Date	Class	Track	City	Feature Finish	Feature Notes
4/21/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	13th	Jim fought the tough springtime track conditions and the top Modified drivers in the Albany area to come from his 22nd starting position.
4/28/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	N/A	Rained Out.
5/5/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	13th	Sunday turned out to be a perfect day and night for racing. The day time start made for a dry, slick track, but the night time features helped cool the track down and bring some bite back to the hard clay. The pits were loaded, with 29 Modifieds signing in. By virtue of the "Head's Up" starting procedure, Jim had the 17th starting position. The car handled well, and Jim had a steady run, ending up 13th again this week. Brett Hearn made his first visit this season and took the win.
5/12/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	21st	Jim had a decent run going in the feature, but contact about midway through the race, and the resulting flat left front tire, sent Jim to the attention of his crew. He came back out at the rear of the pack and made it back up to 12th or 13th in the running order, but later found out he had gone a lap down. Jim will not be racing this coming Friday, May 17th or the following Friday, May 24th. He does plan to be back in action May 31st and June 7th!
5/31/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	N/A	Rained Out.
6/7/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	15th	Due to taking two weeks off and the way the handicapping rules are at the track, Jim had to start 8th in his heat. We did not go that well, and were fortunate to pick up a 7th place finish. Jim started on the pole of the crash shortened Consolation race and ran well, only to push going into the last turn to just lose the win by a few feet. That put Jim in the 20th starting position. After all of that, we made some substantial changes before the feature to try to get the car back to where Jim liked it, and we went in the right direction. A few laps into the feature Jim had to check up for an out of shape car and lost 3 or 4 spots. Once everything settled down Jim had a good car and was able to methodically start picking cars off. We are still not satisfied with mid pack finishes, but we will take a 15th out of 27 cars, after starting in the back of pack.
6/14/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	N/A	Rained Out.
6/21/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	16th	Due to the handicapping method used, Jim had to start 9th in the heat race (next week will be better) and due to some luck managed a 7th place finish, which put Jim 19th in the starting line-up. The feature race did not provide us with any luck. We totally missed the set-up, and had a VERY loose race car, almost undriveable. Two separate trips to the pits and the attention of the crew helped alleviate the problem a little, but we struggled the remainder of the night and were fortunate with a 16th place finish. This week at the shop we will be changing the set-up back to where the car was at the end of last year. Hopefully this and a little luck will help us change our fortunes.
6/28/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	11th	As what seems to be becoming the norm, Jim had a slow start in the feature from his 12th place starting position. Jim was a little tight the first few laps, and coupled with some cars getting crossed up in front of him, Jim slipped back to 17th or 18th. From there Jim had a solid run coming back up through, turning his best lap times of the season. Jim feels he could have been even a little faster with a little more gear (he was bogging down the motor in the low groove), however Jim was pleased overall.
7/2/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	9th	July 2 was the Annual 100-Lap Sunoco Big Block-Small Block Shootout at Albany-Saratoga Speedway, and it was definitely a shootout of sorts. A good-sized crowd filled the grandstands for a long night of racing and fireworks. Jim qualified through the heat and drew the 11th starting position for the feature. He survived the dry slick track, a large mud clump in the right rear wheel, attrition by many other cars, and the many caution flags to end up 9th. We'll take it!
7/12/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	13th	Jim seems to have that mid pack finish down pat! A poor finish in Jim's heat race (we still can't seem to find a good set-up for the heat race) put him back in the 20th starting position. Jim is getting used to it back there. By lap 4 or 5 Jim was sitting 10th and he had not passed a car yet, as there were multiple wrecks. Jim ran in that 10th to 12th area most of the race, but a few mistakes by Jim late in the race relegated him back to 13th. Jim had a pretty solid race car, but he had one of those nights driving-wise he'd like to forget about.
7/19/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	7th	Jim ended up with the 9th starting position for the feature, which started him on his preferred inside line. We were close on set-up, and the car worked well in both the low and high grooves. Jim passed four cars on the night and got passed by two cars (Brett Hearn and Kenny Tremont) and had a race-long battle with veteran Mike Perrotte. Jim and Mike swapped 6th and 7th place about six times, and Mike beat Jim to line by about 10 feet at the end. Jim will be taking this coming week off, but plan to be back in action on Friday, August 2nd.
8/2/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	N/A	Rained Out. The track absorbed the first few showers, and the track crew had it in decent shape, but the last cell to hit dumped enough rain that they had to call the show at around 7:00PM.
8/9/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	17th	By virtue of Jim's 8th place finish in Heat Race #3, he got to start a lovely 24th out of 26 cars. Jim picked off some cars early in the race, but the handling on his car had not improved. Jim had a bad mid-corner push when he got back on the gas, so it was pretty much a ride-it-out type of race for Jim. We believe the right rear shock may have gone bad, which will cause the car to do many different things, but we will find out for sure this week at the shop. It just makes for a tough night when the race before we were strongly competing in the top 10, and this week we were a back marker and getting lapped.
