POWNAL, VT – As the season winds down, Rob Maxon and his #96 Dane’s Auto Parts team has been heating up, with two wins recently at their Saturday night home, the Lebanon Valley Speedway. This past weekend, the team took on two nights of action and came away with solid runs during both.
On Friday night, Rob battled back from two issues in the first turn at Albany-Saratoga, one of which landed him on his roof, to bring home a 17th place finish in the 2018 edition of the Northeast Crate Nationals.
“We had a really good car on Friday night,” Maxon said. “It was a lot better than it has been up there this season. We were really good on the outside, started 19th and had gotten to up to 10th. However, that’s when all hell broke loose.”
While working the outside, Rob went a bit too high in turn one and the rest, as they say, is history.
“The cushion had started to go away,” he said. “I got into the corner pretty well but caught a rut between one and two and the car snap-rolled.”
Even with flipping his car over, Rob was able to get back into the race and charged as far forward as he could.
“They got me back on my wheels and it was stuck in high gear,” he said. “I needed a push to get it out and when I hit the start button, it fired right up so we kept going. It was actually pretty good even after the flip. I was just a little loose off the corners because of the left side body and spoiler damage.”
In the end, Rob came home 17th Friday. Then, it was on to Lebanon Valley where the team is in a tight points battle with only two races remaining heading into the night. Rob started in 12th and was working his way forward until a spin by another competitor collected him in turns three and four.
“We had a good run going early but the car was a little tight,” he said. “I wasn’t able to get the drive we needed to get under people to make passes. I just made a bad decision on the set up for the main event. I should have left it alone after the heat.”
Even with the spin and having to go to the rear of the field, Maxon was able to rally to finish ninth on the evening. He now sits fourth in points, but is just a mere 15 markers behind leader Whitey Slavin heading into Championship night this Saturday at the Valley of Speed.
“We’re going into Saturday just like it’s any other night at Lebanon,” he said. “We’re going there to bring home the win.”