POWNAL, VT – Mission accomplished last Saturday night at Lebanon Valley for Rob Maxon. He may not have won, but Rob and his team had a solid points night and figured out their tour car’s issues.
In the 20-lap Sportsman feature, Maxon rolled from 10th starting spot and kept his nose clean all night, bringing the Dane’s Auto Parts #96 home with a solid seventh. It was a nice run on one of the hottest nights of the year so far, but the team still has some work to do to find the right setup for track conditions like they faced.
“The car was okay but we missed the set up a little for feature,” Maxon said. “We were a bit too tight and we went with the wrong gear.”
The slippery track surface threw several teams a curveball as they prepared for the feature, and Maxon’s team was no different. However, they persevered and came away with a strong showing.
“We knew that the track was going to slicking off so we made changes to tighten car up,” he said. We took away some stagger and it worked for us…maybe a little too well as the car got too tight.”
With adjustments to the car, the driver had to make adjustments to his driving style as well.
“I was just going to wait and see how things worked out for a few laps then go,” he said. “However, we were just a little to tight to really move forward unless someone made a mistake. The gear we chose just wasn’t enough to come off the corners so I could get under someone.”
The team also used the night to test out their tour car to see if they had corrected the issues that plagued it at Devil’s Bowl and Fonda. The answer was yes, and now they get the machine ready for the next time they hit the road, the King of Dirt Sportsman event at Albany-Saratoga on July 6th.
The next race for Maxon Racing will be this coming Saturday night at Lebanon Valley where Rob will going for his third career win at the Speedway. He currently sits fifth in track points, 32 markers behind leaders Whitey Slavin.