Jeremy Colangelo Blog

The Rattler Experience

Hey again,

We are back from Alabama, and looking back on things it was a strange week. We loaded up early last week and got on the road Wednesday. When we left Daytona the weather was pretty nice, only to be heading north to what was supposed to be a frigid weekend.

After the long drive there, we finally arrived at the track late Wednesday night and were glad to be there after a few wrong turns that put us even farther into the middle of nowhere. The track was one of the neatest places I have ever been to.  The facilities are definitely first class and all of the Dykes Family was unbelievably nice to us! It's great to see a family that takes so much pride in what they do and put so much effort into it.

Well, when we finally unloaded the cars Thursday for a little testing, things got interesting.... I was a little weary of the track because it looks like a difficult track to figure out. We finally got our shot to get on the track and by the fifth lap.  I had logged the quickest lap I turned almost the whole weekend! I was pumped.  We knew we were going to be a contender right off the trailer. Well we stayed for a little while and rolled through tech later that night with no issues. We were then ready to go get something to eat and maybe head out for a night on the town.  We ended up at the Ryan's Steakhouse where the team of Tim Russell was and had a bite to eat with our teams.

Next came decision time as to what we were going to do next. Well, that was another issue we ran into, the lack of night life in Enterprise, AL. We did end up at the local bowling alley and threw a couple games though and had a blast doing it. After the late night at the bowling alley we were all ready for the next couple of days of racing.

We finally rolled around to Saturday and it was time to qualify. I laid down a decent lap and ended up seventh. I was disappointed, but the team was thrilled. When Sunday came and all the hustle and hard work was going to finally be rewarded with a great finish we knew we were capable of, things got a little out of whack. With only 39 laps in the books the engine let go and we were forced to call it a day before my guys even got a chance to do a pit stop.  That was what most of the team was looking forward to the most. Even after the day ending a little shorter than we wanted, we had a pretty good weekend. We were running in the top five, had a great car and most importantly made a statement of how competitive this whole Mark Martin Performance team really is. We are looking forward to traveling more this year and hope you all will follow the progress we are making! Stay tuned for more....

Thanks for your support,

Jeremy Colangelo

Jeremy Colangelo was among the fastest cars at the Rattler.  A broken motor ended his day before the 50 lap mark.  (Jamie Williams Photo)