WATERTOWN, Conn.—May 14, 2013— David Gravel has been looking forward to this week’s East Coast Swing for the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series for quite some time. First, it provides an opportunity to race close to his Watertown, Conn., home in front of family and friends. And second, and even more important, he’ll have a chance to climb behind the wheel five times in a span of seven nights.
The first East Coast Swing of the season for the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series begins on Wednesday, May 15 at Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa. The series then heads to the famed Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., on Friday May 17 and Saturday, May 18 for two full nights of racing. Then a trip to New York is in store with a visit to the sprawling Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown on Sunday, May 19. The first East Coast Swing of the season wraps up on Tuesday, May 21 at New Egypt Speedway in New Jersey.
Gravel, who pilots the Wright Process System/Firetext Reponse/Musco Fuels/JRC Transportation/Model Craft machine under the Bill Rose Racing banner, made one start at Lincoln Speedway last season with the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions. He was second-fastest in time trials of the 37 entrants in that event. Gravel came up just one spot short of transferring from the second heat race into the main event that night, finishing sixth. He raced his way into the A-Feature by finishing second in the B-main. In the A-Feature, Gravel started 12th and ended up 21st in the 30-lapper.
“It’s definitely tough when you go out to Pennsylvania and take on the Pennsylvania Posse,” said Gravel. “We time trialed well at Lincoln last year with the All Stars, but didn’t have the best of luck in the feature. The first point of business every night, especially in Pennsylvania is to qualify well and transfer from the heat into the main event and then you can start to focus on the feature from there.”
The East Coast racer made a total of five starts at Williams Grove Speedway in 2012. He earned a best finish of ninth in June with the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions. He finished 12th in his first start of the year at the half-mile in the spring in a weekly show. Gravel came home 12th again a few weeks later at the end of April in an All Stars event. The young driver returned to Williams Grove in the fall for the National Open, which was sanctioned by the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series, and he raced his way into the 40-lap finale of that marquee event for the first time in his career, finishing 17th against a field of 53 of the best sprint car drivers in the country.
“Qualifying is everything at Williams Grove and the pill draw has a lot to do with that,” he explained. “If you draw a late pill it’s very hard to qualify well. You have to stay on top of the track all night and make sure you are running where you need to run. You definitely have to be on your ‘A-game’ at the ‘Grove’ all night long.”
Gravel finished fifth at Orange County Fair Speedway last season with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series, after lining up 13th for the 25-lap main event. He timed in 13th-fastest, just missing the heat race inversion by one spot. Gravel ran sixth in the first eight-lap heat race. In the A-Feature, he suffered a flat tire on lap-21 and was able to work his way back forward to finish fifth in a race that saw a number of contenders lose tires on the hard clay track in the late going. The historic fairgrounds oval is about two hours from his hometown of Watertown, Conn.
“Orange County is a really, really fast track,” noted Gravel. “Last year it got extremely slick and took rubber, so hopefully it doesn’t do that this year. We were lucky that we were one of the first to lose a tire and were able to get it changed and get back out there and came away with a top-five finish. Orange County is very close to home, so we’ll have a lot of people there watching us and hopefully I can do well.”
The World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series event at New Egypt Speedway will mark the national tour’s first stop at the seven-sixteenths-mile since 2007 and fifth overall appearance dating back to 2001. Gravel has raced at New Egypt in the past in a 360-sprint car with the United Racing Company (URC), with his most recent start at the track coming in 2008.
“It’s been a few years since I’ve raced at New Egypt and I believe they’ve changed the track since then,” Gravel said. “I’ve never run a 410-sprint car there, but a few laps in hot laps should take care of that. The Outlaws haven’t raced there for a while either, so that should equalize the playing field a little bit.”
Gravel enters this first East Coast Swing of the season seventh in the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series standings. He has 10 top-10 finishes this season, with four of those being top-five performances, including a season-best runner-up finish at Tri-State Speedway in Indiana, on April 20.
“We want to make it into all of the shows without having to take a provisional, because we only have one left now,” shared the 20-year-old. “After that, we just want to do the best we can. If we can get top-10 finishes those will be good nights for us. We have to stop finishing 14th and 20th and step our game up and hopefully finish in the top-10 most nights, if not all of them.”
Keep up-to-date with David Gravel and DDR Motorsports by visiting www.DavidGravel89.com. Follow David on Twitter @davidgravel89g and like David on Facebook.
- Admin Account on May 14, 2013
- Article Date: 5/14/2013 by DDR Motorsports PR