Clewes Motorsports gearing up for opening day at Wyant Group Raceway

Another season of motorsports action is about to begin at Wyant Group Raceway but before the green flag flies there’s still a lot of work to be done.

In the Super Late Model series, the Clewes Motorsports team has a new driver in PJ Kondra.

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In the days leading up to the season’s first race, they’ve been busy putting the finishing touches on Kondra’s No. 8 Chevy.

“You take everything apart, clean it, replace the bearings, the tie rods. There’s bolts that get stripped. These cars are actually pretty violent out on the track,” team owner Andrew Clewes said.

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Clewes estimates the team has spent about 120 hours getting the car ready for race day. It’s meticulous work and even the slightest miscalculation can be the difference between finishing first and last.

Once a car is ready to race, it’s time to get it on the track for the all-important practice session.

Unfortunately for the Clewes team, Kondra only completed a handful of laps before something went wrong, forcing them back to the garage for some last-minute repairs.

“I think we did five laps and PJ felt something loose in the back end so we brought it in and found out that we stripped an axle out of the rear differential gear,” Clewes explained.

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The situation is less than ideal but the team is confident they can recover in time.

“All the parts are easy to change. It has to be because if you break something, you have to be able to change it out really quickly,” Kondra said.

The setback hasn’t dampened Kondra’s enthusiasm for opening day. He hasn’t raced since 2014 and is excited to get back behind the wheel of a stock car.

“I looked at the calendar, it must’ve been about last week, and I counted down the days and there was actually 12 days and I said ‘it’s like the 12 days of Christmas’ and I started doing the countdown,” he said.

The 2017 season at Wyant Group Raceway begins May 27, with the first race scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.