The 2006 Racing Season Begins

The 2006 racing season has begun, and what an exciting beginning it was.  The team of Opportunity Motorsports and Circle Bound Racing opened the season on March 17th & 18th at the Music City Motorplex in Nashville, TN.  With young & talented local driver Zach Taylor behind the wheel, the team ran in the middle of the 53 car field in Friday’s practice session.  With old tires the car was slower, and handled less than would be desired.  Throughout the practice session the car fought a tight condition with the front of the car not wanting to turn in the corners.  The Opportunity Motorsports team went to work, trying a few adjustments, but the main focus for the first practice day was to get Zach comfortable in the car.

In Saturday’s practice time, the team put some fresh tires on the car and jumped up to 19th on the speed chart.  Still fighting a tight handling car, the crew adjusted on the weight distribution of the car and changed springs.  These adjustments helped the tight condition and Zach posted a best lap of 19.054 seconds, ending up 14th quick in practice.  A few other adjustments were made before qualifying, and the car was 29th fast out of 56 qualifiers.  This meant that Zach would have to finish third or better in the last chance qualifying race to make the feature event later that night.

During the last chance race Zach was running well and preparing to pass for second when the car in front of him got sideways, Zach checked up and ended up getting passed on the backstretch.  This moved him to fourth place, and out of contention for the transfer spot.  It was disappointing not to make the feature race but some bad luck and minimal practice time handicapped the team.

Zach would end up entering the non-qualifier race that ended the nights racing events.  After starting on the pole, Zach led all 15 laps and beat 3 cars to the finish line.  With a respectable payout for that race, the team bringing the car home in one piece and winning the “Leaf Products Hard Luck Award” for the race, the team would leave Nashville contented.  As is typical in racing, the weekend had its ups and downs.  The members of Opportunity Motorsports were all impressed with Zach’s driving abilities and attitude, and we look forward to working with him in the future.  We all learned a lot and there is definitely promise for great things within the team.  We can’t wait for the next race!

-Dan Hobbs

Return to OM News
Return to OM Homepage