By Bill W
September 18, 2012 – Terry McCarl and the TMAC Motorsports #24 team ran a pair of shows with the World of Outlaws last weekend, and had a fast car both nights. A busy week lies ahead with a show with the WoO on Wednesday night before taking on the Illinois-based MOWA series for a $4,000 to win event in Jacksonville and a show at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa Saturday.
TMAC registered the sixth quick time of the night with the WoO at the Clay County Fairgrounds Speedway in Spencer, Iowa Friday. “We’re really happy with our motor situation,” he says. “It has a lot of nights on it, but it is doing well and we’ll run it through the weekend. I went out to qualify, and they pushed a car out right in front of me. I had to swerve to miss him. I felt like it was a good lap, and we came in and were fifth. You have to decide right away if you want another one or if you want to give one up. I just decided to take it. I thought we’d be about ninth quick, but the time stood up well.”
After a spin, TMAC would come back to finish fourth in his heat. “We were good in the heat,” he says. “We had a great start and I went in there and got the air taken off the wings a little. I spun it out, but I was able to come back and get a transfer (finishing fourth).”
Starting 13th in the main event, TMAC moved forward early. “We were great,” he says. “We were coming up through there well. The car was hooked up on the bottom. We got to seventh and the red came out. At that point, I felt we had a top five car for sure. The left rear had shrunk only ¾ of an inch under red, but when we came in afterwards, it was down two inches. We haven’t had that problem this year.”
The condition had an obvious effect on the car. “It loosened the car up, and we backed up to twelfth,” says TMAC. “That’s the way it is sometimes. We had a fast car, and it was good to run so close to the good people at Rossie Feed & Grain, DeBerg Concrete and Bosma Poultry. They are all in that area.”
TMAC repeated his sixth quick performance at Deer Creek Speedway near Spring Valley, Minnesota on Saturday. “We qualified well again,” he says. “We were just a tick off of second quick. Kerry Madsen laid down a great lap to set quick time. A little better and we would have been second quick, but as it was, we were inside row two for the heat in no-man’s land. You are out of being quick enough to lock into the Dash, but in a tough spot to make the top two.”
He would do just that though, as he ran second in the heat. “Our engine takes off really great,” says TMAC. “A lot of times we are accused of jumping the start because it’s so good. I do pay attention to the starts. We did some work with Tim Engler a few years back on our starts. People don’t realize that a slight hesitation can be a lifetime on the start. We were able to get by Jason Sides on the start and get into the Dash (where he finished seventh).”
Starting from row four in the feature, TMAC fought the handling because of a mechanical gremlin and checkered 18th. “We were tight early on,” he says. “I couldn’t figure it out. We had a couple of reds. I thought we made a mistake and put weight in the left front of the car or something. We ended up having a broken bolt in the right rear radius rod…nobody’s fault.”
To check out opportunities to partner with TMAC Motorsports on a nightly basis, visit www.TerryMcCarl.com or call 515 957-0020!
Websites for the McCarl Gang!
Driverwebsites.com develops the websites for the McCarl boys. Check out www.TerryMcCarl.com, as well as www.AustinMcCarl.com and www.CarsonMcCarl.com!
In”Terry”gation
Dave Ellis asks: Do you have any plans for Australia this year?
TMAC Answers: If anyone is out there reading this, I would love to go! I don’t know many people over there. I want to go. If anyone has a good car and needs a driver…I’m your man!
Got a question for TMAC? Send it to us at sprntcar@iowatelecom.net , and we may answer it in this section! Put “? for TMAC” in your subject line.
This Month in TMAC History!
TMAC won the 17th Annual Tom Knowles Memorial on September 16, 2000 at the high-banked 3/8 mile Spoon River Speedway near Canton, Illinois. He was followed to the line by Ryan Jamison, the late great Kevin Doty, Terry Babb and Chris Urish. In 1994, on the same date, he topped a field at Nebraska Raceway Park near Greenwood, Nebraska that included Vance Peterson, Todd Splain, Patrick Bourke and Chad Mellenberndt.
“Tuesdays with TMAC”!
“Tuesdays with TMAC” is an up close and personal look at colorful sprint car veteran Terry McCarl. To receive “Tuesdays with TMAC”, send an e-mail to sprntcar@iowatelecom.net with “TMAC” in the subject line.
TMAC Motorsports would like to thank sponsors “Lord I Apologize BBQ Sauce”, Deanfield Farms, Bosma Poultry, Eagle Chassis, DeBerg Concrete, AmeriCashAdvance.com, RFG, Phil and Vivian, Ryan Yager Trucking, 212 The Boiling Point Bar & Grill, Vortex Racing, Hoosier Tire, Chris Spaulding – Attorney at Law, Schoenfeld Headers, K&N Filters, Don Ott Engines, HRP, All Pro Cylinder Heads, Bob and Beulah Elder, Country Builders Construction, Engler Injection, Superflow Technologies, T&P Brothers, Larry Fleck Trucking, Winters, DriverWebsites.com, CM Rock, Jocko’s Sprint Parts, Sander, Brown and Miller, Chase Graphics, Pro Shocks, Ben Cook, Bell Helmets, Burnett’s Rock and Landscaping, Fatheadz Eyewear, Van Der Brink Designs, Morgan Strawberry Farms, Bulldog Pest Control, Aurora Rod Ends, Crow Safety, Justice Brothers, KSE Steering, Strange Performance, Saldana Racing Products, Scribner Plastics, Waterman Fuel Pumps, Weiland Racing, Butlerbuilt, PBS Bushings.