Week after week, Andy Ford is one of the most popular fixtures in the pit area at Kawartha Speedway. Win, lose or draw the Scarborough, Ontario racer – driver of the #93 J.P. Accounting/Advanced Hydraulics/Hercolift/MTV Chevrolet in the track’s Better Carpet Thunder Car division – greets everyone he meets with a firm handshake and a warm, friendly smile. Gregarious and personable outside of the racecar, the 45 year-old is a take no prisoners competitor when the action gets hot and heavy. A solid performer who’s always ready and willing to help if someone needs a hand, Ford has also had some of the worst racing luck of any driver at the popular Fraserville, Ontario oval.
“What can I say? We just had one of those years. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” said Ford with a chuckle and his ever familiar smile. “It started on opening night and just continued on from there. We’d meet at my brother Dan’s place in Castleton through the week and with help from our Dad; go over everything 2 or 3 times. We never loaded the car into the trailer without being fully prepared, but things never seemed to work out the way we’d hoped. If we were running for big money, we probably would have thrown in the towel after just a couple of weeks. Just like everyone else, we’re at the track to have fun so we just kept plugging away.”
Andy Ford’s machine battled glitches and gremlins throughout Kawartha Speedway’s 2009 season. The team changed spark plugs and wires, a distributor cap and rotor while trying to correct an engine miss that turned-out to be a collapsed lifter. After transmission problems during the pre-race practice session saw the car loaded-up early, they were back the following week – only to break a crank in the motor.
“Dan, Dad and I talked and came to the conclusion that some of our issues might be solved with a fresh power plant under the hood,” said Ford. “We placed an order for a 602 crate motor, but ended-up on a 3 week waiting list to get it. We borrowed an engine, but only got to use it once because of rainouts.”
Keeping his light-hearted, fun attitude, Andy Ford figured by end of the season everything on the car – except the roll cage and the driver – had been changed. He thinks only one of the 2 components was still good...and it was most likely the roll cage! On the final night of the season, all the hard work came to fruition as the #93 machine found its way to victory lane in the thunder car semi feature.
“It was like we’d won the Daytona 500,” admitted the driver. “There were so many obstacles during the year, I was happy just to be around to see a checkered flag. Having my picture taken holding one made everything we went through worth all the hard work.”
Ford says they’ll be back at Kawartha for the 10th Anniversary season starting Friday, June 4th. It’ll be a busy off-season as the driver joins the CTV television crew in his position as videotape editor at the Winter Olympics in February and a new season of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ in March.
Kawartha Speedway’s 2010 schedule is posted now at www.kawarthaspeedway.com. The track will also be part of the 4th annual Canadian Motorsports Expo – January 22nd, 23rd and 24th – at Toronto’s International Centre.
Photo attachment: After a difficult year, Andy Ford won the Better Carpet Thunder Car semi feature on the final night of Kawartha Speedway’s 2009 season.
Release and photo by Jim Clarke – Clarke Motorsports Communications
0 comments:
Post a Comment