It was a perfect Friday night of racing at our "home" track at Plymouth Speedway. With both drivers racing in front of local fans, the team was determined to put on a good show - and both Dylan and Sunshine certainly rose to the challenge!
Qualifying for the USAC event didn't end up in our best favor, with Sunshine qualifying 18th out of 27 cars. With a little bit of frustration, Tyler used that as motivation to push toward the front of his heat race and finished 2nd, transferring him into the Feature race. With Tyler starting 18th in the Feature, the team surely knew that it would be a challenge to get to the front. With confidence and stride, Sunshine dug through the entire caution-free race, passing car after car, until he landed in the 2nd place position where he finished the race, earning the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award for the evening.
An article from www.usacracing.com quotes Tyler stating, "“This is what we all needed, not only for me as a driver, but as a team,” a proud Courtney beamed. “We struggled at the beginning of the year. We changed a few things this week and it worked out. Our car was the best it’s been in a while. We screwed up in qualifying on a tough racetrack and that put us deep in the field. It makes it pretty hard to win races from that far back, especially with the caliber of guys we have running in the series. You can’t slouch off at any point in the night. Getting behind the eight-ball is tough, but we rebounded to get a podium here in front of a hometown crowd for my car owner who grew up here in Plymouth.”
Tyler now sits 6th in USAC Sprint Car points as of 4/22/17.
Dylan had a great start to the evening in his UMP Modified after hot laps. He started 4th in his heat and after an interesting race with barely any visibility, he managed to work his way to the front and won his heat race. With a great starting position in the feature, Dylan was feeling pretty good about the feature race. Although the feature was filled with several yellow flags, Dylan earned a podium finish and placed 3rd for the evening in front of his hometown crowd.
After all of the excitement at Plymouth Speedway on Friday, the team still had Saturday racing to look forward to and carry the momenteum forward. While the USAC Sprint car race for Montpelier Speedway was cancelled for Saturday, Dylan's DIRTcar Modified race went on as scheduled at Eldora Speedway. The evening started out great, with Dylan winning his heat race (for the second night in a row!), but unfortunatley wasn't able to finish the Feature race, with some motor problems ending his chance at victory with 7 laps to go while he was running 2nd.
Next Up: Sunshine battles with the World of Outlaws at Plymouth Speedway on Friday, April 28. Dylan is also joining him for an unscheduled race that night at Plymouth. See you at the track!
