Flat-Out Motorsports

Grams to Take Over #4

In light of the recent suspension of FOM driver Matt Emerson, Auz Grams has been named the primary driver of the #4 Realtree Outfitters Fusion beginning at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Auz joined FOM prior to Watkins Glen and was to run a partial schedule in FOM's part-time #59 team. "It's disappointing to lose Matt partially through the season, but we're confident that Auz can do just as good of a job filling in until Matt is able to return."

NB hopes for decent finish at NHMS:
Nick Baker had one thing to say about the race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. "Hope we can get a decent finish in it."

After having a pretty disappointing season so far compared to how he feel he should be doing, the #9 team heads to NH with downed spirits and hoping for a good race and finish.

Off-pace Baker forced to settle for 10th at New Hampshire:
After being slightly off pace all race, Baker is forced to settle with 10th after a long, frustrating race for Baker. "I have no idea why I couldn't do anything at all, I was off pace enough where I was getting KILLED out of the corners, just could get any power off the corners. I tried loosening up my car a bunch, but nothing was working at all. It's disappointing to have that happen, but you have to deal with it a move on."

New Hampshire A Solid Outing For FOM

New Hampshire served as the second new addition to the Season 4 Proline season, and also served as the luck breaker for the #15 team. A track which has been good to Hann in the past, NHMS produced the first top 5 of the season, which has been plagued by DNF’s and bad luck. The team looked rather uncompetitive on the practice charts, again sitting on the second half of the page for a majority of the sessions. Qualifying was not much better, but good adjustments lead to the #15’s best finish of the season. “We struggled with speed all race but the car turned really good in the middle, better than a lot of guys I raced despite myself not shifting. I knew we didn’t have a car good enough to contend for a win so I just tried to stay out of trouble and it paid off.” The finish jumped Hann to 8th in points, which also serves as the cut off for the chase in a few weeks. “There’s still plenty of races left, but it’s nice to know we’re atleast in the chase as of right now.”

Baker hopes for rebound at Bristol:
In his previous Bristol races, Nick Baker has a win, a few top 5's, and a few top 10's. Baker missed the Bristol race in Proline Season 3 due to family commitments, but he says he should be here for this one. He has no experience at Bristol while being able to change your setup, so he says it should throw him for a bit of a loop.

"I think we could have something for this one, maybe a top 5. Bristol is a challenging track, but it seems to fit my driving style for some reason. Hopefully we can get a setup that also suits my driving style and I can work with it and run up front.

I think it's time for me to do something different than what I have been doing. I think it's time for me to attempt to race, no worries about trying not to wreck people trying to pass them, no waiting until the last minute to move up. It's time for me to get going early and race. New Hampshire was a tough race for us and being so off pace was displeasing. We got 10th, but we struggled to even get that. But like I said, it's time to change my approach."

Baker gets top 5 at Bristol:
In a race that was up and down for him, Nick Baker finished the race in the top 5 by placing his #9 DeWALT/Stanley Tools Ford Fusion in 4th place. He was running 6th with less than 5 to go when teammate Auz Grams went into turn three and drove into Brian Wallace with both spinning out. A caution wasn't thrown because it was less than 5 to go, and Baker went on to get 4th.

"We had a solid car, it was loose some parts and tight other parts. I tried making in-race adjustments to try to find something, nothing really worked. My biggest issue was trying to pass, I couldn't do it very well. Short run car was pretty bad, long run car was a little better. It was a tough race, but we survived it and finished 4th. It was a good run for us and we got a good finish for once."

Emerson Returns To Action This Thursday

Matt Emerson has passed a mid-ban drug test and will be allowed to run at Solstice Racing again. He will be back in the number 4 Wix Filters car thursday night at Pikes Peak

Fast Pikes Peak car produces disappointing finish for Baker:
You could ask anyone at Pikes Peak Thursday night if Nick Baker had a fast car for the race, and they would most likely say "Yes". Baker started out winning first practice by being the only driver with a 27.1, and even won the pole with a 27.054 almost two tenths faster than 2nd place Adam Codol (27.250). Baker was out front for the first part of the race, grabbing the lead a few times, before spinning out on his own from 2nd place. From then on, it was a struggle for track position for him.

"The pit stalls were what killed most of our track position, I was ahead of Adam and I didn't want to box him in, but I couldn't get into my pit stall without doing so. Everytime I found my way up front again, it seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong. I got wrecked, spun out, was forced to go three wide, ect. It's frustrated when you feel like you finally have a great car that could contend for the win. We had a very good car, my race line was slightly different from everyone elses, I didn't overdrive the corners going in, which helped me off the corners, but 10-30 laps in, people kept pinning me down to where I couldn't do jackshit off the corners. I tell you, some people here race with little to no respect. You run up front, have your team owner blast under you on a restart racing for 2nd and forces you up to a line where you know you aren't setup for, it's tough. I can't blame anyone but myself for tonight though. I just wasn't aggressive enough on the restarts, especially the last one. I felt like a pinball all night, but you move on. Gotta tell you though, it was nice having that good of a car though, going to Texas in two weeks, one of my stronger tracks, so I look forward to that!"

Mackay shows up unprepared and fights "handling" problems all night:

Team owner Ian Hann had Dan Mackay fill the #59 Ford at Pikes Peak, Sponsor Luke and asoc was reported to not have been paying for sponsorship this week. So Ian just pulled the car out to run and didnt peel the decals off of the car. Dan fought handling problems and pulled the car behind the wall after almost blowing a tire atleast 2 times during the race.

