(Bill W) July 12, 2013 – Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx Motorsports #o5 team spent the week headed towards the Pacific Northwest with a stop in South Dakota and a pair of events in Montana. The two Montana stops saw the Sunset Hills, Missouri driver in contention for wins and resulted in top five finishes. Tonight and tomorrow the Lucas Oil ASCS Series will compete at the Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington.
Things started last Saturday night at the I-90 Speedway in Hartford, South Dakota. Brad would finish second in his heat after starting fourth. “We had a good heat race,” he says. “But the motor just wasn’t pulling the r.p.m.’s. It felt flat. We weren’t sure what it was, so we went ahead and swapped motors.”
Though he redrew a four for a starting position in the main event, the motor change relegated him by rule to starting outside of row eight. He would move up to a tenth place finish. “It ended up laying rubber pretty early,” he says. “It was what it was from that point. We were able to get to the top ten, but there wasn’t much more to get than that.”
After a storm featuring 90 m.p.h. winds postponed things a night to Tuesday at Billings Motorsports Park in Montana, Brad drove from fifth to second in his heat race. “We had a really good heat race,” he says. “We drew the pole for the feature, so we definitely wanted to knock a win off. We came up a little short. We led the first five laps or so.”
While leading, Brad felt he changed his line a little too much. “I got caught searching around a little bit more than I should have been,” he says. “(Logan) Forler got around me. I started running his line, and (Jason) Johnson snuck past me. For some reason, I committed myself to the top for the race. When Jeff Swindell got around me, I said forget it and finished the race on the bottom. We were a solid fourth place car at that point, but if I would have just run my race, it would have been a different deal.”
Checkering fourth in Billings, the series headed north to the Electric City Speedway in Great Falls. Brad started fourth in his heat. “It was kind of how we thought it was going to be,” he says. “It was blown off slick and a little hard to pass. We were in the fourth heat, and we started on the outside. The only place there was an ounce of moisture was on the bottom, so we got shuffled back a bit. We came out of turn two in third place and that’s where we ended up.”
The main event would see Brad starting outside of row six and wasting little time in getting to the front. “I had an awesome start,” he says. “I think I was up to sixth or so on the first or second lap. I just rode the bottom really. I stayed down there and tried to stay out of trouble. I saw Jason running the top, and (Joe Ramaker) was running the top really well. I got up there and my car handled really good. I drove by Jason and then got (Ramaker) on a restart. Tony Bruce slipped up and I got by him.”
Taking the white flag in the lead, it looked like certain victory until lapped traffic came into play in turns three and four. “Unfortunately, just going into turns three and four coming to take the checker…I was trying to get around a lapped car on the high side,” says Brad. “I didn’t think I could just stay behind him, so I went up there. I went up out of the rubber and ended up third. It was our race to win, I just kind of handed it away.”
Brad will have his chance at redemption tonight and tomorrow night in Elma.
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Brad and the Loyet Motorsports team would like to thank primary sponsors: Vacuworx Global, Miller Truck Lines, and Loyet Landscape Maintenance. Associate sponsors: Maxim Race Cars, J and D Performance Racing Engines, Butlerbuilt Professional Seat Systems, Meramec Heights Collision Center, KSE Racing, Weld Wheels, Penske Shocks, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Hepfner Racing Products, DMI, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Bell Helmets, TI 64, Conroy Control, The Engine Heater, Ealey Transportation, and Speedway Motors.
Attached: Brad at I-90 Speedway (Rob Kocak Photo)
- Admin Account on Jul 13, 2013
- Article Date: 7/13/2013 by Bill Wright