2011 Race Schedule

May 7 Montana Raceway Park - Kalispell, MT - RAINED OUT
May 14 Medicine Hat Speedway - Medicine Hat, Alberta
May 21 Bridge County Raceway - Lethbridge, Alberta RAINED OUT
May 21 Montana Raceway Park - Kalispell, MT
May 22 Bridge County Raceway - Lethbridge, Alberta - RAINED OUT

Bridge County Raceway

August 6, 2011

The Red Rabbit Racing Team finally gets to race at BCR after several rain outs this season!!! The Shoesmith Enterprises #66 Monte Carlo was running great. Cliff brought his #87 out to play in the dirt as well, great to have him out there! Heat 1 - Both of the cars start in the rear of the pack of 9 cars total. Rick gets up to the 4th position with Cliff behind him, having problems with his rev-limiter. Heat 2 - Rick passed everyone right away and lead the rest of the race, such a good feeling as we are back to our "Home track". Main Event - starts with Rick and Wil tied for top points for the day. Race started with Cliff on the outside pole, he leads the first half of the race after finally getting his car running right. Rick passed him in turn 1, Wil finally got past Cliff when his power steering belt brok on lap 14 forcing him to head into the pits :(. Wil and Rick race hard putting on an awesome show for the BCR crowd. Rick took the checkers by about a cars length. He does a good donut in the infield even tho he was stuck in 4th gear. Very nice to win a race in Canada!!!

Red Rabbit will be racing back in Lethbridge this Saturday, August 13... Green flag drops at 7pm!!!

Montana Raceway Park

July 30, 2011

A HOT day at the races with the mercury reading nearly 100 degrees. #66 was the 3rd fast qualifier.... it is nice to be getting better here. Heat 1 - started near the back of the pack and by 1/2 way Rick was sitting 2nd, after a near wreck with the #77. Ed, #87 would not let me by for anything, but he was in a 3-way tie for 2nd place in points and needed those valuable points I guess. Main Event - Rick started out 8th of 12 but it took way too long to get thru the slower cars. By the time he was in 4th, the leaders were 1/2 lap ahead. He was gaining 3/10 of a second per lap but wore out the tires on the #66 again before the caution flag finally driopped with 4 laps to go. He got past one car and finished in 3rd place.

Medicine Hat Speedway

Nice day for racing in The Hat, the car was running great. We bought 2 new right side tires and the #17 did everything he could to try and pop them. Rick started out the day with a personal best qualifying time of 18.02, good enough to give him the fast qualifying points for the day. Heat 1 - was fairly uneventful, Rick started at the back of the pack and finished 4th out of 8 cars. Heat 2 - Rick passed Jerry's #52 on the start line only to end up getting into Jesse's #17 when he chopped Rick off and spun himself. #66 gets sent to the back and #17 holds onto his spot??? Rick couldn't make it anywhere from there. Main Event - Rick followed Wil's #77 all the way to the end. Halfway thru the race, the #17 tried to pass them on the outside bumping into the #66, causing himself to spin once again, this time the Red Rabbit was not penalized as neither of them were his fault. Jesse really needs to learn not to try and push around cars that are 200 pounds heavier than his. FANTASTIC finish with Kelly's #99 taking the white flag, but in corner 4, he and Wil both get loos allowing Rick to duck underneath nearly grabbing the win, but Wil got 'em by 6", 2/100 of a second, with Kelly finishing 3rd by about 5 feet. Very good and exciting 2nd place finish. Not in the Fitzpatricks good books tho.....

We were excited to have Rhylie Hurley and her family join us this weekend. It was the kick-off for the All Nations Optimists Club Childhood Cancer Campaign for 2011. The clud was happy to help out the Hurley family when they were in need and were very happy to finally get to meet Miss Rhylie.

July 23, 2011

Nice day in The Hat. The #66 was running great. We bought 2 new right side tires and Jesse, #17 did everything he could to pop them. Started out with a personal best in qualifying, the 18.02 gave Rick the fast time of the day. Heat 1 - was fairly uneventful, he started in the last position and finished 4th out of 8 cars. Heat 2 - Rick passed Jerry's #52 on the start line and in corner 1, the #17 chops him off causing himself to spin out. Rick gets sent to the back and #17 gets to keep his position?? He couldn't make it anywhere from there. Main Event - Rick followed Wil's #77 all the way to the finish. Half way thru the #17 tried to pass them on the outside bumping into Rick and once again spins himself out. He really must learn not to try and push around cars that are 200 pounds heavier than his. FANTASTIC finish with Kelly, #99 taking the white flad, but on the last corner both Wil and Kelly got loose allowing Rick to duck down to the inside, Wil ended up winning by 6", 2/100 of a second and Kelly was about 5' behind Rick to capture 3rd. Very exciting 2nd place finish. Not in the Fitzpatricks good books tho......

