MNM Racing 2011 Press Release

Race Teams Join Forces in 2011

MNM Racing and Tom Gee Motorsports are excited to announce their new merger for the 2011 racing season.  TGM will be adding a 2^nd car to their team to run in the Limited Late Model division at WIR in Kaukauna Wisconsin for the 2011 season.  The driver of the new #10 TGM Limited Late Model will be 4^th year racer from Niagara Wisconsin, Mike Higgins, currently racing Super Stocks with his own team, MNM Racing.

Tom Gee Motorsports put together THREE Limited Late Model Championships in only two short years, the last of which being the overall Thursday Night FRRC Points Champion, before making the jump into the Super Late Model division at WIR.  Mike has run his Super Stock at Norway Speedway for the past three years, consistently finishing better in the points standings every year.  In the 2010 season, he made a great run at a top 5 overall points finish, but a mid season engine failure kept Mike on the outside but ever so close with a 7^th place points finish. The two teams feel that they have the perfect combination of experience and talent to start the 2011 season off on the “right foot” and have great runs each and every Thursday night.

“We understand that we are not going to come out of the box and set the world on fire, and win every race that we start.  Our teams do have high goals, but they are also realistic goals.  On the same token, we feel we can be very competitive based on what Tom and his team have done in the Limited’s in the past, but our main focus is to FINISH each and every race, and we know by doing that we will be in a good position to be top of the points at the end of the year”, said Mike….

Team Co-Owner Tom Gee Jr. added “Our team is very excited at the opportunity to compete in the Limited Late Model division again at WIR. Mike is a very talented race car driver and has a lot of ambition and youthful energy which we think is great! He’s a hard worker in the shop and works very hard at being a professional extension of not only our race team but our now combined sponsors and their businesses. We are setting modest, achievable goals for the team as its Mikes first time on the half mile and in a Late Model style race car. We will definitely be giving him good equipment to work with and will be competing for wins throughout 2011, but we want to earn the trust of our fellow competitors on and off the track as well.

The two teams would like to thank both Butch and Raz, of the Lake Park Racing Team, for making this possible by not only helping out with such a great deal on the teams new car, but also believing in our teams vision and being the first sponsor to jump on board for 2011.  Both teams are eager and excited to get things going on their 2011 campaign, while making great runs towards the top in both of their respected divisions.  There is a lot of work to do, but make sure to be on the lookout for the #36 and #10 running towards the front this year at WIR.

Fan Appreciation Night

Hello Race Fans!!!

This week MNM Racing went to the track knowing exactly where we would be starting every race, which gave us a great idea for what we needed to accomplish throughout the night. The reason we knew this information ahead of time was because it was the annual Fan Appreciation Night at the Norway Speedway, and we lined up for our races according to how we were in the points standing.

We are currently sitting in the 6th position, after climbing our way all the way up for 12th earlier in the year after our engine blew up, and this place in the points put Mike and the team on the pole of the FAST DASH, the 6 fastest cars at the track. Usually during our hot lap sessions we test and tune the car to make sure it is set up just right for our qualifying laps, but this week was a little bit different without us actually qualifying. None-the-less the #10 MNM Racing car ended up 2nd fastest out of 20+ cars after our hot lap sessions.

Our performance gave the team a great boost of confidence going into the night of racing, as it seems that the car keeps getting a little bit better every week we get to the track. After all the teams got off the track for Fan Night, we were the second race of the night. Keep in mind that our race was almost 2 hours after our hot lap session, therefore the track conditions changed TREMENDOUSLY and we had to take a good guess at our set up and hope it was right on.

When the green flag dropped for our 10 lap Fast Dash we ended up getting a really good jump on the inside lane and were all by ourselves, in the lead, after the first lap. For the remaining 9 laps the car was awesome and never missed a beat from practice. As a matter of fact we were actually a little bit faster on the watch, turning our fastest lap of the year. With on lap to go we had about 4 car links on second place and were able to sail towards the checkered flag, our second Fast Dash win of the year.

After such a strong run we were very excited to get ready for the Main Feature later in the night. Sadly, Mother Nature had other plans and our night was cut short due to lightning and thunderstorms. Regardless, we had a wonderful night at the track and are looking forward to get back out there for the remaining two races. Come on out this week for a fun filled night of racing at the track.

It will also be the debut of the #36 Super Late Model of Tom Gee Jr at Norway for the 2010 season this week. I have been helping Tom and the crew all year, getting my feet wet for our Late Model jump in the near future, and he is very excited to be making the last two races at Norway. So come on out and cheer the #10 and #36 to VICTORY LANE!!!

SEE YOU AT THE TRACK

Competition Tightens Up!

Week 5

June 25, 2010

 Hello Race Fans!!!

 Competition has been tight all year long and week 5 served to be no different.  The MNM Racing team ran our fastest qualifying lap of the season so far putting us 6^th overall with a 16.438, gaining us the pole position for the fast dash.  Just to show how close everyone is, 5^th place had a 16.436 and 4^th came in with a 16.435, so that just goes to show that the competition is very tough this year and everyone is dangerously close with their cars.  The team put in a lot of hard work from last week, and we changed some mechanical things with the #10 Super Stock.  The driver decided that the car would work better if we would bump up the gearing a little bit to make it turn some more RPM’s.  This seemed to help out in the right areas that we needed it, as we were faster in practice than we have been all year as well. 

