Best 3 out of 5

Michael Beard has attended just five Summit Super Series points races at Pageland, S.C.'s Pageland Dragway, and he has found the winner's circle in three of those. His back-to-back wins have pushed him back into the Top 10, despite missing two races. In this week's final round, Joel Carroll gave up a close -.008 red light and then ran a dead-on 6.38. Beard was perfect at the starting line with a .000 launch, and ran a 6.92 on a 6.93 dial, taking .007 of stripe.

"I whomped it twice real quick. I knew it was close, but I was trying to tighten it up as much as I could, because I know Joel will run dead-on almost every run," Beard recounted. "I was a little embarrased when I got my time slip and saw that he had red-lighted, and I'm down there driving the stripe. I never saw the win light! That's not the first time I've done that, either."

Beard's supporters include Duck Tape brand duct tape, CAM2 Blue Blood Racing Oil, Mickey Thompson Tires, K&N Filters, Bradley Auto Parts, Bearden Oil - Sunoco, Finished, Macy Motorsports, Sloan Racing Engines, Billy Nees Race Cars, Stephen Beard, Matt Zapp, Terry Knott, Johnny Fisher, and Jill Beard.

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What I Learned This Week (again)

Never take anything for granted. Last week, in the oppressive heat and humidity, the car didn't budge off the number once the sun went down. With that knowledge fresh in my memory banks, and a similary nasty muggy day, it was easy to assume that the car would follow the same trend... easy and wrong. This time, when the sun went down, the humidity did not skyrocket, plus the barometer started to creep out of the basement, and the car responded tremendously. In a matter of hours, the Volare picked up .08 in the 1/8th mile... pretty crazy stuff! It nearly bit me third round when I hogged up the stripe but figured killing 6 mph was plenty... and ran dead-on with a zero.

If you're going to apply something you've learned, make certain that the application is identical! Otherwise, your guideline may be misleading. Don't disregard what you've learned, but keep an open mind, and be aware that changing parameters may lead to wildly different results. The technical term is Chaos Theory, and it's why weather forecasters suck.