Goody's Headache Powder 500 Live Report by Pete and Liz Rosendahl

We had the privilege to attend the qualifying round at Martinsville on Friday and to be in the pits with the drivers and cars and watch the action although the invitation to be a part of the action was from the #75 Remington Arms Team.

Liz and I have followed Derrike since 1990 when he won the Daytona 500 and we had the chance to meet him in Dover at the June race where he had his 2nd win. We watched him go through his succession of cars and sponsors and now got to see him again with his new team and sponsors the #36 SKITTLES® machine.

Friday 4/17
The car, the team and Derrike look just great in their "rainbow" colors and the trailer with all the merchandise is great to see. Derrike is

still a gracious and generous host with his fans signing autographs and sharing hellos but of course he and all the other drivers were very busy trying to get their cars "up to speed" for qualifying during practice Friday morning. The big factor for everyone including Derrike was the cool (actually) cold weather and the concern about getting enough heat in the tires to get them up to competitive speeds. Derrike was in and out of the pits making adjustments, as were all the other drivers. When it came to actually qualifying, the clouds were dark and the winds were very high. As you all know from the results, Derrike qualified good enough to put him 24th, but it will put him on the back pits tomorrow since only the first 21 cars get to be on the front side.

Saturday 4/18
We were back at the track again today and watched the drivers practice along with the second round of qualifying. Derrike looked very quick today with the team making adjustments during practice. The car performed well. The trick will be to see if he can get to the front on Sunday. The weather factor came into play again today with very cool temperatures in the morning but by noon it warmed up with the sun out on the track. The weather is supposed to be perfect tomorrow.

Martinsville is still a great short track and should provide a great deal of action as it always does. The track is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Tomorrow should prove to be a good race. We will be watching the action from the pits and the trailer so we will keep up with what is happening out there. We will be rooting for Derrike and the #36, but also for Rick Mast and the #75 Remington Arms team where we are their guests. We would like to salute all Derrike Cope fans and hope you get the chance to see him in action wherever you are.

Sunday 4/19
We attended the Goody's 500 race in Martinsville and as with practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday, we were in the pits and on pit

row before and during the race. We got to see all of the cars as they were being prepared for the race. Some were being set up from scratch. The SKITTLES® #36 looked great and was ready to roll onto the track.....

It was a perfect day for a race, the weather was just right with sunshine, low winds, and 70 degree temperatures. Driver introductions gave us a chance to see Derrike again in the red and rainbow colors of the SKITTLES® Pontiac. It sure stands out from the crowd.

At 1:00 PM all the cars were lined up to race and we could watch them start the first lap. Standing in a pit and watching from there is just awesome. The roar of the engines and the power you feel as the field goes by is exciting. Well, the first few laps got really exciting with more than enough cautions. The SKITTLES® Pontiac managed to come through these unscathed. The neat thing is that you could watch the field go by and still pick out the #36 as it went by. Because we were in the back pits, we could walk up and down between turns 2 and 3 and watch the field go by as they slowed for the turns and then accelerate to high on the back straightaway.

For most of the race Derrike was in the thick of it riding in the middle of the pack. We kept thinking that he had a chance to move up as the race wore on. Then as luck would have it the #36 machine spun and hit in turn 2 and was hurt pretty badly. The crew worked feverishly to get the car fixed and back into the race. We were out of the field of view to see what actually happened. This is where TV and in some instances depending on where you are sitting in the grandstands, has a better view of all the positions of a short track. As Derrike was back in the race, he spun again and the SKITTLES® Pontiac sustained some more damage. Again, we did not get to see the actual incident. Once again, they got the car back on the track. The good thing is that he managed to keep the car going and finish the race.

Being in the pits and along pit road as part of the race team gives you a different perspective since you can really appreciate what it takes to have a "team" to put together a race car and to be competitive in the sport. We were very grateful for the opportunity to attend the three days at Martinsville courtesy of the #75 Remington Arms car and Butch Mock Motorsports with Rick Mast as driver. Rick had an early incident where the #75 was heavily damaged in the left front and rear. The #75 crew worked feverishly to cut away the damage and replace the radiator on the car. It was awesome to watch the pit crew as they worked in unison to quickly repair the damage to get the car back on the track. We also learned about tire wear, temperatures, gas mileage (weighing the cans), and how the driver communicates with the crew chief about the car set up, what he thinks it needs in the way of adjustment, etc. We also got an appreciation for the driver since Rick was on board with the flu and had a temperature of 102.

All in all this was a terrific experience for us as fans of both Derrike Cope and the #36 SKITTLES® Pontiac, and Rick Mast and the #75 Remington Arms race car. We will be rooting for both of them in future races and wish them luck at Talladega and the second half of the race season.