Koger Race Report

Desoto Speedway

by Trish Koger

"And just think... this was the race we were never supposed to run!" Rick Koger was quoted as saying after the conclusion of the October 4th Legends Cars of Florida feature race at Desoto Speedway.

We all have calendars, day planners, post-it notes, to-do lists, and AAA triptiks to map out our every move. But have you ever noticed how, sometimes, even the most thought-out and best laid-out plans just don't turn out like you expected? Well, that basically summarizes how this past weekend went for the TK Racing Team...

After a frustrating rainout at Citrus County Speedway , our crew chief parked the #90 Florida Online Legends Car in its resting spot for the next two weeks -- the garage. The upcoming race was at Desoto Speedway; however, Rick and I had begun wondering if maybe the "South's Fastest Short Track" was just too fast for Legends Cars. We have seen five of our fellow drivers almost completely total their cars, two drivers have been injured, and one has even left Legends racing as a result of his wreck. Despite my close season-ending points battle, the risk, we thought, was probably not worth it to us.

Instead, Rick and I would either be hopping to Lakeland for the NASCAR Goody's Dash race or, if Jason Jarrett (a fellow Lyn St. James Driver Development Program graduate) qualified for the weekend's NASCAR Busch Grand National race, we were going to head to Charlotte Motor Speedway to cheer him on!

The Busch pole qualifying was held on Thursday afternoon. With an average speed of almost 172 mph, Jason qualified his #12 Caradco Ford into the 35th position of the 58 cars attempting. (Not bad for his first qualifying lap EVER at Charlotte.) But qualifying for this particular race had a challenging twist to it. Unless you were one of either the first 28 qualifiers or the five privileged provisional starters, then you had to run in Friday's 40-lap last chance race to grab one of the final ten spots.

Jason made a valiant run for it, but an "RPM 2night" video clip that evening explained why weren't going to make that trip to Charlotte after all. Just as he entered the dog-legged portion of the frontstretch, Jason narrowly avoided a three-car pile-up directly in front of him. As he got through it, however, his momentum carried him too close to the wall, and he tagged his right rear. We were disappointed to see what had happened -- as I'm sure Jason must have been -- but we know he'll bounce back for a great race at Rockingham. Good luck, J-Bird!

So, with Charlotte scratched from the agenda, we turned our sights to Lakeland. But, as we looked at the map, our eyes began traveling down I-4 and I-75 to Bradenton... the sight of Desoto Speedway. And that's when we were bitten -- no, not by one of those infamous Florida mosquitoes -- rather, we were victims of that infamous racing bug! Once infected, we quickly canceled #90's vacation, and loaded her onto the trailer. We were going racing!

Before we reached the track, Rick and I agreed that he would do the number-draw honors for this race. After all, he certainly couldn't do any worse than I had been doing. Or, at least you would THINK so... nope, he drew #32.

I started sixth in the first heat. The track shortened our customary eight-lap heat to just six --which didn't leave a whole lot of time to make up track position for the feature. So I floored it! About the second time we came around turn four, out of nowhere, I got blasted from the rear. After I managed to keep the car out of the wall, I took a quick glance back in my mirror. I saw the familiar orange and blue paint of Andy Logan's #10 Ford. I couldn't believe it! I'm not sure if it was not wanting to get hit again, or pure adrenaline that did it -- but I ran the fastest I ever have for those remaining four laps -- and I passed the checkered flag in THIRD place!

I was so thrilled to finally get to go through tech inspection! It's a mandatory trip for the top-three finishers in the heats and the top-five in the feature. When Andy stopped to congratulate me, I discovered that he had NOT been the one that hit me on the track. The #50 had tried to punt me out of the way, but in doing so, only made himself loose and allowed Andy to immediately pass him. That explained a lot... and I was certainly relieved to know that Andy had driven me clean!

Mother Nature then played a cruel joke. As the other racing divisions were running their heat races, the clouds opened up and they poured on us for about 20 minutes. But, just as quickly as it started, it finally ended -- and the track officials were able to dry the asphalt in order to go on with the show.

For the feature, I started behind two of the best in the inside row: #8 Robert Ham and #74f Paul Schrein. It was my job to stay glued to Paul's rear bumper... and I succeeded for almost half the race, until we came around turn one to an incredible scene. One car was in the wall and a second was spinning on its roof and sliding down the turn two banking. Both drivers were fine, however, it was a chilling reminder to me about how unforgiving this track really could be.

After the red flag cleanup, the field restarted. I had held on to my fifth position, but before I could envision making my second trip to the tech line, I was suddenly struggling to hold my car off the wall again! The #50 had caught up to me, and was back to his bumper-car assault. After about the third or fourth hit (I lost count), I got too far sideways and a pack of cars got under me. Although I was seeing red, I did pull back into the pits with a 9th place finish. (A top-ten finish managed to tame my post-race "discussion" with the #50 driver!)

Desoto's race taught me a valuable lesson about "clean" racing and the eventual respect that it earns for you on the track. I would sincerely like to thank Andy Logan for that lesson. He has had his share of run-ins while racing, but he also knows how to race clean.

Hopefully, the clean-racing bug will bite us all for this weekend's race at our newest track, Bronson Speedway. On Wednesday, a whole pack of Florida Legends Cars will be heading to the Legends National Championship at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And that leaves virtually no time for repairs...

In the end, we may not have made it up to Charlotte last weekend, but TK Racing is definitely going this time -- uh-oh, knock on wood, quick!

Thanks for all your support!

--Trish Koger #90

To send a letter to Trish, email to koger@thunval.com

Check out the Distant Thunder archives for other articles by women drivers.