During the fast dash, the 6 fastest cars in the division, we were leading for the first half of the race, and were experiencing a lot of pressure from our fellow competitors, as our rear bumper would show after the race.  On lap 6 of the 10 lap dash, Mike slid up the track in turns 1&2 opening the door for a pass on the inside.  Mike got stuck in the high groove with nowhere to go finishing 6^th position.  Driver error cost the team a checkered flag.

After a disappointing dash, the team was looking to turn it around for the feature and pull out a good finish.  1^st place paid $500 and nothing for 2^nd on back, so you can imagine how hard everyone was gunnin for that top spot.  The #10 car had a good starting position, and we were right behind the black #24 of Mark Bubloni, who usually always finds his way to the front.  At the drop of the green flag the car seemed to be running strong and Mike was keeping it towards the front of the pack.  While attempting a pass on the outside for a position, rookie driver Grant Ebling seemed to have gotten loose or just decided he didn’t want to be passed, and got into Mike, spinning him around down the back stretch.  This caution brought the #10 car to the back, 17^th place, where we had to start all over again.  When the 2^nd green flag flew the car was on a tear climbing to the 9^th position, where Mike consistently held off veteran driver Michael Bubloni, who tried everything in his power to bump us loose and get underneath.

Sadly Mother Nature shortened our event, yet again, and the MNM Racing team finished out the night in the 9^th position.  Thank you to all the fans that came out and stayed throughout the rain.  The point’s battle will be tight again for a 5^th straight week.  Stay updated with all MNM Racing news at our website www.mnmracing10.com or our Facebook page. 

Don’t forget to stop by our pits and get your 2010 MNM Racing team driver cards.  Special thanks to Jason at J&S Design for coming up with such an awesome design for this 2010 season.  If you are ever in the need of any marketing or promotional material give J&S Design a call.

 SEE YOU AT THE TRACK J

Back Behind The Wheel- Never felt so good!

Week 3

June 18, 2010

Hello Race Fans!!!

 After two LONG weeks of being rained out at the Norway Speedway, we finally were able to go racing this past Friday night.  It felt great to be back in the car again and turning left around the infamous 1/3 mile Norway Speedway for yet another week.    Mike and the team felt that they would be ready for the night’s events due to much hard work and preparation over the past two weeks in the shop.

Practice wasn’t quite what we were expecting due to the track employees putting down some “stick ‘em” along the outside groove of the track in order to improve that outside groove for better side by side racing.  Many of the race teams spent much of their practice at half speed trying to work the sealer into the outside groove and only really got about 20 laps of real hard racing to make adjustments to the car before qualifying.

 Lucky for us our car was handling pretty good, and did not require a lot of adjustments, as we were unsure because we chose not to buy a new tire for the week.  We ended up 8^th in qualifying and put us just two spots out of the Fast Dash, missing it by .060 of a second.  Disappointing, but we were still looking forward to our heat.  During the heat we were battling Tim Schultz Jr. for the 3^rd position when the car got upset going through turns 3 & 4 and almost completely spun around on Mike.  Luckily Mike was able to stay in the throttle and keep the car on the track, this did though drop us back to 5^th place.  After this spin, Mike showed that the outside groove was in great working order by coming from the 5^th position, and battling door to door with Grant Ebling for the 1^st position in just one lap.  With two laps to go the car just about had it on the outside and we hung on for all we could, finishing 2nd,

 When the main feature came along Mike found himself starting dead center in the middle of the pack of nearly 20 cars.  The first 15 laps were a struggle as we found ourselves boxed in with nowhere to go.   After a caution flag we were able to get the car “racey” and had some fun.  Yet another caution, caught us up in the inside groove where we were pretty much stuck for the rest of the race.  Despite still being able to pull off a solid top 10 finish, the team felt as though the car was a top 5 contender but we were just never able to catch the right break at the right time. All in all the team is happy with a top 10 finish as well as moving up another position in the points standings into the top 5 in overall points

 This week will be Round 1 of the Auto Value Bumper to Bumper championship series, with $500 to win.  The stands should fill up pretty quickly, so come out and join us for a fun filled night at the track.

SEE YOU AT THE TRACK!!! 

Another week in the garage

Week 3

June 12, 2010

Hello Race Fans!!!

A lot of hard work and preparation for getting the car ready for week 3 was, yet again, put to the wayside because of mother nature’s decision to let it rain once again.

After two weeks of not being able to get to the race track Mike and the team are getting very antsy to see how the changes that they made to the MNM Racing #10 SS after week one are going to work for the next race.   Auto Value Series Round 1 is only two weeks away and we definitely want to have some of an idea how the car is going to react to the new changes.

Being 6^th in points and only 8 points out of first, brings some added pressure to perform and make sure that the team will stay in the upper echelon for the remainder of the 2010 campaign.  MNM Racing is up to the challenge and wants to continue to thank all of our followers, sponsors, and most of all the fans.  Mike will be heading to WIR this week again to help the #36 car of Tom Gee Jr. for the starting race of the famous Red, White, and Blue racing series at the famed ½ mile track.  Come out and say hi.

Also want to thank J&S Design for coming up with our new design for this year’s Hot Shot cards, which should be available by next week’s race.  They look great and we can’t wait to hand them out to all of the fans, come by the pits after the races and get your very own MNM Racing card.

See you at the Track!!!