Sprint Car Racing Currently on Hold...

Before...and after...well, during, if you want to be technical about it.

Hi Everybody.

We just wanted to let everyone know that after the wreck at Citrus County Speedway, our Hurricane Chassis is not fixable. Well, it technically is, but it wouldn't be safe or practical to do so. So we've ordered a new one, but unfortunately there is a wait, so on the sidelines we sit. Worst of all, Wendy was in the thick of the hunt for the USCS Asphalt Thunder Series Championship and that is what hurts the most.

We will miss our old chassis because it served us well for a very long time. And once again, we give all the credit in the world to Hurricane Chassis for building such a great frame. Ours was a few years old but it did what it was supposed to at Citrus County and Wendy walked away.

So what's next? If anyone wants to put Wendy in their sprint car or maybe even a super late model, you can contact us via e-mail at wendymathispr@gmail.com or via phone at 352-303-5672.

Thanks again to everyone and their well wishes after Wendy's crash.

Race on.

Citrus County - And She Walked Away...

Above is the before-the-race photo and below is the after-the-race photo.


And here is the hole in the fence that Wendy made:


So what happened in between to turn our shiny, happy racecar into a wadded up piece of scrap metal? Where to start... It was a hot and humid day at Citrus County Speedway in Inverness on Saturday. With our USCS race in Cordele, GA canceled, the decision was made to run a wingless sprint car show with the Checkered Flag Sprintcar Series ran by former TBARA president Don Rehm.

As to be expected the track was hot and greasy and the car was very loose in the first practice session. For the second practice session, the car was still loose, but not as bad. For the heat race, we made some changes to the car to try and tighten it up and also made a gear change because we weren't pulling enough revs down the straight. Wendy started sixth in the heat race and finished fourth.

"Right now, it's tough out there," said Wendy after the heat race. "We picked up two spots, so that was good, but some of the changes we made just didn't have an effect on the loose condition. We need to go back to the original gear because the track temperature is starting to drop and I need to get out of the turns a little quicker."

For the feature race we changed springs on the rear, lowered the ride height, put some extra fuel in to settle the rear on turn entry and also moved the brake bias forward to help settle the front of the car. Wendy lined up eighth for the feature and was settling in to her race pace, with the car handling much better, particularly on turn entry and through the middle of the turn.

Then on lap 11, there was a caution. When the race restarted, Darrin Miller in the #21 swerved to avoid the start cone and when this happened, the #75 of Curtis Sutton (who was already lapped, inside of ten laps...) turned right and as a result moved up into Wendy, who was going around the outside of Sutton, and sent her airborne, into the fence on the front stretch and almost over the guardrail in Turn One.

It was not pretty.

Some say four flips, some say seven. The steering wheel flew out, one of our shocks cleared the fence, some fans got an entirely too close view of our car, part of the frame in front of Wendy's head was bent, the fence got a giant hole in it, a wood post got split, BUT WENDY WALKED AWAY! We'd just like to point out that Citrus County has great staff, the CFSS has great officials and the safety crew that came to Wendy's aid were all fabulous - thank you so much!

"I suppose the less said the better about the driver that hit me, and trust me, I'm angry, but right now I'm just happy to be standing here," said Wendy after the crash. "I know I counted four flips and I just wanted it to stop. After the steering wheel flew out, my arms were flying everywhere trying to hit the kill switch to make it all stop, but the centrifugal force kept pulling my arms back in. But, I simply can't say enough about Butler seats and my Bell helmet. Look at my poor race car, it's a mess. I'm sore and a little bruised, but that Butler seat saved me tonight. And for those short track racers out there without a Hans device, think twice. I don't want to think about what would have happened to me tonight without all of my safety equipment."

A few more pictures of our poor car:

After the racing was done for the night, we took a walk back out on to the track to check out where Wendy hit the wall, and we decided to take a few pictures.

There used to be a nice wood post here:
Here is where Wendy's car finally stopped:

And we only thought it fair to autograph where she put so much paint and rubber on the wall:

We can be thankful that Wendy is okay and we can smile about it now, but safety in a racecar is no laughing matter. It's because of Bell Helmets, Butler Seats, the Hans Device and the integrity of the Hurricane Chassis that Wendy walked away.

So what's next? We're not sure to be frank. The car suffered major damage. We have a very generous offer to help fix the frame but we also have a lot of broken components to replace. We were just barely getting buy so far this season, and doing very well on a very tight budget, so this is a major setback for us.

If you'd like to help us somehow, please e-mail us at wendymathispr@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone that stopped by after the race to check on Wendy. We always said Wendy has the best fans in the state of Florida and you guys proved it Saturday night.

We'll be back to fight another day, I assure you.

New Smyrna Not So Sweet the Second Time

With high hopes of a repeat performance, Wendy Mathis Racing pulled into the high banks of New Smyrna Speedway with high expectations. Only a few short weeks ago, Wendy pulled off her best finish of the season with a well-deserved third place and ran up front all night, including the heat races.