Montana Raceway Park

May 21, 2011

Nice day in the Hat..... the #66 was running great. We bought 2 new right side tires and the #17 did everything he could to pop them :(. Rick started the day withis his fastest qualifying time ever at this track, an 18.02. This was good enough to be the top qualifier. Heat 1 was pretty uneventful, I started in the last position and finished 4th out of 8 cars. Heat 2, Rick passed #52, Jerry on the start line and in turn 1, Jesse chops me off and ends up spinning himself out. I get sent to the back and he kept his position?? I could not make it anywhere from there. Main Event, I followed Wil #77 all the way to the finish. Half way thru, the #17 tried to pass on the outside, bumps into me and once again spins out. He must learn not to try to push around cars that are 200 pounds heavier than his. Fantastic finish with Kelly #99 taking the white flag, but on the last corner he and Wil got loose. I pull up on the inside but Wil won it by 6", 2/100ths of a second!! Kelly captured 3rd by about 5' behind me. It was a very good 2nd place finish. Not in very good books with the Fitzpatrick family though. After the weekend event at Bridge County Raceway was cancelled due to the weather, Red Rabbit Racing travelled south of the border to Montana Raceway Park in Kalispell to race with the Lucas Oil Super Stocks. Although we were over 1 second slower than 8 other cars we had fun racing and staying out of the way of the leaders who went by me 4 times. It was the fasted the old truck ran for a long time since our Calgary days with a 4 barrell carb and 12" slicks, it really stuck to the track! Finally after 50 laps of hard racing and 20 caution laps, the #66 Fernie Chrysler Dodge Ram finished in 7th place out of 10. Not too bad for being very out-classed. We will try again :)

Next weekend you will be able to find Red Rabbit Racing in Medicine Hat, Alberta./

Medicine Hat Speedway

May 14, 2011

Well the 2011 officially started this past weekend with a trip to Medicine Hat. We arrived to a sunny, but very windy day. After making a deal with Rob Ford to buy his left over tires, I qualified fastest with an 18.01. My best qualifying time to date at MHARA. Heat 1 - The #66 Monte Carlo started in the rear of the field and took off fast, in 2 laps I was in 2nd place. Unfortunately, in 5 laps an oil leak on the valve cover brought out the black flag for the Red Rabbit and we ended up with a DNF. The rest of the day was spent trying to fix the valve cover leak, but each time when I was leading the pack it would leak again bringing out the dreaded black flag. We ended up with 3 DNF's even though we were the fastest car there!!! Damn Medicine Hat Jinx!!!

Next weekend we are in Lethbridge at Bridge County Raceway for 2 days.... Don't miss all the fun on the dirt!!!

Montana Raceway Park

June 4, 2011

Due to being rained out once again at Bridge County Raceway in Lethbridge, we headed south of the border to Kalispell to try our luck with the Super Stocks again.

We qualified with the Super Stocks, 1.5 seconds behind the rest of them… not making for a very happy race team.

Tech officials made the decision to let us run with the Pabst Blue Ribbon Hobby Stocks as that is the class that we run in Canada and the class that we are competitive with. A fiberglass body does not make a Super Stock.

We started at the back of the pack for the heat race and finished 2nd out of 11 cars.

We started at the back of the pack once again for the Main Event. By lap 10 I was in 2nd place, racing side-by-side with the leader for 10-15 laps, which was the most fun I have had racing in some time. Caution flag comes out with 9 laps to go, I restarted in the 2nd position… passing the leader in about 4 laps. The 3rd place car followed me through for a 1-2 finish.

Did a good burnout, knocking over and breaking my trophy.

It was however, very nice to put an end to the winless streak!

As most of you know, the first main event win of the year is my time to shave… well… I’ll shave my head, but the beard is going to stay. Jeri was not there to watch me win, as she was in the ER with a severely sprained ankle, so I believe it doesn’t count towards the shave!