# Three Palms test and Tune draws 18 cars, 7 drivers.



## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

A Saturday night test and tune at Fresno's Three Palms Speedway drew a gaggle of new cars and one new driver to come racing. The track opened at 6PM and after a short drivers orientation all lanes were thrown open to testing. Much of the attention was to pick up shoes and springs although one driver when through just about every motor and brush combination in his box before being happy with his lap times. 

A few impromptu heat races broke out, the longest lasting nearly 20 laps without a crash, all 4 cars running less than the length of TPS's short straights from each other. Big horsepower cars for the night were the #97 '55 Chevy, #99 '55 Chevy, the always impressive #57 Studebaker and newcomer John Clark's #78 '55 Chevy. The track was left at 12 volts to allow the rookie drivers time to get used to rolling into the corners and powering out as well as the mandated rolling starts. With only a few exceptions all of the new drivers passed their rookie test.

Two big crashes on the night; while running hard in a side-by-side duel Gary Newsome's Studebaker made hard contact with Sarah McKay's #17 '55 Chevy, putting both her and rookie John Hamilton racing the #12 hard into, and in John's case, over the turn 2 wall. It's only the second time a non-magnet car has been able to get out of the park. The second crash was a solo flip by me in the #97 that hit hard on the entrance to the pits in turn 3. The impact was such that it knocked a sizable chunk out of the roof number decal. Plans are being made to place some sort of tire barrier around the pole that holds the pit fence to lessen the impacts. 

The next test and Tune is scheduled for October 22nd at 6PM.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Looks great Pete!
Any more pics of the night????


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

A few but the lighting was pretty bad and most are blurred. The track is in my spare bedroom and it don't get much direct light after about 3PM. Catching these cars moving is even tougher in low light even with a flash, T-jets are a lot faster when you get 3 or 4 running together. When you have the fastest cars, the Studebaker, my #97, the #99 and the #13 the black cars sneek up and can get by you if you're sandbagging too much.


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## DesertSlot (May 8, 2009)

Cool. I'm sure a great time was had by all. Wish you weren't 2/3 across the country!


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Or the state, for that matter! But I LOVE seeing the pics of these gorgeous fairgrounds cars and the race summaries, too.


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## Pete McKay (Dec 20, 2006)

LOL, I'm in the middle of the state, or pretty close. The exact center is near North Fork about an hour north of me. But if you guys can wait until next summer, take a short vacation to Yosemite, I'm along the way, we can run some laps and my wife will make you guys some lunch.


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