, and trust me we have a lot going on right now with the MitiGator Ford Fusion. But I am going to go off track a little this evening. This evening I came across an article by Nick Bromberg and it is something that I found really refreshing. The article addresses Milka Duno’s recent performance in the series. Milka is a female racer who is best known for her run in with Danica Patrick a few years back. The article is pretty harsh on Milka, and understandably so. Milka struggles at most events and the article actually highlighted a race where she was 10 seconds off the pace. But I’m not here to judge Milka, I’ve been there plenty of times. Every driver will struggle from time to time, I’ve had races where it was all I could do to stay on the lead lap.
But what I found great was Randy Bernard (ceo of the series) comments about Milka, he stated that they were going to make a descision at years end on what was in the best interest in the series, in reference to Milka. And actually as I wrote this I discovered that they actually have put her on Probation. But I love this quote, “It’s very, very important for the credibility of the IndyCar Series that fans know they’re (the drivers) the best in the world.”
It reminded me of the days way before the top 35 in owner points were guaranteed a spot at each NASCAR event. A decision that in my opinion has hurt the quality of racing today in NASCAR. It doesn’t happen at every event but time to time you will have someone that qualified fast enough to place in the top 40 but yet misses the race because of owner points. I understand the reason behind the rule, NASCAR wants to reward the owners that are dedicated to the series with a guaraunteed spot at each event (no matter how they qualify).
But there was a time when you knew that the top 40 that qualified for the event were the fastest 40 drivers in stock car racing at that event. I personally think that NASCAR needs to go back to the fastest 40 cars in qualifying, qualifies for the event, and then have 3-4 provisionals left for if something happens to someone in qualifying that needs to rely on that provisional. Because honestly, this is suppose to be the top drivers in the world. Even if you are top 5 in points and your not fast enough to qualify in the top 40 then you don’t deserve to be there – Just my opinion. But you would still have the provisionals to fall back on if something did break in the engine, or if you blew a tire. So come on NASCAR lets make qualifying actually mean something, and best of luck Milka!
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the next race for the MitiGator Ford Fusion will be at Concord Speedway on August 28th. Make Sure you visit MitiGatorinc.com to listen to live radio communication during the event!
At our last race at Iowa Speedway the MitiGator Ford Fusion was caught up in a wreck on the opening lap. Someone missed a shift in front of us and we had no where to go and was caught up in a multi-car accident. Luckily my seat had been equipped with the MitiGator Cushioning system, so I didnt even come out with a bruise! This week has been spent cutting off the wrecked body parts and getting everything ready for our next race at Concord Speedway on August 28th. Good news is, it appears to be purely cosmetic, meaning there is no harm that has been done to the chassis. It just needs a new nose, hood and left front fender and some bracing and she’ll be back at the track!
Concord is an extremely fast and tricky half-mile. It is shaped like a triangle, and things happen in a hurry there. We will be turning a half-mile in 16 seconds. So if your going to be in the area come out and watch us, I guarantee you wont regret it!
During the event at Concord you will be able to tune in live, and watch the event from our pit. You will also be able to listen to live in-race communication between the Gibson Motorsports crew. Our Last webcast had over 500 viewers! Tune into MitiGatorinc.com at 7:30 p.m. on August 28th to watch live!
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Sometimes things happen outside of your control, this is exactly what happened that left the MitiGator Ford Fusion looking like this
Each year we make the trek out to Iowa Speedway for one of the biggest races of the year. the drive is over a 1,000 miles from our shop in Statesville, N.C. But, I have to admit the trip is always a fun one. Plus Iowa has always been a good track for our team. Our last 3 races have ended with 2 top ten finishes and a 5th place last year.
We knew we were going to be contenders for the win. But lady luck had other plans, it started with the weather. The weather forced qualifying to be rained out which meant that we started off of owner’s points, This put us starting 10th. On the opening start something happened in front of me, either someone missed a shift or jammed the brakes. Either way the car in front of me had to check up and I had no where to go and slammed in the back of the car in front of me. The car was damaged pretty good, and we just had to salvage what we could. We ended up bringing home a 11th place finish. It was extremely disappointing to travel over 1,000 miles and have something happen outside of your control and end up with a wrecked race car not 1 lap into the event. But as they say Thats Racing!
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Sometimes in racing you are faced with difficult decisions – sometimes these decisions have to do with what’s happening on the track: If I move this car out of the way, is he going to return the favor? Other times though decisions have to be made on what is best for the race team. I was faced with one of those decisions this past week. We have an upcoming race at Motor Mile Speedway on July 17th, the MitiGator Ford Fusion was just about ready to go to the track, but this race was going to be crucial though in ensuring that we were able to make it to Iowa Speedway on July 30th ( the next race ). We needed a good run at Motor Mile to ensure that we were going to have the funding to not only make Iowa but also have the funding to be able to get the engine rebuilt before we head to the fastest track on the circuit. Without this rebuild our engine would not make it through the event.
This wasn’t that big of a deal as we had been racing off of winnings for most of the year and had been pretty successful at it. But our latest run at South Boston had put us behind and it was going to be close, but an opportunity presented itself and resolved the situation. I will be driving the #59 for Mark Gibson Racing this coming saturday at Motor Mile. Unfortunately this means that the MitiGator Ford fusion will not be at the Radford, Va. track. MGR’s normal driver is out until September as his wife is expecting their first child any day.
This is good news as it guarantees us that we will be at Iowa Speedway on July 30th. We also have some awesome things planned for a live webcast that we will be doing from the track that night. You will not only be able to watch the race live from our pits, but you will also be able to listen to live on-board communication from driver, spotter, crew, and crew chief. So make sure you tune in to Mitigatorinc.com on Friday July 30th to watch us compete at the very fast Iowa Speedway. And if your going to be at Motor Mile this saturday make sure you come by and introduce yourself!
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- Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Want to keep up with your USAR Pro Cup Blog, have a mobile device and want to be able to read whats going on in the world of High Speed Auto Racing while on the go. Well, now you can! We have enhanced this blog with Mobile Access right from your IPhone or Android phone, or any other Mobile device that gets internet.
We continue to bring you the very best in Extreme Sports and the latest in technology! Enjoy the ride, we sure are.
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Follow along this year, as I will update this blog to give an in depth look into what it takes to race week to week in the USAR Pro Cup Series
I consider racing to be an addiction, and any real driver out there will tell you that racing gets in your blood. When it does, its over… It’s all you can think about. I decided to do this blog after my boss came up with the idea. I didn’t need much convincing; the idea is to chronicle everything that our team and myself goes through in our hunt for the 2010 USAR Pro Cup Championship. We will share what happens behind the scenes, things that most fans won’t ever see on the typical NASCAR broadcast. Most drivers that come across this page will be able to relate to our struggles.
Our team Gibson Motorsports isn’t made of money, and every race weekend is carefully planned out and budgeted to ensure that we can show up and give the best showing possible. We have done a great job of this so far this year. We’ve finished 2nd, 3rd, and 4th this year, and had finished in the top 10 in every race up until the last event where a transmission leak sidelined us for our first dnf. Currently we are sitting 5th in points and only 11 points out of 2nd. I hope that everyone enjoys this blog, and remember to check back here as I will try to update this blog at least once a week and who knows maybe even some videos thrown in there every now and then.
Until next time
John
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