Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow

Yesterday

It was certainly an up and down season for the Protofab team this past year. From the high of a new engine and renewed focus of the team going into the season, a great start to the season sitting in the top of the points ladder to the sudden downward blow with the injury to John early in the season.

From the low of the injury the team got a little pick me up when Brooke Tatnell jumped into the seat for a couple shows and what hoped to be a couple more through out the rest of the season. As racing goes the team would take another blow, sitting just a week before the 360 nationals with Brooke slated to once again pilot the 14 ride for the big show. Brooke was injured while driving for another team out east and would also end up sitting out while he healed. Brooke would heal up enough for one more ride in the 14 to finish out the season.

Today

The cars sit idly waiting in the shop along with spare parts. John is continuing to heal with good spirits and with the prognosis of no lasting affects other than remembering the frustration. Brooke has headed south and is having a great start to his season in his homeland of Australia. The rest of the team is relaxing and waiting.

Tomorrow

What the future holds for the 14 team is still developing. Stay tuned!

Tatnell in the 14 for 360 Nats! It's official!

Yep you heard it hear...well second. Brooke beat us to it! www.brooketatnell.com

Brooke will run the 14 Protofab ride at the 360 nationals. There may be other select races beyond that. Hope to see you all at the track!

Sorry to hear about the Walmart deal Brooke. They had a big deal with green cards a while back anyway so it's probably for the best!

Surprise Weekend!

With a shocking turn of events the 14 team found themselves quickly blowing the dust off the 14 after parking the ride with Johns Injury. With some early week developments and a couple emails things quickly spun to having a driver that was ready to go. Brooke Tatnell agreed to grace us with his presence. With the anticipation and excitement of any last minute racing decision (as most of them are) we headed for Kopellah.

Tatnell flawlessy drove the car to victories in all three races Friday night. Brooke laid down laps in the heat that left many heads turning. The final feature provided great excitment in the final laps while Brooke wrestled the 14 through the corners with a missing left front shock. Brooke mananged to muscle through and capture the final victory.

With the success and fun of the initial night of racing of course the questions of "What's everyone doing tomorrow?" came up. In dirt racer fashion we decided we would race we just didn't know where. Saturday morning during maintenance the final determination was made to go to Knoxville. The night started off with Brooke making it look easy with a win from the front row in the heat race. We started the main in the outside 5th row based on points accumulation and the pill draw. The car was visibly tight on the highside throughout the event. Brooke managed to work the car into the top 8 and it was looking as if we'd score a finish somewhere just outside of the top 5. That would not be the case though with 2 laps to go the u-joint exploded. Brooke luckily escaped any major injury. Sustaining cuts and bruises to his ankles. It was a good weekend running with a top class driver.

Could this lead to possible further rides for Brooke in the 14? Stay tuned!!

Check out a live interview with John!

John discusses his injury and the future of Protofab racing along with other moments from his career.
http://racemn.com/2009/06/29/john-nelson-umss-sprints-62909/

ManEater - Kopellah - 6/12 from my perspective

Anticipation was high as we rolled into the weekend. The weekend officially got started at about noon on Friday. This was after what seemed like a full day’s work packed into four hours to get an early start with a half day vacation. Also, with the beautiful weather, concentration was at a minimum as my brain just didn’t like the old 8x8 cubicle and found itself wandering outside many times. Nonetheless, I was en route to Cole’s house to jump in with the team, and we were actually on time at this point.

We pulled into the race shop and did a quick run by or run down with John and figured out the typical last minute things to do before loading up. As I figured, I was involved in more of the loading up part. About two hours later, all the equipment was strategically packed, including Duane, who had a last second dash (fast passed walk) to the cab of the truck as John was anxiously pulling out.

If anyone was wondering what conversations are had while pulling to the track, here is the 14 teams’ various topics that were covered this time:
Duane’s educational session on steering gears
How to make money with add ons
Theories on the GMC problems
Taxes
LLC’s, S-Corps, and Trusts
Finally, why there is no signs directing us to the Kopellah track. (some sort of township issue - lame)

We rolled through the gates to the track at about 5:30 and parked by 34 team. (Thanks for paying my entrance fee by the way John) As we started to unload, we were soon to find out that they were pumping our #3 cylinder for compliance checks. This would prove to throw us about 20 minutes behind schedule, but passed with no problems. Duane and Cole got the 14 car put back together and it was time to push off. If you were curious, John chose the #14 for his number as he was a big A.J. Foyt fan when he was younger.