8/16/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	N/A	Rained out. A heavy thunderstorm rolled through Malta around 6:30PM Friday night and washed out the racing card at Albany-Saratoga Speedway. This leaves Jim with three points events remaining: August 23rd, August 30th, and September 13th. We also believe we found the problem that caused Jim to have an ill-handling race car last week. We believe it was two different things, a failing right rear shock and an abnormally hard right front tire (it was new). So, we changed the right front tire and both rear shocks. Jim had also had some brake problems that night so we checked those all over and bled the brakes to remove any air in the lines.
8/23/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	17th	We had a decent start to the feature, we missed the set-up a little but Jim was compensating for it OK. Jim started 15th and was up to 11th/12th with some help from other cars, and he jumped the berm in turns one and two and lost 5 or 6 spots. Jim was unable to make up much ground as the race was winding down, and looked to have a 14th or 15th place finish lined up. With a few laps to go, something broke or loosened up in the car as Jim went through turns three and four. It continued to feel "funny" as Jim went down the front stretch, so he pulled in to the pits and parked it. This Friday night is another 100 Lap Big Block/Small Block Shootout!
8/30/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	18th	In the redraw for the feature Jim pulled the 16th starting position (better than 20th!). We set the car up for the second half of the 100 lap feature, which meant Jim was going to be tight (pushing) in the early part of the race. Jim was, and he fell back to 21st or 22nd early in the race, but was keeping up with the pack. As the race wore on, the car was getting better and better each lap (our lap times were improving while the track was going away) and Jim worked his way up to 13th and was ready to pass the 12th place car when he jumped the cushion in turns 3 and 4. Jim lost 4 or 5 spots, but kept his cool (not really) and began picking them back off again. Jim was moving back up through the field and with about 10-12 laps to go, the car started feeling a little funny and the handling started to get a little weird. A few laps later Jim could tell the right rear tire was going flat. Jim tried to last the remainder of the race, even brushing the front stretch wall once, but with about 5 laps to go it went completely down and Jim pulled the car into the infield.
9/13/02	358-Modified	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	19th	We were very loose in the heat race and really did not have much of a chance. The car just wanted to spin the tires and turn left. Missing hot laps did not help. We did not get too far into the feature race (8 laps) when bad luck struck again. Jim had moved up a few spots from the 21st starting position and was just getting into the groove when the car did not want to go coming out of turn 2. Jim pulled off into the pits, done for the night. We later found we had a broken right rear axle.
9/20/02	Run Whatcha Brung	Albany-Saratoga Speedway	Malta, NY	7th	The pole sitter (Tom Proctor) got a good jump on the start but Jim got by him 3 or 4 laps later. We had a quick caution flag and he got the jump on Jim again. Shortly thereafter, friend and eventual winner Dave Camara got by us both for the lead. A lap or two later Jim got by Proctor and was concentrating on trying to keep up with Camara. Mike Romano got by for second, and Gene Munger and Jim swapped 3rd and 4th a few times. Romano jumped the cushion in turn 4, and Jim got by to get back up to 2nd, a position Jim held for quite a while. Jim dropped to 3rd and still had a pretty solid race car until about lap 50 (75 lap race). Romano got into the back of me and end up in the wall, and that's when the brakes started feeling pretty soft, and the handling in Jim's car started going away. Jim had to slow a bit as he was trying to nurse the brakes and still run the high line, which was the fast way around the track. Jim slipped back to 5th. Jim pretty much had that position locked up when his brakes failed completely, sending him out of the groove and almost off the track in turns 3 and 4. Jim saved it, lost two positions and ran the last 10-12 laps with no brakes and an ill-handling race car. Jim was happy to salvage a 7th place finish at this point.
10/5/02	Victoria 200	Fulton Speedway	Fulton, NY	5th (Consi)	By virtue of his heat finish, Jim started 5th in the 6th and last consolation race. Jim was starting behind Todd Burley, a tour regular, on the low side which had become faster as the top groove had been pushed way out in the turns. Jim knew he would try to pass some cars on the low side and then move up, which is precisely what he wanted. We got a good start, and Burley and Jim stayed low going down the front stretch. They both got through turns 1 and 2 well and Burley slid up to the high side in 2nd place. Jim was even with the next car and was looking for a good run through turns 3 and 4 to get to 3rd place and then run the low groove to hopefully work by at least one of them. Well, the car on the outside decided he was going to run the low groove in turns 3 and 4 and pinched Jim getting into turn 3, so he had to lift. We got through OK, and Jim was now 5th as a car on the outside got by. The car in front of Jim moved back up to the high side, and Jim started working on them on the low side. Jim got back to 4th and was working on 3rd when he was taken out. Another car decided to "dive" into turn 3 too hard, and he took Jim out. As you can imagine, Jim was not happy. He went to the rear and came back up to 5th place in 4 laps.