Shauna and her team headed to All American Speedway to work out a few bugs yesterday afternoon. The conditions were great, the weather wasn’t too hot and there were only a half dozen cars to share the track time with. Shauna took to the track with the setup they had run both prior visits earlier this year; the car was noticeably loose entering the corner and she stated it was very uncomfortable. The team spent the afternoon making subtle adjustments until they felt the car was as close as they can get, which resulted in shaving off over a half second per lap. The team felt it was a major success; the motor ran great and made major headway with the car performance. Shauna and her team will be preparing the car this evening for tomorrow’s event at Altamont Raceway in Tracy, CA.

Shauna was excited for her chance to get behind the wheel of Ken Pierson Boss Sheet Metal Chevrolet sprint car this past weekend. Since Shauna is primarily responsible for her car’s “set-up”, she is ecstatic to get the opportunity to actually just be the “driver” and focus on her responsibilities. The full day of practice the day prior certainly helped Shauna get comfortable, she also felt the set up was pretty close and they should be in good position for the event. Saturday practice went well but they weren’t as fast as they needed to be, the car also picked up a “tight” condition in the center of the corner that they didn’t have the day before. By qualifying time the team had made the necessary adjustments to fix the handling issues but Shauna came up a little short. The sixth place qualifier started on the pole with a time of 13.717 and Shauna clocked in seventh with a 13.729, which put her in the starting position of 7th for the main event.

At the start of the green Shauna held her own but didn’t make a lot of gain, the car had a loose condition on corner entry through the exit of the corner. Since this was a 100 lap race, Shauna could hardly wait for a yellow flag to fall so she could make some “in-car” changes. At lap 37 she finally got that chance, she made a few changes but because she wasn’t sure how reactive the car was going to be, she changed what she thought she needed. At the restart she quickly figured out that they were headed in the right direction but needed more adjustments. Shauna was able to put the car anywhere on the racetrack as she needed to but was hoping for a little more grip. As the long race progressed, there were multiple yellow flags which allowed Shauna to continue to adjust until there was no more adjustment available. It wasn’t until towards the end of the race things started to get exciting. Shauna and Porter Smith were trading spots back and forth and on lap 85 there was a caution which Shauna was officially ahead of Porter but under the yellow Porter went around Shauna and when USAC line the field up to restart, they lined Porter in front of her. Coming for the restart Shauna was eager to make a quick pass as there were several lapped cars between them and the next car racing for position. At the green, Shauna anticipated too quickly and passed Porter prior to reaching the “official start line”, she knew there was going to be a chance she’d get called for “jumping the start” but the damage was already done so she moved onto pass another car and a few more lapped cars. On lap 97 Shauna was sitting in sixth position and on the restart had one car between her and fifth, she felt her car was stronger at the end of the race then it was early and more importantly she felt as good if not better than a couple of her competitors in front of her. At the green, Shauna again moved down to get the jump on a lapped car and the cars got bunched up and Shauna was wheel to wheel with the car in front of her as she passed the “official start line”, she got by Ryan Burdett and concentrated on the cars ahead. Coming for the checkered flag, two cars tangled and the fourth place car driven by JoJo Helberg went spinning in the infield. Shauna passed JoJo by the checkered for her first top five position of the season.

Shauna and her team were a little disappointed as they all wanted to win but felt pretty good about the race. The race finish was posted and listed Shauna as the fifth place finisher; a fellow competitor then protested the race results due to Shauna “jumping” the start. Shauna was later penalized for jumping the start and placed behind Porter Smith for an official seventh place finish.