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Busy Weekend with Great Finishes for
MPL Motorsports Friday night started off good with a decent 3rd place finish in the heat race. This allowed the Rochester Steel Treating/Wayne Regional Orthpaedics Troyer to start in the 6th position in the main event. At the drop of the green flag we were on the move and were up to second by about the fourth lap. At this time I had a lot of laps to make the move on the race leader and just wanted to be patient. I would make a run on both the inside and the outside with no luck and then just settle back for a couple of laps to try and cool my tires. We caught a lucky break when the first caution of the race came out on lap 22. I knew after the caution was when I needed to make a run at the leader. At the drop of the green on the restart I made a run on the outside and then dropped low underneath him coming out of turn two to complete the pass for the lead. We had two caution periods after I got in the lead but we were able to hold on for victory number two on the season. There was not too much time to celebrate however, as we had to get the car turned over and ready for Oswego. Saturday night once again had things going our way. In the heat we were able to avoid a first lap crash and finish in the second position. This put us safely in the race and in the redraw for the 75 lap Mr. Auto Parts/Parts Plus main event. When things are going your way, they seem to keep going your way, and I was able to redraw the outside pole for the main event. 75 laps is a pretty long way to go on a set of tires so I wanted to make sure that I didn't abuse the car or tires in the beginning of the race. When the green flag flew I immediately dropped down into second place and rode there for the first 30 laps. There was many cautions, which slowed the pace of the race tremendously, but we were still riding around in second and trying to save the car. When we went back green I was right up on the leader but would eventually lose ground about five or so laps into a run as the tires heated up. This longer run dropped me back to third until the caution came out again about fifteen laps later. The car had developed a tight condition but was ok until the tires got fully heated. I knew if the race had short runs we were going to be in great shape but if there was any extended green flag runs I could lose some spots. As it worked out there was a little of each as I dropped back one more spot to fourth with a few laps to go but it was still a strong weekend for my entire team. The fourth place finish was my first top five on the RoC tour and was a great finish to a great weekend. I think we learned a lot for Oswego the next time we go back because the car was not really handling great. This weekend we go to Spencer Speedway on Friday night for a 30 lap feature event. |
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