John went out and ran some hot laps and scaled the car. The track was looking unusually wet for Kopella and this turned out to cause some fairly large ruts. Cole and Duane talked through the set ups for the heat and were a little on edge, but decided to go with what they talked about and see how that plays out to hold the car down through the rough track. John started inside second row behind the 29 of Thomas.

Thomas got a little swirly in the first corner and John was able to get underneath him. About two turns later, I hear a “woop” from Cole as he knew the car was fast. John was able to pull a nice pass as he slid under Tostenson’s 34 car as they we exiting turn four to take the lead. He then pulled away from the field to grab the heat victory.

John pulled into the pits and got out of the car. What’s one of the first things to come out of his mouth? “Dad, can I have some money for a cheeseburger?” I just had to shake my head and laugh. Because of the ruts that had developed in the track, the decision was made to blade the track during intermission which turned into a 45 minute break. The track stayed fairly tacky after that, but this took away most of the ruts. Cole, Duane, and John tossed around the idea about a different set up with the car, but decided against any major changes. Cole figured they were going to be a little loose, but the track was pretty unpredictable at this point. Because of that noted cheeseburger, John had to run off for a quick reliever before the race. Normally this isn’t something worth noting, but it comes into play a little later in the evening. A last second shock change was aborted. John was pushed out for the start of the competition race.

It didn’t take long to realize that a little loose, turned into a lot loose. John was struggling a little bit with his timing with traffic around, as he wanted to move to the high side of the track. As John was entering turns one and two, another car had spun. John tried to get below, but clipped it with his right rear. This sent John in the air for a quick barrel roll, then the car stood up on its nose for what seemed to be a minute, and then slammed back down directly on the frame as the suspension was already broken at this point bringing the car to a rest on all fours.

Cole started to pace off to the trailer saying we’ll have to grab the new wing, shocks, and trailing arms to get this thing together quick for the main. As we were about to take off, we noticed John wasn’t popping out of the car as expected. The safety crews were on scene quickly and were able to get John out on the backboard and off to the hospital. It was great to have some experienced guys there for this. They did a great job. Duane was able to accompany him for the blinking light ride. He had taken xrays at the St. Croix hospital and found there were fractures so they sent him for another ride to Regions in St. Paul. John had later stated he was only a little concerned when he was being pulled from the top of the cage and lying backwards that the guys would be able to hold him as they didn’t have great leverage at that point.

Cole and I were left at the track to get the car put back together enough and get everything loaded up. We’d like to thank all the people that stopped by and offered to help at the time. After we figured out how to get back to the shop, we unloaded everything and anxiously wanted to get to see John, but to no avail. We wouldn’t be able to see him until the morning.

We strolled into Regions after a parking debacle which found us parked in three different spots before we could settle on it. We found John’s wing and room and he was sleeping upon arrival. I don’t think we were the two faces he was dreaming of when he woke up to see us. John is a fairly spirited guy, but I think the drugs were still helping his cause a little during our conversation. He talked through the wreck and then joked about buying a boat and just going fishing for awhile. But, he seemed to re-evaluate that decision as he was saying it. Also, it turns out he was very lucky he had that bowel 5 minutes before that wreck, so he didn’t have to worry so much about the laxatives he was given by the medical staff. He was giving the nurses a hard about making him stay in bed, but he has to stay until his brace gets made as he had compression fractures on two vertebrate.

At one point as the doctors were running tests, they asked John if he knew his name, and John comes back with “Batman.” He said they didn’t quite find the humor in that as much as he did. This may stick to be the new nickname, as a pre-race interview identified that John doesn’t have one yet. The rest of the time was spent conversing on the randoms and to no avail trying to figure out how we were going to roll John past the nurses’ station to get him to Alary’s as we were so close to it at Regions. Glad you are in good spirits and still cracking jokes! Have a speedy recovery.

