After two rain-outs at Columbia Motorsports Park in Lake City, Florida, it was time to put the MBR Team to the test. We were on one more track in one more race that would challenge Matt. He had never run a race on this track and this track truly has its challenges along with the fact that this was also our first race on the Hoosier Tires. Our team called in all the resources we could muster, but, we would be without Matt’s Crew Chief, Dave Pletcher with very little time to coordinate with Chase Pistone Racing out of North Carolina. Matt would make the call for his own setup and adjustments, something he has learned working with Dave.

We arrived at Columbia Motorsports Park, as planned, in time to take advantage of the cooling temperatures of late afternoon. Our game plan was to unload a car ready to qualify. Our leadoff hit was an absolute home run. In two laps, Matt had beat most qualifying speeds. This would give us some time to “experiment” and finalize race day strategy. Nick Pistone was on sight and would coordinate with Chase.

Matt’s qualifying effort came off well, but not quite as good as the car could race. With the first five qualifying times very close, Matt qualified and started in 4^th next to long time champ Wayne Anderson. We were hoping for a solid 2^nd, but we are reminded, Matt is the only true rookie at this track and we missed the qualifying setup by a slim margin. Our team was clearly ready for 125 laps of Super Late Model racing with confidence.

At the green flag, it only took through turn one for Matt to gain the inside lane and begin to settle in for 125 laps. Matt noted a strict violation of “attempting to win a race in the first lap” by one of the sports best and left a bit of room for the 2^nd and 3^rd cars to take themselves out. They survived, so it looked like a 5 car runaway. The #84x car was running and handling perfect!

On lap #5 Lady Luck to abandoned Matt Bowers. That dreaded announcement, “there goes our engine!” came over the headset. The MBR Team was done for the night. The cog belt that drives the oil sump pump failed starving a high RPM engine of oil. Luckily, Matt had some very good drivers right behind him that were quick to get on binders as Matt’s engine began to seize. He saved the engine from completely coming apart, but our night was short and over. Our points challenge would also become at risk. Matt gets the opportunity to balance his SAT tests with an engine swap over the next couple of weeks and he will be ready for the challenge at Orlando Speedworld on October 24th.

High-level sports does not come easy. One of our team mottos is to never let a setback define who we are not. It only better defines who we are. There are too many team championships that built this foundation; some came easy (luck?) and some came the hard earned way. For our team to be in the top 3 in points, even after a night like this, remains to our credit. Once again, we felt very accomplished with reading a track, defining a solid setup, and working with a new tire combination. Matt was extremely happy with the setup he worked out between himself, Nick and Chase Pistone. His first words to Nick were that this was a car that had something for the leader. This gives us the confidence we need for the long run.

One of the most encouraging items of the night was the feedback coming from fans we do not even know, at a track we have never even been to. Our MBR guests were approached numerous times in the grandstands expressing their support for Matt Bowers. Now that is the absolute greatest confidence builder. Win, loose, or draw Matt continues to build a fan base for himself and his sponsors.

The MBR Team has some great resources to put to the test on October 11^th at New Smyrna. We have indeed experienced our share of bad luck and now is the time for our great efforts to pay off. Preparations are underway for our return to New Smyrna on October 11^th with a state of the art chassis package we had the opportunity to play with last month at the PASS Series race in Caraway, North Carolina. New Smyrna should be the perfect track to further test this package. There is discussion of a double points event that with some good luck, will place Matt right back into the mix.

Four races to go! See you at New Smyrna on October 11^th!