HFRL: Taking a Trip ‘round Turn One
- Published ()
- Hurricane Force Racing League
For the second race of the season, HFRL headed to the beautiful track in Las Vegas. This would turn out to be an awesome test in patience and car setups. Teams and drivers went crazy trying to find every last bit of speed and grip through the flat turns.
Sixteen drivers were relatively happy with the clear, 70 degree weather. A strong 20 mph NW wind had everyone concerned as cars became a bit loose going into turn three. The race was plagued with cautions, not because of turn three though. As you will see below, turn one got just about everyone at least once.
#98, David Stickney captures the “Bud Pole” award and leads the field to the start of the race. During a pre-race interview, David had this to say about the pole: “Thanks... the Gamespy Ford was awesome. I was a little loose coming off of 4 but was able to keep it straight. These guys do an awesome job every week. And you gotta hand it to the STXRacing® engines... man they're strong”.
Lap 4: #2, Rick Clark, gets bit in turn one first. The temptation to go too fast into turn one is very strong. Unfortunately, old tires just can’t handle the “pressure”.
Lap 8: #17, John McClaren gets his turn to “bring it around” in turn one and teammate #19, Aaron Needham, luckily gets under him cleanly.
Lap 21: #27, David Graham, takes his turn to get loose in T1 and slides down in front of #66 Gary Bell for some much unnerving excitement.
Lap 28, #05, Brad Burns taps #21, Troy Bouffard, going into turn one and spins himself. After he was asked how he managed to keep from losing the rear end in a post race interview, Troy was quick to chuckle and explain that “his crew gave him a good car that was ‘very not loose on purpose!”.
Lap 42: The guys are enjoying some great racing in the middle of the pack. For most green flag racing, drivers were very courteous and allowed faster cars to pass unchallenged.
Lap 43, #27, David points the nose towards the infield and stops in the center of the track. #2, Rick and #21, Troy “split the difference” and try their luck high and low. If you ask Rick which way he should’ve gone, he’ll tell you to take the high road probably.
Lap 56: #19, Aaron Needham tags #31, Troy while catching up to the front of the pace field to take the inside line for the restart.
Lap 60: the #9 car of Rick Silverman just can’t take being left out and “takes one for the team” as he does his best spin in turn one.
Lap 78: #27, David gets into the rear end of #66, Gary. During a quick interview with Gary after the race, He told us that “I can’t believe my luck, but I really feel that our time is coming and the #66 team will be in victory lane soon”.
Lap 80, #18 and #21 “gamble in Vegas” and take on right sides only. Before the restart, both drivers were caught on an audio feed “sweatin’ it out loud”
Lap 86: #40 , Bob Brewer, tries to turn back time while bringing the car ‘round counter-clockwise (in turn one of course).
Lap 105: #2, #21, and #98 go bumper-to-bumper for 4th, 5th, and 6th trying to take the final caution flag.
Lap 105: #25, Steve Tanner, takes the final yellow to win at Las Vegas.
Steve proved himself the undisputed new King of Vegas with a flawless performance. His team gave him an awesome ride and kept him in the pits the least amount of time.
The victory was well deserved and definitely showed the rest of the field that excellent teamwork and thorough preparations are key factors for winning. Hurricane Forces seemed to be the theme of the day at Las Vegas. Darn near every driver tried to conjure up their own storm each time they spun it counter-clockwise. It would seem that the leagues name-sake might have jinxed the drivers!
HFRL heads to Atlanta next week to play with G-Forces (Gravity, not Gary, but you never know!). Few tracks are as fun as Atlanta…it’s one fast son-of-a-gun with high banks and ripping turns! Good luck to everyone, or a they say in show biz, “break a leg”. Nah, nix that race fans, let’s start our own. From now on, it’s “blow a tire”