Brandon Wimmer and the Hammer Motorsports #24H will be competing this weekend in Butler, Michigan with the All Stars. Last week, the team just kept getting better as the week went on at the 54th Annual Knoxville Nationals in Iowa. Saturday started with a top ten finish in the afternoon program, and ended one spot out of a transfer to the C in the finale.
The team’s plans to get some laps earlier in the season had washed out, so their first look at Knoxville in 2014 was at the “Capitani Classic” a week ago Sunday. Arguably, the toughest one-day show in the country, saw the Fairmount, Indiana driver join 47 other cars in missing the feature. “There were seventy cars or something, and we just hadn’t had any laps at the track,” says Brandon. “We didn’t qualify well, and that put us a little behind all week.”
With Wednesday night rained out, Brandon would qualify for the Nationals on Thursday. He drew the 47 pill and qualified 37th quick. That gave him a good heat starting spot, and he transferred to the main where he checkered 20th. “We rolled pretty well in the heat,” he says. “We weren’t great in the feature, but we weren’t horrible either. The track was so fast, that it was hard to move forward.”
With Wednesday’s rainout, Knoxville officials had elected to run a doubleheader Thursday night, but track workers could not get the track in condition to make it feasible. So the decision was made to lock the top fifty in points into Saturday night, and run the old non-qualifier system. “We improved every time we hit the track,” says Brandon. “Unfortunately, with the rain and everything, they reverted to their old format of locking in the top fifty cars for Saturday. We could have used a fresh start with the new Friday format they’ve been running.”
The team’s point total left them six spots out of being locked in. In the Saturday morning program, Brandon would run off and hide, winning his heat, and finish eighth in the feature. “Once we got to Saturday, we got better and better as the day went on,” he says. “We were able to get ourselves in the top ten in the feature Saturday afternoon, and that put us in the C for Saturday night, rather than the D or E.”
Fears about the track conditions Saturday night were put to bed with a great surface. “It’s amazing what the Dunkin family does with the racetrack,” says Brandon. “I was shocked at how good the track was in just a few hours. It had laid rubber Saturday afternoon, and in three or four hours, we had a great racetrack.”
Slated for a starting spot outside of row nine for the C, Brandon missed a melee at the drop of the green that involved eleven cars. He would charge to a sixth place finish. “I don’t know how we missed that wreck,” he says. “Somehow we found a hole to get through. We were lucky to make it through that. We ended up starting tenth or twelfth. We were going forward and at one point, we were all over Cole Wood for the final transfer to the B.”
Knoxville rains have plagued not only the regulars, but teams like the Hammer Racing #24H. “The two laps in qualifying can really make or break your whole week, and that’s where we were,” says Brandon. “We had planned on coming out earlier in the year for Twin Features to get some laps, and that got rained out too. It’s never easy when you show up without some laps on the track.”
Brandon felt good about how the team improved as the week progressed. “We got better and better as the week went on, and we almost came back and got into that B,” he says. “It was just one of those weeks, and it didn’t feel like the Nationals usually does. If they had done the normal Friday program, we would have had another shot. I would have felt good about our chances, because we were getting better and better.”
The Hammer Motorsports is looking for additional partners to expand their schedule in 2014. Those interested can e-mail Brandon Wimmer at Brandon7TW@yahoo.com or Hammer Motorsports at hammertime24@ymail.com.
Hammer Motorsports would like to thank the following for their support: Hammer Pallets, Crown Batteries, OC Shocks, Kear’s Speed Shop, All Star Performance, Gressman Powersports, Butlerbuilt, Simpson and Meggit Sandblasting and Powdercoating.
Atttached: Brandon at Knoxville (Mike Campbell Photo)
- administrator on Aug 14, 2014
- Article Date: 8/14/2014