Having everything unloaded and ready to go we put up our new K&N Air Filters banner up to go along with all of the trick K&N products we've got on the car now. Thanks again to K&N!


With the mystery of the right front corner of the car solved (leak in the shock at DeSoto) we unloaded the car with a good baseline setup and pushed out for hot laps.

"The car felt pretty good in hot laps, just like at Desoto," said Wendy. "If there is one area we are much stronger in this year, it is unloading off the truck with a good baseline setup under the car. We had a few different setup changes from the last time we were at New Smyrna, but all in all we were looking good."

With the rains visiting most of Central Florida, the racetrack was blessed with great weather for the fans. Pushing out for the heat races, Wendy lined up fourth. With a fairly workman-like drive, Wendy pulled back into the pits finishing where she started - fourth.

"During the heat race, the right rear corner wasn't acting just quite like I expected or wanted it to," said Wendy. "Last time we were here the car was a just a tick tight out of the turns, but now we had a loose condition through the turn, with the car rolling over on the right rear."

After a quick meeting of everybody on the team putting our heads together, we made a spring change on the right rear and got ready for the feature. But before we get to that, it wouldn't be New Smyrna without another great autograph session! Honestly, we see some of the best fans at New Smyrna every time we race.

Here is the new #1 Wendy Mathis fan everybody!

And of course we can't forget everybody else that came out with SuperFan #1!

Time for the feature and Wendy rolled off seventh. The car still didn't feel 100% right, but Wendy hung in there despite getting into a bit of a scrap with another driver. Unfortunately that incident led to a bit of confusion about where we were to lineup on the final restart. When the checkered flags fell, Wendy finished the night with a 9th place finish.

"That certainly wasn't what we were looking for tonight," said Wendy. "After the final restart, the car was coming around to me and my times were just as fast as the leaders, but we struggled at the start and we just can't have that any more. Last time here at New Smyrna we showed we can get the job done and tonight we didn't get the job done. We'll take a look at our setup notes and get back on track for our next visit here. Thanks again to all the fans that came out and said hi during the autograph session. New Smyrna really has some of the best fans I see all year."

Next up was to be the USCS race at Cordele, but unfortunately that has been cancelled. So we'll be taking the wing off the car and running at Citrus County Speedway on August 16.

Race on!

Desoto Speedway - Wendy finishes de-so-so

Sorry for the delay everybody, we had a computer meltdown Sunday after the race at Desoto.

Things started out on the right foot as we showed up at the track with a new setup under the car after we worked with Dave Steele to fix a few things. We also had brand new springs on the car as well. Things were looking good in practice as we were right up there with perennial front runner Troy DeCaire - 4/100 of a second to be precise.

Then the rains came and all activity stopped at the track. Then the call came for anybody in the pits that wanted to help dry the track could take their personal car out on the track for some "hot laps" and of course one of our crew insisted on seeing how fast a 2002 Nissan Altima with entirely too many Nismo and Stillen components could get around the track...

Back to the matter at end - we slapped on a new set of Hoosiers for the heat races, adjusted the air pressures for the change in track condition and ambient air temperature. Wendy rolled off 3rd and finished 4th. Unfortunately Wendy was not pleased with the car at all.

"When I jumped on the gas in the heat race it was like I was driving a different car," said Wendy. "At once it felt like the car was pivoting on the right rear, but it was also feeling like it was rolling over on the right front. Either way the car was bad loose and it took everything I had to just hang on to it."

When we checked out the tire temps and stagger, it was clear something was amiss as the temps on the inside of the right front were way too high, though the right rear temps seemed to be relatively what we would expect to see. After a quick pow-wow, we went back to our original stagger settings, tire pressures and after a quick chat with Dave Steele, we decided to move the wing back.

Having made those changes, we pushed off for the feature starting sixth, hoping our changes would make the car more like it was in practice. Unfortunately it wasn't. The car was still bad loose and on each restart Wendy would lose a position. Then to make matters worse, another car got into her while battling for 8th, sending Wendy through the grass, but with a miraculous save Wendy kept it pointed straight and got back out on the track in one piece. Unfortunately our night was pretty much over and Wendy finished 12th.

"Tough, tough night," said Wendy. "I've never had a car do that before. I couldn't put the power down because it was so loose and rolling over on the front even worse which it should not have been doing given the changes we made to the car. My trip through the infield was just the icing on the cake for a rough night. We had such high hopes after practice and it just does not add up for the car acting like that."

UPDATE - We took the shocks off the car at the end of the night to have Dave Steele dyno them. Turns out the right front shock had no gas left in it. And we checked our Hoosiers and they were a tad harder than what everyone else had.

Good news - Wendy's not crazy, the car was rolling over on the right front, bad. Bad news - we had a great night go bad in a hurry.

Super big thanks to Dave Steele for all of his help leading up to and during the race. If you need help with your car, please call Dave at 813-238-2300 or visit his website at http://www.steeleperformance.com/.

Next race - New Smyrna.

Race on!