On a side note, Barickman seemed to also sustain an arm injury, maybe they could have carpooled. Last I had heard it was a badly bruised arm from catching a rut and bouncing it off the seat.

-Kodee

Thank you all!!

Friday was a quick reminder for us all how quickly things can change. Thank you so much for everyone that came over and offered help!

John also wants to extend a very special thanks to the track safety crew.

John suffered compression fractures in 2 vertebrae ending our season. John will be fitted with a brace on Monday 6/15 and then should be released from the hospital and will then be required to wear the brace for around 3 months.

Good luck to everyone the rest of the season. I'm sure you'll see us at the track occasionally.

Cole

...guess we were due.

Our weekend of new dates turned out to be that weekend that we all know is part of the price of showing up at the track with a trailer full of parts a perfect car and a positive attitude. A test to see how strong your attitude is and just how many parts you have that you may need. Well our parts came up short and our attitudes met it half way and we survived to try another day. In the famous words of Mr. Petty "I'd rather be lucky than good any day.". We started the weekend off with what is yet to be confirmed as a bad shock in hot laps. I commented to John after that I wasn't sure he stayed on the "Full 8 seconds". Our car looked like a bull in a rodeo in hot laps to say the least. I'd love to see video of that short ride! We managed to settle the ole girl back down for the heat race and scored an amazing start....at the first green flag. The second time our good friend Mr. Graf was not as at sleep at the wheel and we got off second and settled for second. This lead us to what I call the Dash...Where we had a momentary rocket ship...but one of our old buddies, who seems quietly content to methodically destroy our front end parts weather it be before or after the green flag, did a nice piece of work and took a steering gear with as well this time. So that puts him at 1 front axle, 2 tie rods, 2 drag links, a hand full of radius rods, front panhard, and a steering gear...to our one front wing. We'll give him the win...no need to continue to prove your point!

After a relaxed rainy Saturday in the shop our second steering gear is nearly modified to fit. Mark one more check in the spare parts list!

With a little luck hopefully we have what we need to stay in front of our fans the rest of the year! Thanks for supporting us and see you soon!

Cole

Added race dates!

As a typical dirt racing team we like to follow the common practice of preparation lasting until the final second and inevitable final moment changes in everything including schedule! That being said we will be racing this Friday June 5th at Kopellah and tentatively the following Saturday at Jackson! See you all at the track!

The 14 team.

Schedule Change!!

Just a little note to let everyone know the 14 won't be out and about this weekend. John and Amy have decided to take a very much needed and deserved mini vacation and are heading for Indy. Looking forward to seeing you at our next race date.


The 14 Team

Dust Bowl!

It was another good night for the 14 team at Kopellah! We started the night with a strong 2nd place finish in the Heat and went on to win our 3rd consecutive challenge race. Going into the main we were 2nd in points for the night behind Richert. Jerry drew the 6 pill on the invert draw slotting us inside 3rd row for the start. We didn’t get a great start and fell to 7th in the running order. We managed to work our way up to 5th and that is where we would finish. It was a good run on a track so dry and dusty that John commented he passed a lapper and all he saw was some shinny stuff and went around it having no idea who he had just passed. Hopefully for our next stop the water truck will burst open on the track or mother nature will help us out with a little moisture of course stopping in time for a beautiful night of racing!

Cole

We’re Back!!!

We’re kicking the dirt off this race team and going racing again, and it’s going to be fun… After the last few years of being very conservative and not running many races we are back for better or worse. I’m extremely excited to have a schedule with 20+ races again, mostly thanks to the new UMSS series. I’m also pumped to see a lot of our friends after the races and look forward to meeting new ones. I encourage everybody to please stop by after the races and say HI. I also have to thank a number of people for helping me reassemble this team. Protofab Engineering which is our primary sponsor who has stepped up big-time this year, thank you everybody at Protofab and all its loyal customers. I have to thank both my parents for partnering with me in this raceteam (it is very hard to find business partners that expect to lose money…) Amy, my girlfriend who has been super supportive…even when I spend most of my time at the race shop. Kasey, who was a huge help last weekend and I hope that you will be wrenching on the 14 Protofab car more often. And last Cole, who is my main wrench and my right had man when it comes to the race team. Can’t wait to roll out for the next race and I hope to see you all there!

