Tim Ratajczyk - Priceless at I-55 Saturday 08/25/2007

JeepFan55

JeepFan55

Danny Heiple
I debated how to word to this but I have to say something, I saw one of the most unusual things happen Saturday night at I-55 Raceway. Some of you may have seen this if you were on the back stretch but some of you, especially if you were on the front stretch may not have seen this.

Tim Ratajczyk got a flat tire on the rear or his Late Model in the MARS/UMP feature event with the first caution. Tim pulled into the inner pits on the back stretch and got out of his car, went to the outer pit area where he parks got a new tire, brought it back down to the inner pits, got the tired changed and climbed back into his car. Tim was able to join the field before the green flag flew. In Tim's favor, but unfortunately for McBride there was another yellow from a pile up on the front stretch and Tim was not left half a track behind the field, but how amazing that he went and got his own tire and completed this task while the officials were lining up the field.

Tim Ratajczyk you were priceless. There should be some kind of award for this.

I am sure other drivers might have done this but I have personally never seen it done before. Kudos to you! :)

Price of Admission - $20.00 (this particular night)
Price of Bottled Soda - $2.00 (out of the machine)
Watching Tim Ratajczyk - PRICELESS!
For everything there is MASTERCARD :)

Good luck for the rest of the 2007 season. Visit www.RatajczykRacing.com
 
Right on, Tim.

Now that is what a racer is!!! I missed that one, but that does make a true racer want to compete. Normally, Tim just retires with those problems, but I guess he thought he had a good car and wanted to compete.
 
I saw this as well, found it very entertaining. He was not even in a big hurry; just taking his time while the tire was being change, he even stood back and watched for a bit. Finally crawled back into the car and slowly made his way out of the turn 4 hole. All I could think was
WILL YOU HURRY UP. I was crawling out of my skin.
The patience he had was simply amazing.

Did his crew just not bring any extra tires to the pits for a 40 lap feature or did they just not have the correct RR?

Jason Crump
 
I sat there and watched this happen and could not belive what I was seening. I was thinking that he was just going to get a tire so he could drive the car out. Never did I think that he would have enough time to walk out there and back and get the tire changed. That tells you how slow allied is.
 
daracing said:
Never did I think that he would have enough time to walk out there and back and get the tire changed. That tells you how slow allied is.
Click to expand...

In fairness to AARA, Saturday night I noticed several times when drivers would take two or three yellow flag laps to fall into single-file order so the scorers could fix and/or confirm the re-line.
 
I Always Love It When We Get Slammed By Someone Who Has No Clue!

Just For Your Information The Mars Poeple Were Responsible For Realignment! They Were Connected To The Racers By Racecievers!there Was Also Wrecker Work Going On In 3&4!

We Are Very Slammable At Times But Slow Allied Is Not!!!!!!!!
 
Don, I don't know whether you were referring to me or to dararacing's comment about AARA being "slow", but I certainly didn't mean to slam Allied. I think you guys do a great job at running a quick program.

My whole point is only that it's a bit difficult to correct a lineup when the scorers can't even see the numbers because some drivers take forever to fall into a single line after the yellow flag flies.

(Afterall, I've yet to meet an official with X-ray vision.):D
 
don hoener said:
I Always Love It When We Get Slammed By Someone Who Has No Clue!

Just For Your Information The Mars Poeple Were Responsible For Realignment! They Were Connected To The Racers By Racecievers!there Was Also Wrecker Work Going On In 3&4!

We Are Very Slammable At Times But Slow Allied Is Not!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

Ok so it wasn't allied then it was mars. Either way Tim had enough time to go get a tire and change it. And no when this happened nothing was going on on the track. The cars were just driveing around for like 10 laps under yellow.
 
The race WAS restarted once while Tim was on the infield. However, several cars tangled in 3 & 4 on the restart and another caution came out with no more laps completed.
 
daracing said:
Ok so it wasn't allied then it was mars. Either way Tim had enough time to go get a tire and change it. And no when this happened nothing was going on on the track. The cars were just driveing around for like 10 laps under yellow.
Click to expand...

How can you be so ignorant? Like Mr Hoener said, allied is very slammable at times but they are the most efficient crew I have ever saw at any track. You can complain about other things like how they allowed a modified to race with a broken left front but a few weeks ago they black flagged a sportsman car for the same thing.

There are several things to complain about but allied is not slow.
 
DARACING, why don't you give it a rest! You hate pevely, you hate allied, andyou hate MCS! You have alot of hate in your life. ATTENTION all fans do not stand in front of daracing , she has to have a clear view of the officials and track to find something to complain about!!!!!!!! By the way in the thread about things you hate that goes on at a track, what is difference between a driver that always goes back to a track that he complains about screwing him over and you going to a track that screws him over and you going to a track you always find something wrong. IF YOU DON"T LIKE THE TRACK DON"T GO. IT'S THAT SIMPLE.
 
I don't hate pevely or allied never said I did. I don't get on here every week and bad mouth pevely. I don't go to MCS because of the things that go on at the track.
 
Quit blaming people for something good that happened on the race track.

Hey daracing, are you upset that Tim was able to accomplish a Great thing? Seems you have to blame someone for someone elses accomplishments. :mad:

Way to go Tim!!! ;)
 
No not at all am I upset that he did it my point is that the lining up of the cars was slow enough that Tim could do it. I think its great that he was able to.
 
A nice post goes south. This started out about a situation that was unique and then it somehow goes in a different direction. Too bad it could not stay in the direction of what Tim did and leave other things out of this post.

Since you don't always know what is going on when a different organization comes to the track, some things do change. The LM drivers had communication with the MARS officials. They used one way communication with the drivers. MARS officials lined the cars up and they had to rely on the Allied scorers as well as the drivers. If the drivers either did not hear the instructions or whatever happened, the radios were used to help speed up the lineup. There were only two restarts and they were early. Did you ever see the Allied officials try to line up the cars?
 
Once again, a perfectly good thread has gone to hell with the response of a few bad apples.

Great job Tim!
 
I seen Tim about a month ago at Tr City. He pulled out for the feature and his right rear went flat. He came to the hot pits and he didnt have a tire down there. He calmly got out of the car and i was yelling in my head..hey someone give this man a tire!! He did have people running over to him but he refused their offers. Seems like a pretty cool dude.
 
qwaynick said:
Once again, a perfectly good thread has gone to hell with the response of a few bad apples.

Great job Tim!
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts. I could not have said that better myself. This thread was created about Tim and how great of a job he did. Not about how Allied or MARS lines up cars. We all know sometimes tracks have problems with the line ups. But this post was about Tim, not line ups or bashing Allied, MARS or Jennifer, if you want to start a post like that go for it, but please keep this post about Tim and how great it was to see him "take matters into his own hands" so to speak.

Jimmy Dearing I do not mean to disagree with you but I was watching Tim and the green flag never flew before he was in turn four ready to hit the track. As soon as he pulled on the track the yellow came back out which saved him from being a half a track behind. The accident was in turn four onto the front stretch as the cars piled up going for the green. Now if I am wrong I apologize but that is what I remembered seeing. I do not remember the green being thrown and another yellow, but like I said if it did I apologize.

That being said, there are only a few weeks of racing left this season, can't we all just get along :)?
 
qwaynick said:
Once again, a perfectly good thread has gone to hell with the response of a few bad apples.

I was thinking the very same thing; enjoying a comment about a good ol boy racer, doing what he has to do to finish a race. When all of a sudden a bashing broke out! But then, WHAT'S NEW ABOUT THAT!!!! :rolleyes::confused:

Way to go Tim!
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.




Back
Top