If I had to use one word to describe the 2009 season it would be “amazing” from the first week in January to the last week of December the whole year was an amazing learning experience for me. The year started off with moving my whole racing operation to Noblesville, IN into the Bryan Clauson Inc. shop. I am so grateful of Tim and Bryan for letting be apart of there organization, it has been by far the best time I have had in racing my entire life. From the whole Clauson family to Big Al and AJ they are all like my second family and have had a great time with them at and away from the track.
09 started off with a big trip to the Chili Bowl where BCI/CTR fielded 6 cars, I was not racing I was there helping out with the cars and it was a blast. Next on the plate for 09 was the first big trip out to the west coast to help BC with his midgets, the trip was full of excitement from the win a Cowtown to the devastating ending at the copper on dirt the whole trip was awesome.
Then it was back to Indiana to get the Sprint cars ready. The start of my season was up and down good runs would come flowed by bad luck by the end of May I was starting to run consistently in the top ten in A mains and on July 3rd at Gas City I picked up my first A-main win in a sprint car. I can remember everything that happened that night every thing went so smooth the car was awesome and I drove a flawless race. It was so cool to get out on the front stretch and see every one that had meant so much to me in my racing career running out to congratulate me, the best part of the whole night was being able to see how proud my parents were of me. The next week would be the start of sprint week which it would also see its ups and downs through the whole series.
After sprint week I was able to go out to Kansas to the Bellville midget nationals with BC to help him with the midgets. For anyone who has not been out to Bellville yet it is one of the coolest weekends in racing from the history of the race to the small town it was awesome, but our weekend out there was far from fairytale. But at the end of Saturday nights A-main we were all able to stand in victory lane and BC picked up his first Bellville win.
Next for the 17R brought the ASCS TNT tour through the Midwest. This trip was a great learning experience, getting to see all new tracks and a new racing format the whole trip was very positive. Shortly after returning from the TNT tour we suffered some really bad luck with our motor blowing up at a Lawrenceburg local show, this would sideline the 17R till the last race of the year at the Kokomo klash and I was able to leave with a top ten finish.
Looking back at 2009 I am no where near disappointed with how the year turned out. I would have liked to put up some better finishes in the bigger races but ill keep my head up and keep digging. Look back at the site soon to see 2010 season preview, schedule, and more.
Kyle “K-ROB” Robbins