The weekend at Port Royal (PA) Speedway and Ransomville (NY) Speedway started out with promise for Jason Sides. At both tracks, he qualified fourth quickest in his group, finished second in both his heat and dash, and then lined up second on the grid.

But when the checkered flag waved each both A-Main, Sides was in the back half of the pack with a pair of 15th-place finishes.

During the weekend, Sides had a season’s worth of trouble, beginning at Port Royal on Saturday night.

"In the dash, the bleeder quit," Sides said. "We thought it didn't get charged good so we put it back on the charger. Then we put it back on the tire and got ready for the feature. We pushed out there and turned the bleeder on. It went back out. The first few laps it wasn't bad at all. Halfway through that race the left rear started gaining air pressure. Even when I tried to hold the bottom it wouldn't at all."

Sides and the team made the changes they thought would help and sent him back out for the feature, but the problems continued — this time with his tires losing air.

"When we came in, the right side lost a half a pound," Sides said. "Since the guys were in the infield during the feature it took a while to get to the trailer and tires will lose a bit of air. When we finally got an air gauge to check the left rear it had 10 pounds in it. The left rear had more pressure than the right rear."

With Weedsport (NY) Speedway rained out, Sides’ next opportunity to race came at Ransomville (NY) Speedway in a rare Monday night show. His problems continued.

"It was cold and it had a miss to it in the dash at Port Royal, but it quit," he said. "When we hot lapped at Ransomville it did it the entire time. We put a new box on it and got ready to qualify. It wouldn't even hit a lick when we pushed off. We came in and put the old one back on and got one lap at the end.”

In this event, Sides qualified 23rd, finished fifth in his heat, and started the feature 19th. He climbed only three positions before the end of the race to finish 16th.

This weekend, Sides hopes that warmer temperatures on Friday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS, and on Saturday at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Pryor, OK, will reverse his fortune.

"Hopefully the Midwest has good weather the next couple of weeks, and we can produce strong results at Lakeside and Salina this weekend and then at Dodge City the following weekend," he said. "We've had good results at all three tracks. If we can get qualified and start up front, I know we can run up front. With only a few races remaining this season our focus is on finishing strong."