After testing at Orlando Speedworld (a track similar to New Senoia) earlier in the week, team AK Motorsports felt that they had a car that they could work with. After running a few laps at the 3/8ths mile, high banked racetrack, it became apparent that they would have some work to do. The car wasn't turning in the center of the corner like Austin needed it to, and this handling problem resulted in some slow lap times. Austin would try his best, to describe to the crew what the car was doing, and the crew would make alot of adjustments to the car, but it wouldn't get any better. It seemed as if nothing the crew did to the car made it any faster. After practice had concluded, Crew Chief Dave Pletcher would find out that the left rear shock on the car was leaking. This caused the shock to lose alot of stiffness. The crew replaced the shock and hoped that it would cure all the problems for qualifying.

       If Austin wanted to qualify up front, he would need to pick up about 8 tenths of a second from where he ran in practice. The car handled decent in qualifying with the brand new tires on it, but it was still a little tight in the center, and coming off the corner. Austin was able to pick up 5 tenths and would go a 14.59 second laptime, and the fastest qualifier ran a 15.23. This would put Austin in the 15th position. Since the ASA Late Model Series implements a "impound" rule, no one was allowed to make adjustments to their cars, so Austin was pretty much stuck with what he had.

       During the beginning stages of the race, Austin slowly but surely started to advance his way through the field. On the long green flag runs, Austin's car came to life, and tracked down the cars ahead of him. Austin found himself inside the top 10 when the first caution came out. Unfortunately, the rest of the race was plagued with cautions and short green-flag runs, so Austin wouldn't be able to take advantage of his car being good in the long runs. Austin was able to gain a few more positions in the closing stages of the race, and finish 7th. When asked about how he felt about the team's performance, Austin said, "I am really proud of our guys. The car wasn't the best in practice, but we were able to fight back and get a nice solid finish. We moved up to 5th in the points standings, and we are now leading the "Rookie of the Year" points. It was a good points night, and hopefully we can build off of this and do even better at the next ASA race at Cordele."

       The ASA South late model teams will take a month long break before their next scheduled ASA South race at Watermelon Speedway in Cordele, Ga. Team AK Motorsports is planning to race a local race or two, and test some for the next ASA race.

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