Practice rounds went smooth for the team and everyone was happy with the car and was prepared for qualifying rounds. Piekarski’s qualifying race was third on the program. He got off to a decent start and managed to stay in contention, nailing down a third place finish in the heat race. The third-place finish advanced Piekarski to the 150-lap feature event.

"I am glad that I was able to qualify for the race considering that the track champion didn’t," said Piekarski. "That says a lot about the level of competition on the ACT Tour," continued Piekarski.

Following qualifying, the starting grid was set and Piekarski started deep in the pack in 16^th of a 26-car field. When the green flag flew, the tradition of the ACT Tour continued with tight racing and long green-flag runs.

Just past 20 laps into the race, Piekarski radioed his crew informing them that the car was losing power at the end of the straight-aways. The problem grew progressively worse and the gauges stopped working on the Merchants Rent-A-Car-sponsored machine. On lap 86, Piekarski pulled out of the race and the crew diagnosed the problem as a dead battery.

"I felt like we could have had a top 15 finish based on our practice runs on Saturday and our heat race," said Piekarski. "This was my first race at Thunder Road and I am going to chalk our finish up to a mechanical problem. The car was good and the crew did a great job preparing for the first race of the season. A dead battery is just one of those racing things that happens," closed Piekarski.

While it was disappointing for the team to not finish the season-opener, the seat time at Thunder Road will be valuable when the tour returns on Sunday, May 30^th for the 39^th Memorial Day Classic. Piekarski’s finish was put in the history books as 24^th.

The team now regroups and sets their sights on the trip to Airborne International Raceway in Plattsburgh, New York this Saturday, May 2^nd. The Ehler's RV 29th Spring Green 100 will kick off at 1:30pm.