PS. FU @ MY WRITING SKILLS in another person

Emerson Returns With a Great Finish In Colorado

After being suspended for one month, Matt Emerson stepped in his #4 Wix Filters Ford Fusion for the first time since Watkins Glen and only left off where he stopped, bringing home a solid 3rd place finish. Emerson fought handling problems all night, but got it dialed down at the end and broght home a good solid top 5 and pushed himself back into the top 8 in points.

PPIR Continues Tough Luck Streak for Hann

After a few hard weeks in the luck department, Hann and the #15 team looked to PPIR for a strong run. The weekend was shaping up to be just that until a late race wreck again put them behind. After some struggles in practice and a rough qualifying run, Hann ran solidly in the top 3 for a good portion of the second half of the race. A late caution that set up a sprint to the finish ended that, however, when the #71 of Chris Wetz spun his machine collecting Hann and the #33 of Adam Codol ending all 3 drivers' nights and knocking Hann back in points significantly. "We has a fast car, just needed some luck. One of these days we'll get the finish we deserve, but until then we'll keep working away at it." The Proline series takes a week off before heading to Texas, a track that has been very good to FOM in the past.

Baker returns to Texas with high hopes:
After an extremely disappointing Pikes Peak and a devastating Texas race last season, Nick Baker heads to Texas with high hopes with his new team.

"These FOM guys produced last season with strong cars and strong results and I know this #9 team is very capable of the same. It's been a solid season so far, sitting 6th in the points, trying to make the chase. I think if I could get good track position early on, start up front, run up front, I can get a solid top 5 finish. We'll have to see here though."

Baker's Texas past includes two wins, including his first CRI Pro Cup Series (and only) win and a dominating CRI ARCA Series win where he led 50 out of 51 laps and barely won on fuel strategy. He has multiple top 5's across Solstice, CRI, ECR, and STR and quite a few top 10's.

Damn Emerson, I told you Robson had that pic...

Difficult Texas Race Yields 6th Place of Hann

Texas began like most races have begun for FOM this season, but ended a little differently, this time in the #15 teams' favor. Despite being strong in practice, Hann qualified further down the charts than he wanted to be. This didn't hamper their efforts though, as Hann migrated to the top 5 before lap 20. A restart that featured 2nd place Shawn Taylor spinning his tires led to the #15 hitting the wall hard, however, and the day tumbled from there. "I saw Shawn spin his tires, I slowed up but we all stacked up and it ended up damaging our car pretty bad." The team lost 2 laps completing repairs but a series of cautions towards the end allowed them to regain a position on the lead lap, and ultimately a chance at the win. Hann charged from 10th to 5th with 2 laps to go, before the #10 got loose off of turn 4 with the #15 paying the price. The team held on for a 6th place finish though, their best since New Hampshire. "Our car was really good that last run, had it not been for the #10 we would've had a chance at winning the race. 6th isn't terrible though." The team now heads to Richmond sitting 8th in points, which also serves as the cut off for the chase. "It's gonna be a tight race, a good run will be extremely important."

Texas missed-call sends Baker to 9th:
While having one of the stronger cars on the short run, Baker said his car was really bad on the long run. The driver of the #9 Dollar General Ford started the race in third, and was maintaining a top 5 through the first run before the caution came out. It seemed like the #9 pit crew had a rough night as every time on pit road, the team lost spots. As a long run went on, Baker fell from as high as 2nd to as low as 8th, but as he was pitting, the caution came out. On the final caution, Baker decided not to pit for 4 tires and he wound up 9th behind most people who pitted.

"It was a bad call on my part, once people got to my outside, I knew I had to let them by so I didn't push up into them. We were looking at 10th, but Lambert spun out coming to the line and I just got by him. Great short run car, terrible long run car. Work at it some more and see what I got next time."

Baker currently sits inside the chase being in 7th place. He has a 15 point margin over 8th place and teammate/owner Ian Hann, and a 20 point advantage over teammate Matt Emerson, heading into the final race before the chase.

Baker says ownership's not for him:
After switching from his own team and joining Flat Out Motorsports, Baker said so far he's happy having teammates to help him and helping his teammates if there's a need. He said running his own team and not having the resources he has now is the biggest problem he faced last season.

"It's a past I hope to not go back to, it's not fun trying to figure out things on your own and struggle running last and not going anywhere. With the help of Ian and Matt, I've done some things this season I can be proud of, while the luck factor still kills me in everything, it's been a more bearable season than it was last season not being competitive at all. I know right now it's a one year deal with FOM, but there's the option for a 2nd season, too. You look at your first season with a team as a building year, see where you are at, get better through the season, then try to shock the world the next season. I think the FOM boys are close to something if we all could get some good luck going. Emerson shocked everyone last season making a very strong statement in the chase, coming so close to the championship. The speed has been here with the FOM guys all season, I feel we put out some of the best cars."

As for what the plans are for next season, Baker said he'll know closer to the end of the season but says he has a "guaranteed ride" for next season.

Baker's FOM season cut short:

Despite making his first chase in 2 season, Baker has decided that running for FOM hasn't been the best choice. He has decided to take his team elsewhere, but wishing the FOM guys good luck from now on.

"It came to a point where I just felt like I was causing more harm to the team that good. I've caused my fair share of incidents with both Ian and Matt this season and I feel really bad about it. I wish Matt good luck in the chase, and Ian good luck the rest of the season, but I feel like they aren't getting much help from me with all of the incidents I have caused."

Thanks for all of the help Ian, I really appreciate it. Don't worry, anything you have given to me as far as setups are concerned are safe with me.