Amber made good showing in her first Late Model race on 8/6/2011
Amber started her Late Model Driving career by running twin 25 lap races on Hickory Motor Speedway on 8/6/2011 in a coil over car with a built motor.
After having electrical problems and missing the first practice, which allowed her only one 10 minute practice, Amber qualified 11th for both races, with 15 cars starting.
Amber got off to a good start and although the car was bad tight, she held her own and simply tried to let everyone single out and clock laps to learn by. While running 11th I caught 9 and 10 going into turn one. The 10 place car dumped the 9thplace car about two car lengths in front of me. Amber managed to get stopped with no damage and the 13th place car drove under her. The car was still drivable and she continue. While running in 6th the 6 car doored me down the front stretch and then under caution hit me 3 or 4 times. After the restart we were racing side by side and on the white flag lap he tried to drive under Amber in one but she was faster on the high side and just before she cleared him he turned right and caused her to spin. Amber grabbed a gear and got going again and still finished 7th. We had cosmetic damage which we fixed before the second race and Chuck made some adjustments to the car.
Race two started and the car was a lot better. Everyone was being a little dicey so Amber decided to simply keep up for the first few laps and let things settle out and then see what she could do. It didn’t take long for the caution to fly and Amber missed the wreck. Amber was 8th when they fired and was running side by side with the 6 car in front of her. After a couple of laps of running on the back bumperof 7th Amber started under him in turn on and the 51 drove across the corner and hit her in the middle of turn one in the left rear. It turned her around and she got in the wall with the left rear, but with only cosmetic damage. After getting the car fired back up Amber started in the rear of 12 cars and managed to drive back to 10th in two laps. Amber then caught the 07 and got under him. They raced side by side for 6 or 8 laps and both raced hard but kept it clean. The 15 car went for a spin on the back stretch with 2 to go. Again Amber was 8th on the restart and going into turn she got jacked up and had to collect the car and lost two spots. Amber still finished a solid top 10th place to give her two top 10 finishes in her first two starts.
The best thing about the entire day is that Amber kept her cool in some bad situations, through the electrical issues that threatened to end her day early, and on the track. She reacted to track situations and her spotter’s instructions very well. Amber also showed good car control, was pretty consistent throughout the night, and brought the car home in was minimal damage.
