HARD CRASH ENDS LAMBERT'S HOLIDAY WEEKEND
(5-29-09)  As the old saying goes, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, for Butch and the Lambert Racing Team this past weekend.  The team started the Memorial Day Holiday weekend out by making the 9+ hour tow to The Dirt Track at Lowe’s in Charlotte, North Carolina for the Goodyear FASTRAK Challenge event.  The special event was limited to 50 entries and 47 drivers signed in for the night.  Before the racing action, Butch participated in an autograph session under the grandstands.  Track officials claim, that at times, the line of autograph seekers reached over a quarter of a mile in length! The atmosphere of the event was overwhelming, and we are very proud to have been fortunate enough to participate.

Butch pulled pill #28 and took the green for the heat event from the 4^th place position. In front of the sold out crowd of over 15,000 race fans, he patiently worked the inside line and made a thrilling pass on the white flag lap to secure a 3rd place finish and a spot on the starting grid for the feature. We were thrilled to have made the show through the heat and felt that we had accomplished our #1 goal by just making the race.  He took the green flag in the feature from the 16th starting spot. A lap one spin in front of him cost him a few spots, but once the race restarted, he was on the move. Using the whole track, he started weaving through traffic. Coming for the checkered flag, he had a strong run down the backstretch and through 3 and 4 that allowed him to pull right up on the 9th and 10th place cars. Unfortunately, he just didn't have enough time and finished in 11th place, just about a foot shy of a top 10 finish.  Needless to say, we were ecstatic with his performance and very happy with our finish.  The race was won by Austin Dillon, the grandson of well-known Sprint Cup Car Owner, Richard Childress.  Not only was he on hand, but NASCAR stars Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, Steve Park & Clint Bowyer were also spotted roaming the pit area.

 After Butch's strong run at The Dirt Track at Lowe's on Friday night, the team was optimistic heading into the FASTRAK Southeast event at Wythe Raceway on Saturday night. Unfortunately, that optimism was short-lived, as we knew we were in trouble after hot laps. Butch qualified 33rd out of 40 cars, which put him in 7th on the starting grid for the heat. The crew worked diligently to try to get the car working better, but to no avail. He finished the heat in 6th, forcing him to run the B-main to try to make the feature. The crew went to work once again, but just could not find the magic set-up for the car. Although it was not through lack of effort, his 6th place finish in the b-main would not be good enough to make the feature starting grid, so we were done for the night.

Sunday morning we awoke to gloomy skies and a forecast of 60% rain for the Princeton, WV area. This, combined with the FASTRAK Northeast event at Mercer Raceway Park waiting for us on Monday, compelled us to make the decision to head for home. The team pulled out of Wytheville, Virginia a little after 10am and pulled into Tri-City Speedway around 5:30pm, just missing hot laps. Butch started and finished the heat event at Tri-City in 3rd place. The Invert Zero re-draw put him in 5th on the starting grid for the feature. The caution flag only flew one time in the event and this allowed the field to get spaced out with very little passing towards the end of the event. Butch crossed the finish line in 5th place, exactly where he had started.

We were thrilled to have survived three straight nights of racing with very little damage or issues and looked forward to having a strong run at Mercer Raceway Park on Monday for the Steel Valley Classic, FASTRAK Northeast Tour event. The night started off well with Butch racing his way from a 7th place start in the heat to a 3rd place finish. This secured him a spot in the feature event and put him in the re-draw for the top 12 starting spots. As luck would have it, he re-drew the 11th place spot to start the feature. The track had changed considerably from the heats to the feature, and alot of cars were struggling at the beginning of the race. A lap one crash shuffled the field and caused some confusion, but Butch re-started in 10th. He was running in about 8th place when disaster struck on un-lucky lap 13. A lead car spun going into turn one and Butch had no where to go and very little time to react. As a result, he crashed hard into the car sitting broadside in the corner, only to be hit two more times as other cars joined the crash. Luckily, Butch was able to walk away. The car, however, was not so fortunate. Both the left and right side front suspension was all but destroyed, and he also took a very hard hit to the left side rear quarter.

The crew took the day off on Tuesday to rest, but started to assess the damage on Wednesday. Their findings were not good. In addition to the front shocks, a-arms, and other suspension and steering parts, the chassis is also bent, not just in the front, but in the rear as well. There was heavy sheet-metal and cosmetic damage on both ends of the car also.

Unfortunately, we are forced to take this weekend off to re-group. We hope to have the car ready for next Friday's Pro Late Model event at Lernerville Speedway. We have also made the very difficult decision to pare our schedule back to racing one night at week at Tri-City Speedway (barring any specials). This crash has put a serious dent in our racing budget for the year, so unfortunately we will have to sit out some events. Hopefully this will be a short-term change and we will be back to also racing at Mercer Raceway Park on a weekly basis soon.

 Please remember to stop in at our newly designed website www.lambertracing.com for updates and scheduling.  You can also find a link to our Blog, with all the latest and greatest, on the “News” page of the website.

Butch Lambert and the Lambert Racing team would like to thank all of their sponsors and supporters for 2009: Bagel Bites, Austin's A1 Bleach, Fannie's Friends Pet Cremation Services, Fleming Tire & Auto, Lambert Plumbing, RAM Transit Lines, Inc., Kozminski Auto Body, BP Construction, Harmony's Angel Candle Co., Smardt Equipment, Woodward, Inc., Flinner Signs & Decals, C&D Embroidery, Mars Beer Distributor, Marburger Farms Dairy, Hotsy, B&E Mini Mart and Fleming Design Services. 

LAMBERT RACING ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF RE-DESIGNED WEBSITE...
May 8, 2009 - Western Pa FASTRAK Crate Late Model Driver Butch Lambert is pleased to announce the launch of his re-designed website, www.lambertracing.com . The site was 're-freshened' by Fleming Design Solutions.

The site features information about Butch, his crew, and his sponsors, among other things. Fans can keep up to date on Butch's schedule which includes action in both his Crate Late Model and the Chuck Neely-owned E-Mod he pilots. The cars in the #27 stable will see action in Pennsylvania , Ohio , North Carolina , Virginia and West Virginia in 2009.

Butch stated “Our old site was in need of some updates and we noticed the awesome job that Fleming Design Solutions has been doing on several other driver sites. We gave Jason a call and he was able to provide us with a high-quality, professional looking site at a reasonable price. I would recommend his service to anyone who is considering a website.” When asked about his 2009 season so far, he proclaimed, “So far, 2009 hasn't started off as well as we would like.  We’ve had some strong runs but have had a couple of rough weeks lately.  We feel the car is very close and we just need some luck to come our way."

Butch would like to thank his 2009 sponsors and supporters: Bagel Bites, Austin's A-1 Bleach, RAM Transit Lines, Fannies Friends Pet Cremation Services, Smardt Equipment Inc., B.P. Construction, Inc., Kozminski Auto Body, Fleming Tire & Auto Service, C&D Embroidery, Mars Beer Distributor, Harmony's Angel Candle Co., Woodward Inc., B&E Mini Mart, Flinner Signs and Decals, Marburger Farms Dairy, and Fleming Design Solutions.