Blake & Cole Stevens Racing

This past weekend we moved into (just kidding, but it felt like it!) Northwest Ohio Quarter Midget Racing for a club race Saturday and round #2 of the Quad City Series on Sunday. Rain each day turned day races into night (early morning 🙃) races. A big thank you to the Toledo families for drying that track for hours on end so we could all race! We love racing here, it always feels like family!

Saturday Club Race
Cole
Cole had a great Jr Honda heat race and finished 2nd! With the rain delay, the feature was getting pretty late, so he did not race the feature.
Cole's Jr Animal...ugh. As the group was under yellow lining up to start the race a car "sent it" right into Cole and caused a considerable amount of damage so he could not race even the heat

Blake
Blake raced LWF and Sr Animal this weekend
LWF he finished 2nd in the heat (despite loosing a tire at one point!). He was running well in the feature until a rod spontaneously fell off of his car. It couldn't be repaired in the 5 lap work rule so he was a DNF.
Blake finished 2nd in the Sr Animal feature with he and his buddy swapping laps far too many times letting the leader walk away 🤪 Congratulations Oliver on your first Senior class win, you had a hot rod!!

So out of 4 cars, only one finished a feature Saturday(more like Sunday am!) 💩

Sunday-Quad City
Cole
With fear of breaking a car during practice and dwindling spare parts from the night before, he didn't practice either car.
Jr Honda- gearing was way off! In the feature he started 8 and finished 8th out of 10. Car still didn't have a ton of speed, but he made some passes and more importantly put his foot all the way down and had fun!
Jr Animal heat- at this point he had done zero laps in this car here! He had a good start and was rihht there with some really fast competition....until..either something broke or he just lost it and plowed into a wall. Probably some of the most damage we have had in our years of QM. He was ok, but there was no way to get him fixed for the feature.

Blake
Blake had some stiff competition!
In the LWF car he finished 2nd in his heat and 3rd 🥉 in the feature. Congratulations to our friend Neveah on the big win!

In a very eventful Sr Animal race, he started 4th and finished 2nd 🥈. Blake thinks there should be a 1st 1/2 award though🤣...he had some good breaks go his way, one bad one having to come to the pits, and the cars speed from the night before decided to finally show up with 5 to go. He ran down the leader and on the last lap stuck it in there to challenge for the win with practically a photo finish. Best part was the two drivers getting out of their cars with big smiles and a bro hug! Congrats Brett on the win, it was a fun one to watch!

Up next, Midwest Thunder at home in Kalamazoo. Looking like its going to be more of a national race and beautiful weather in the forecast- racing all day and night Saturday and most of Sunday- free to attend!

Thank you sponsors!
Lakeshore Lock & Key
B.E.R Refrigeration, Heating, Cooling, Plumbing and Designers Sheet Metal
Town and Country Plumbing and Electric
Duco Performance
Jeffs Towing and Recovery LLC
Mid County Lawn & Garden
Priebe's Creative Woodworking
Big C Lumber

We are loving these fast Ultimate QM cars and BRE engines- May has been really successful for Blake and some quality seat time for Cole!

Big long update eventually...quite possibly the longest race weekend of our lives..but Blake is headed home with a bunch of hardware! For now, ETA to St Joseph...3am Monday 😵‍💫

💔

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Nope, we didn't race in a Charles Dickens novel, just Quad City Series round #1 at Little Kalamazoo this past weekend 🤪

Blake had the best heats of his career
Sr Animal he drove P6 to P3, securing himself a spot straight to the A Main.
Lt World Formula Heat drove from P4 to P1! This put him on the POLE of an absolutely stacked A Main.

Sr Animal- Blake drove really well and navigated a race with a ton of lap traffic. He was clean and consise and finished just off of the podium in 4th. He was coming for 3rd real quick though 😉 It was cool to receive a compliment from a fellow racer after the race to Blake how clean he races!

Lt World- here's where the worst of times comes in. In the A main the 2 car was fast, like rocketship fast...but...so was Blake. Blake ran in 2nd to him throughout many restarts. 3rd place car finally found a window to get thru and another joined with but it wasnt an open pass at that point in the corner. Blake's car- unfixable with the 5 work laps going by way too fast. Extremely grateful for all of the Quad track families who tried to get him fixed and back out. I dont think Blake has ever been so crushed after a race. He has a massive deficit to dig out of now for this series to try to have a good overall finish. But you know what...our favorite race mentor, Adam Terry, said it best...he was THERE. The car is there. The driver is there. Blake was neck and neck with some of the top drivers in the country. Going to keep that in mind and push on 😤

Cole had all big pill draws so his heat starts in the back kept him a distance away from the group starting when the cars in front of him didn't get to the group, so he started behind the 8 ball from the very start. He was frustrated but did make a great pass in his Jr Honda, which was great at his first big race as a junior!
Features he had better starts luckily!
He handled himself great, avoided (ish) "the big one" in Jr Honda (7 of the 10 cars either DOT or in it 😵‍💫) and had some super heads up driving on the last lap of Jr Animal!
Jr Honda P7 to P6
Jr Animal P6 to P4

We want to say thank you to Ethan and Barry for coming to help us this weekend with dad not being able to be at the race. Both boys' both cars were back to back races, for heats and features so there were countless others who helped us over scales, buckling a helmet, taking and sending pictures etc. We are so grateful!

Up next, Blake's favorite track- Toledo for their Quad City race!

Thank you to our sponsors
Town and Country Plumbing and Electric
Lakeshore Lock & Key
B.E.R Refrigeration, Heating, Cooling, Plumbing and Designers Sheet Metal
Mid County Lawn & Garden
Jeffs Towing and Recovery LLC
Priebe's Creative Woodworking
Duco Performance

Blake is the POLE SITTER in a crazy stacked Lt World A Main!!!!

Updates from Little Kalamazoo Speedway Quarter Midget Club heat races at the largest Quad City Quarter Midget Racing Series in the history of the series 😅

Blake
Lt World Formula- P4> 🥇🏁🥳
Sr Animal P6> P3 (hoping to be enough to go straight to the A!)
➡️➡️STELLAR driving from our senior driver today!

Cole
Jr Honda P5>P4
Jr Animal P5>P5
Driver is a bit timid, but also struggling with green flags being thrown when the cars in front of him aren't bunched up, so he has been stuck a quarter of a track behind at the start due to no fault of his own👎

💪 Putting in the work off the track 💪

With dad having to work and missing out on a big chunk of our regional races this year, Blake is bound and determined to learn how to make adjustments to the cars. He's even getting close to being able to do gear changes on his own! Proud of this big kid stepping up and wanting to learn and help!

The boys traded in their firesuits today for spectator seats and dirt goggles! High Limit Racing at Kokomo Speedway was a blast!

We are excited to announce another sponsor on board with us this year! Priebe's Creative Woodworking ! Southwest Michigan's premier custom cabinetry for kitchens and beyond! Theie work is absolutely stunning- check them out! Thank you for supporting these cold calling little driver/entrepreneurs 😁 🏁

https://priebeswoodworking.com/