Here is a great video recapping some of our moments in the West Series over the past couple seasons. We would like to send out a big thank you to the guys over at Racing Shares for doing such a great job on this. You can view the movie in the upper right hand corner of this page. You can also find pictures from our recent appearance at Cerritos Dodge by clicking on the Appearance Pictures link in the top left block on this page.

You can find Racing Shares on the web here: http://www.racingshares.com/

 

Motorsports is full of highs and lows, just ask any competitor from the Saturday night short tracks to the Nextel Cup circuit. One week you can be at the very top of the heap, the next week you can be at the very bottom and a season of such highs and lows can take its toll. This is a lesson that Gene Woods has learned over the decades he has raced and this season racing the Monster Energy Drinks / Circle K Food Stores Dodge Intrepid on the NASCAR Grand National Western Division has been a prime example as the bottom fell out of an otherwise good season with several races to go forcing Gene and his team to pull out of the season ending Toyota Showdown at Irwindale Speedway.
 

For most of the season things went well for Gene Woods Racing, a team literally run out of Woods back yard in Bloomington, California. A season that began with little financial backing was aided by the addition of sponsorship from Monster Energy Drinks and Circle K Food Stores beginning at Fontana and with the additional dollars the team was able to build a new car and new engines and their performance improved and Gene seemed well on the way to his goal of a top ten points finish. Then came the fall Phoenix race.
 

A crash destroyed their new car and the team was forced to scramble to get their old car ready for Colorado. Another crash in qualifying there appeared to be the end of their season but help from other crews allowed them to get the car patched together and they scored a top ten finish and another good finish in Bakersfield put them back into the top ten in points going into the season finale at Irwindale. But Irwindale was a disaster as the old car and engine simply werent enough for Gene to be competitive and while he finished the race he was many laps behind at the end and ultimately lost his tenth place points finish. Although 11th was still good enough to qualify for the Toyota Showdown, with nothing new to bring out for the Showdown Gene decided it would be best for the team to skip the event to work on preparing for the 2005 season.
 

"We simply used up all of our equipment and budget for the season and with no new cars or engines left we need time to rebuild". Gene explained. "We did finish the season not too bad with 11th in the points. We wanted to be in the top ten again but going into the last two races we were just out of everything. But all in all I think we did very well considering out budget and if you know what other teams spend a season compared to us we did exceptionally well. It was simply not financially possible for us to compete in the Toyota Showdown this season even though we earned the spot. That was an accomplishment in itself just making it."
 

"I would like to personally thank the crew that worked so hard to do the things we did to keep us at the race track. I also want to thank Circle K, Monster Energy Drinks, Auto Trader, Dodge and all the people that helped us do what we got to do this season. We will regroup for next year and plan to build a couple of new cars and engines over the winter months and come back next season stronger than ever and give them our best season yet".

 

After an up and down season in the NASCAR Grand National Western Division Gene Woods and the other members of Gene Woods Racing are looking forward to the series season finale NAPA Auto Parts 150 Saturday night in Irwindale. After two races that saw them wreck two cars in Phoenix and Colorado Gene bounced back with a good race last weekend at Bakersfield and now they will be back on home turf with Irwindale Speedway being just minutes away from the teams Bloomington, California home base.

 "We finished 16th at Bakersfield fighting handling problems all day, but that was good enough to put us back in the top ten in points going into Irwindale next weekend for the final race of the season before the All-star Shootout. It was another late night before Bakersfield as we worked on the Monster Energy Drinks / Circle K Food Stores Dodge Intrepid until it was time to leave about 3:00 a.m. Crew chief Mike Fisk and the guys put in a lot of overtime to get us there, new paint, new rear clip and body, it was a weeks worth of work that had to be done in a couple of days, and our guys were great! Just to keep us going to the races everyone put in 110% effort to get the car done.

 Now were into the final laps of the season and theyre all in our own back yard. Were looking forward to a good performance Saturday night and then competing in the All Star Showdown and the best part is that we all get to sleep in our own beds from here on".

 

After two disastrous weekends on the NASCAR Grand National West circuit Gene Woods is hoping for a change of fortunes as his team heads to Mesa Marin Speedway in Bakersfield for the October Classic 150 presented by StarNursery.com.

A crash in the race at Phoenix left their primary Monster Energy Drinks/Circle K Food Stores Dodge Intrepid a wreck and another crash with their backup car in qualifying at Colorado might have ended the teams season if members of other teams had not helped them put "The Beast" back together for the race. Back on home turf in Southern California Gene is looking forward to getting things back on track.

"Now can we do something for Bakersfield. We have put a new rear clip on the backup car and have a new Monster Energy Drinks paint going. Were only eight points out of tenth place and were going to see if we can get back in the top ten and stay there until the end of the season".

But no matter what happens in the race on Sunday driver and car have something to look forward to on Monday morning as they will be making a personal appearance on behalf of Monster and Circle K. "We are going to do a appearance at the grand opening of the Circle K on Auburn St. in Bakersfield on Monday from Noon until 3pm. All race fans, and non race fans, are invited to come on out".
 

Its enough to restore your faith in humanity. After losing his primary car in a crash at Phoenix and being forced to bring the back up Monster Energy Drinks/Circle K Food Stores Dodge Intrepid to Colorado National Speedway for the NASCAR Grand National West Napa 150 presented by NAPA Belts and Hoses, Gene Woods thought things couldnt get any worse, but they did. A crash in qualifying mangled the car and Woods Racing assumed their weekend, and perhaps their season, was over. Thats when Gene and his crew found out first hand just what kind of people are involved in racing as a number of his competitors joined forces to repair the damaged car for the race and Gene drove it to a top ten finish.

"We took the older car because of the crash in Phoenix thinking we would finish the year with it." Gene said. "Everything was going okay. We were gaining in practice and looking good for a top ten finish. We tried some new things in qualifying and our first lap was okay, we were 13th quick, but our second lap should have been in the top five or six the way things were looking until I went into turn one and the car just snapped around. We were carrying a lot of speed when I spun and I thought we were going to be okay. Then we hit! Back end into the wall, up in the air and then the front came around and smacked the wall as well. When we got back to the pits I got out and the car was flat to the rear window, the front was pushed in to boot. That appeared to be it for us. We were ready to load the car into the hauler when Larry Nava and his guys from the 17 and 77 cars came over and said "lets try to fix this thing".

"They worked two solid hours on our car. You need to keep in mind this is the team were in the points battle with. Other teams came by to see if there was anything they could do. We also borrowed a welder from Bill McAnally of the 16 car and a drive shaft from the 61 car. This is something I have never experienced in any other form of racing and it made me feel real good about the series we are in. The car was set on the ground about five minutes before the race was going to start. It was a real group effort by a lot of teams that worked with our team to get us in the race.

"When we went out I wasnt expecting to do more than just start the race and make a couple of laps to get the points, but the car felt good enough to race so we did and I hung onto it for the entire 150 laps. We were on the lead lap in tenth place at the end. Not bad considering we thought we were going home early in the day.

"I would like to say a personal thank you not only to our team but to all the other guys and teams that helped us out, especially the Performance Motorsports team and Larry and Joe Nava".