Blog

I can't believe I had such a great return just jumping back in the racecar. Alot of the credit goes to being well prepared, and having everything fresh. All year I have been working with Sean and Adam and coaching them with their driving so it has kept me in the mentality of being in a racecar all year. When I was making mistakes, listening to my own advice last night helped me out alot. I'm really looking forward to the ASCS National race at Las Cruces with Shane Golobic Behind the wheel of the 35 car. It should be a good time with some great racing, and I think we have a shot at a good run.

After the crash at Canyon, a pretty severe concussion right before the end of my first semester at UNM has made things a little tough. I am almost done with the semester now though. A final project and a final portfolio that are close to done, and two final exams are all that I have to finish up my semester. I have plenty of work to do in the shop. I got the car mostly stripped the Sunday after Thanksgiving but still have to finish stripping the car and clean up a lot of parts. I have Christmas to look forward to, then the Tulsa Shootout where I'll be headed with the Brewers for New Years.

After a few bad weekends we have taken some time off to regroup and get the motor freshened up. After a DNF at Tucson when the throttle linkage broke, and a rough night at the Last Act at Hollywood Hills, we sent the motor to WESMAR to get freshened, so we can hit a couple of tough weekends to the East. If we can pick up the motor next week we will be racing two nights in Missouri with the Winged Outlaw Warriors/ASCS Midwest. We are also planning on making 3 nights the week of July 4th in Nebraska and Kansas. The last couple weeks I have just been a crew guy. I took a trip to Brownstown, PA with Bobby Ream and Kelly Denison to hang out with Tom Buch, Jesse Hockett and the crew. We flew home saturday to make the NMMRA show at Aztec Speedway where I helped out Josh Hodges. This weekend I am off to Rock Springs Wyoming with the Hodges crew to tackle my favorite track and the 2009 ASCS Rocky Mountain crowd.

It has been very busy for me the last few weeks with working on finishing up high school, getting ready for college, and of course going racing. We are getting ready to run for the Wing vs. Non-Wing Challenge so I ran an NMMRA show at Hollywood Hills. I was more than happy with moving from 6th to 3rd in the heat and 8th to 3rd in the main after not running non wing for a year. Last weekend we made the Southwest Series show at Tucson. My mom pulled the #5 pill to put me on the pole of the 3rd heat race. After leading the heat race green to checker we lined up 7th in the main event. Josh Hodges won his heat race and pulled the pole for the main. Josh took off and led most of the main before falling back to 2nd. I moved from 7th to 4th in the first corner and fell back to 11th by the end. We tried some new things and learned what not to do for next time, a day without learning is a day wasted, so it was a good trip. In two weeks we will be back in Tucson for the next Southwest Series race, and after that we will be headed to the Hills for the Buddy Taylor Memorial.

After a great run at Tucson, a stuggle at Devil's Bowl, and Oklahoma City being cancelled it looks like a southwest series show at Manzanita will be next. With the track closing I am looking forward to getting one last race in there. At Devil's Bowl we were just a little bit off all weekend and with the National guys you can't be off at all. As for the rest of the year we are still waiting on some schedules to finalize our plans. Right now I'm looking forward to getting as much time in the car as possible and trying to get some good runs in with some tough competition. Keep an eye on the schedule for updates in the next couple weeks.

The Ortega Crew made the trip to USA Raceway in Tucson, AZ where 32 cars signed in for the ASCS Southwest Series season opener, including 6 cars from the Albuqerque area.(Josh Hodges, Jody Williams, John Taylor, Jessie Baker, Johnny Herrera, and myself) After some brief afternoon showers and a great track prep the heat races were lightning fast. Johnny ran 2nd behind Rick Zeihl in the first heat race while Jon Taylor had a rear end break and didnt finish. I won the 3rd heat race, with Josh Hodges running 3rd Jody Williams 4th and Jessie Baker fell out with motor troubles. In the A-main Johnny started 5th and wasted no time getting to the front and dominating on his way to his 15th consecutive ASCS victory. I started 7th, jumped right into 5th and made the pass for 4th place with just a few laps left. Josh Hodges had a 12th place run and Jody Williams broke a jacobs ladder after contact with the front stretch wall. The top 5 cars were Johnny Herrera, John Carney III, Rick Zeihl, Derrik Ortega, and Charles Davis Jr. We are planning on making the trip to Devils Bowl next weekend for the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour season Opener.