John

Great season starting momentum!

Cedar lake evolved into another good night for the protofab team. Leading into the night I was a bit apprehensive what was in store for us, we started by leaving the shop an hour late, minor tow rig road side maintenance for a blowin turbo tube and two missed corners (yes we've been there a hundred times) later we were at the track. Thankfully from there things took an upturn.

John opened the night with another third place finish after starting tail end in a 6 car heat. This lead to a front row start for the challenge race where school was in session and John was the professor! The 14 was a rocket ship and John sailed to a commanding half track lead by the time the checkers flew. This made us the top point scorer for the night and the 0 pill was pulled so no invert for the main putting the 14 on the pole. At the green we slotted into third until a little moment with a lapper slid us back to fourth. We ended the night with a strong 5th place finish.

Thankfully the weather held a pleasant temp all night allowing some fans to make the trip to the pits after the show. It was great to see some old friends and meet some new young fans! Looking forward to the rest of the season see you all at the track again soon!

Cole

Frigid cold and a night of carnage!

Or you can just call it season opener, but where's the drama in that? The heats and dashes went well, we started off the night with a third in the heat with a car that wasn't quite perfect. A little chit chat in the trailer and it was a dream machine for the dash and we had the luck of starting outside front row...Mr. Petty said it best! I'd rather be lucky than good any day. Well we got a little of both in the dash and dominated the field with a solid straightaway lead! From there we head into two lap bursts of restarts as the drivers methodically destroyed equipment. Through all this we survived with not even a scratch. We started outside front row for the main, but got beat to the first corner. From there it was a battle of minor bobbles that determined the 2,3 finishing order. Unfortunately we bobbled last shortly before the track crew decided they'd seen enough tractor tire nose dives, sprint car flips and spins and called it a night for the sprinters. Not sure we ever really raced in the main tonight...it was more several green, white, checker’ds packed into a group.

A big thanks to all the DIE HARD fans that toughed it out in the cold in the stands to watch our little circus tonight!

We had a much more fortunate night than many of our friends/competitors, hopefully they'll all be back soon! It was great to be back racing and if tonights 3,1,3 finishes are a taste of the season to come there's big things in store for the #14 protofab racing team!

Cole

Sunday Funday!

We ventured to Johns old stomping grounds on Sunday. A trip back to the track where John cut his teeth in a sprint car, Arlington MN. John put down some good hard fast laps on a dry rough race track. We blistered one tire and called it good for a practice day. We decided to stick around and watch the other drivers for a few minutes. Davey Tabor asked John if he'd like to take a couple laps in the 34TW ride. As with any driver John jumped at the chance for a little more seat time and was more than happy to burn a set of tires off the back of Dave's car. Thanks Dave! We had a great time. One more practice this Thursday at Kopellah which sadly I will miss. Then Friday it's time to have some real fun! Opening race at Kopellah speedway. Looking forward to see you all there!

Cole

Great to be back at the track!

Practice night at Cedar Lake went well. John had the chance to shake out some cob webs and get the feel again. It was a good night for the first night out. Can't wait for next Friday!

Cole

Ready to rock!! Thanks to Duane putting in a long day today we're in good shape and will be ready for a good night of testing this Thursday at Cedar Lake! The team can't wait to get on the track and see what our new power plant can do!

Cole

After a long winter the season opener is quickly approaching. The excitement is starting to build in the shop. The main car is mostly assembled and tonight the motor went in. After a couple very light seasons of racing we're looking forward to a good strong year with near 20 nights of racing on schedule. Check back often for posts from the members of the team. Can't wait to see you all at the track!

Ps.

Check out the newly added pics from the shop at the beginning of the night. More to come soon!

Cole

Protofab Racing

Welcome to John Nelson's 2009 Racing Blog.

Our intial plans are to run in the new UMSS series. For information on this series visit the link:
http://www.umsprints.com/