LOVES PARK, Ill. – Even though Charlie Schultz had his heart broken Saturday night at Rockford Speedway, he still found plenty of reasons to smile leaving the Must See Racing Sprintacular at the quarter-mile oval.
Not only was Schultz’s second-place finish a career-best in Must See Racing competition, he also led the first 48 circuits of the 50-lap main event before being passed by Jimmy McCune within the final half-mile of the feature.
A former champion of the now-defunct Midwest Supermodified Ass’n who came back to winged sprint car racing last season following an absence of more than a decade, Schultz was disappointed as a racer to come so close to a victory and not leave with the trophy, but proud of his team for the effort put in.
“Saturday night was both frustrating and yet rewarding at the same time,” said Schultz. “Yeah, we started on the front row, but to lead 48 laps out of 50 and then be passed by the guy who’s won the last three series championships and won more times than anyone else … you can’t hang your head too low after that.
“It’s disappointing, yes, but it’s also a sign that we’re making strides and that this team is beginning to turn the corner into the operation we want it to be and starting to perform at the level we know it’s capable of,” Schultz continued. “We don’t come out to the race track to run second and we never have, but we knew it was going to be a challenge to run with these guys and we knew we’d have a lot to learn as a team. Finally now, we’re starting to show what we’ve learned and that we can run up front, and that’s a big deal.”
After an abysmal weekend at the beginning of July at Owosso (Mich.) Speedway and Birch Run (Mich.) Speedway, where Schultz barely scored a top 10 on the first night and then both he and teammate Adam Biltz were outside the top 10 in the second race, team owner John Reiser knew improvements had to be made.
The JR Motorsports team went testing the very next weekend at Lorain County (Ohio) Speedway, spending nearly eight hours searching for answers and speed that they finally discovered by the day’s end.
“That double-race weekend in Michigan, we were absolutely horrible. There was no getting around that,” said Reiser. “I took everyone in the trailer after that second race and said, ‘Okay guys, either we’re done for a while, or we’re going testing.’ And then the next weekend we were at Lorain County testing for hours and hours. We worked and worked and finally figured a lot of things out that we needed to.”
“We made some changes on the car … wholesale changes, really,” noted Schultz. “We looked at suspension, car geometry, our spring package … I don’t think it’s been one thing that’s made all the difference; it’s been a combination of smaller changes that have combined to work well for us.”
Despite his growing success in a sprint car, Schultz is still quick to point out that he’s continuing to learn after years of running most of his pavement races in a winged supermodified, which drove much differently than the sprint car he’s now relearning.
“I’ve had to train myself as a racer that you can’t run a sprint car like you do a supermodified, so I don’t think the test session we ran only helped the car … I think it helped the driver a bunch as well,” Schultz laughed. “We weren’t great at Midvale, but we were consistent, and that’s been a lot of what we’ve been lacking. We’ve needed to be more consistent through the day and I think we’re starting to figure that part of it out now.”
As for Reiser, he left Saturday night with a promise hanging in the air and a competitive glint in his eye.
“We may not have won this race, but we sure made them (the McCunes) earn it,” Reiser stated. “This was a huge night for us. Just to get where we’re at … this has been a huge team effort. There’s more to work on, but we’re very pleased with a run like this tonight.
“The only car I was worried about was the (No.) 88, and they got us this time, but it will be our day soon,” he added. “They know we’re here now and we’re coming for them, soon enough.”