Tuesday night at the chili bowl was classic qualifying night racing! Almost every heat race could have been a great main event line up at any dirt track around the world. The race of chamipons came down to the last 3 laps with Slammin Sammy, Tim Mccreadie, and Dave Darland battling for the top spot. Chad Kemenah and Hunter Schurenberg both came from the C-main events up to the A-main. Hunter knocked out a front end in the first corner but Kemenah made a charge to 6th place in the A-main. Brad Kuhn took the win over Ricky Stenhouse in the last corner, and Steve Buckwalter got the 3rd and final transfer over Casey Shuman in the last lap also. We are lookin forward to another great night of qualifying tonight, Bryan Clauson, R.J. Johnson, and Shane Golobic are the guys I'll be watching tonight!!

My dad and I made the trip to Orlando Florida for the PRI trade show this year. Johnny, and Jack & Josh Hodges made the trip with us. It was a fun time, I learned quite a bit talking with some of the manufactures and other drivers and car owners. As far as being ready for next year things are going slowly, but after new years we will be pretty busy getting everything ready to go racing for next year.

This weekend’s trip to Rapid City, South Dakota started with a lot of rain on the trip up and continued at the track on Friday night. They cancelled the race at 5:30 which left us watching the comical attempts at crossing the slippery surface of the Black Hills Speedway. We went to Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner with the Ossenfort, Treharn, Corken and McCune crews and had a great time. We had an opportunity to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments thanks to a test drive of a used car from Donbar used car lot!! We returned in time for a barbeque and competitive game of basketball and volleyball that was hosted by the Ossenfort Family for all of the drivers and crews. The wind howled most of the day and into the night where we raced in some of the coldest conditions yet including a freezing drizzle mixed with a little snow during the heat races. Unfortunately for Derrik, Annette drew the 2nd highest pill out of the 28 cars starting the #35 in the back of the 3rd heat. Derrik struggled in the heat only passing one car to finish 6th. This started us on the pole of the B Main. Derrik used the B Main to get more laps on the big ½ mile track and led every lap to win by a straightaway over Willie Hernandez and Nick Haygood. Starting 21st, Derrik knew he would need patience, but did not expect to have the # 9 car flip over the hood of his car tearing off the nose wing and ending up with a flat left rear. Derrik drove the car into the work area and we thrashed again to make the repairs during the red with the help of JR Baxter(who surprised us by stopping to watch the race on his way to North Dakota) and some crewmen from other teams. Restarting at the back, Derrik slowly made his way back up through the field

during the race that was plagued with 3 red flags and several yellows to finish 5th. After the race, the clouds cleared to reveal a full moon, so we were thankful not to be among those collected by the tow truck.

We are looking forward to going to Aztec, NM next weekend with a 199 point lead over Jeremy McCune for the last 2 races of the ASCS Rocky Mountain Region. We think there will be a huge field of drivers for the Floyd Reynold’s Race as there is currently a bounty up for anyone who can beat Johnny Herrera and break his 10 race winning streak with the ASCS Rocky Mountain Series! We hope to see you there!!

The very next weekend we picked up our newest crew member, Mark Matejka (the j is silent), in Denver and headed up to Casper, Wyoming for the Friday night show. The track was Derrik’s first experience on a small half mile. Colton Treharn won from the pole in Derrik’s heat where he started 6th and finished 3rd which gave him enough points to make the top 8. He started 3rd in the main and was caught up in a multi car accident and had 2 cars that were flipping land on top of him. During the red we scrambled with the help of several crew members from other teams we replace the top wing, nose wing and right rear tire. Derrik did an amazing job restarting 17th and finishing 2nd to Joe Raemaker. We drove another 3 ½ hours to the Sweetwater Speedway in Rock Springs, Wyoming for Saturday’s event. Derrik started on the front row of the heat with Danielle Ossenfort and the pair had an exciting start and race in the heat with Derrik taking the win. Derrik started 4th in the main and ran 5th most of the race before he cowboyed up and got 4 wheels over the cushion to get to the front and win his 3rd main event!