Big Hat Racing

Racing for a purpose tonight at the Dahlke Memorial at Angell Park Speedway!

Last night's opener at Wilmot was a but of a mixed bag, with several big positives to leave feeling good about. For a shakedown event, the car fired easily for the first time and didn't show any issues with fuel or oil leaks that can only really be checked for at the track. This is a totally new build for Big Hat in 2026, and we're sorting through a lot of new pieces of fit and finish work, so avoiding major mechanical problems let's us focus on those moving forward.

Unfortunately, we did run into a few issues that cut the night short and prevented what could've been a nice feature run.

Midway through our heat race in lost steering going into turn one and rolled off the high side of the track. After review, it seems like we lost the pump belt and therefore power steering (and fuel and oil).

We'd also had trouble getting the car out of gear, and it turned out that the shifter cable broke. The thought it that it could still "push" to get the car into gear, but not "pull" to get it back out. Unfortunately that meant we couldn't get it locked in to fire for the feature.

With tonight's Dahlke Memorial getting postponed, we'll make some repairs and work on what's in front of us. See you in a couple weeks for a return to Plymouth Dirt Track Racing!