Delaware: Dave Jacombs race report

Monday May 19, 2003: Bad luck that is. Dave Jacombs driving the #88 FAG Automotive/Inroble Brake Products Ford Taurus had high hopes for a strong run in the opening event of the 2003 CASCAR Super Series season at Delaware on Sunday, but motor troubles early in the event would rendered them to a 31st place finish. Entering the 2003 season Jacombs had hopes to end the string of bad luck that plagued him in 2002 and regain the form of 2001 when they completed the most laps of any team on the circuit. But that was not to be on Sunday.

Jacombs and his #88 Taurus Team were experiencing problems under the hood during the practice session on Saturday prior to qualifying. They tried everything to get the new power plant up to speed but only managed a time of 20.156, which was 21st quickest. After a lot of discussion they loaded the car after qualifying and headed to Whitlock Motorsports and the popular chassis dyno. It didn't take long to discover the problem and when corrected they had a car making some really good horsepower.

When the #88 car went through tech after qualifying on Saturday, it was deemed they were too low. This relegated them to the 30th starting position. When the green flag fell on the Mopar 300, Jacombs quickly worked his way past the first ten cars. A caution, then red flag came out on lap six for Nik Lapcevich, who was directly ahead of Jacombs, when his car went up in flames and hit the third turn wall. After the red flag, Jacombs had to call a tow truck to push him to the pits. Initially it was felt that the problem was a faulty oil pump or belt but it was later determined that it was likely more serious and they were parked for the day.

"We came here with high hopes today but as they say - that's racing. I have several new team members who I think will be a big asset to our team but they didn't get a chance today to show us what they can do," stated Jacombs.

CASCAR announced on Saturday that due to the closing of Kawartha Speedway, the second event of the season will now take place at Peterborough Speedway on Saturday June 7th. There is a press conference scheduled for Tuesday May 20th at the Peterborough Lions Hall at 1:00 p.m.

For more information on CASCAR and all the weekend results and press releases please visit their website at www.cascar.ca

-jr-