[i Bill W - August 5th, 2009]
Brandon Wimmer and Rick Ferkel had a successful week with the All Star Circuit Champions’ “Thunder through the Plains” races. All finishes, save an accident at Huset’s Speedway, saw the #0 team finish in the top seven. This week, they’ll head to the Ironman 55 at the I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri to compete with the World of Outlaws. The high banked track should play to the Fairmount, Indiana driver’s favor.
More high banks last Wednesday saw the All Stars at the US36 Raceway bullring near Osborn, Missouri. A good qualifying effort and a good draw saw Brandon start outside row one for the 30-lap main event. “We qualified well (2nd), and we had a good run going in the feature until we got together with Kaeding (battle for third),” he says. “I still don’t know how I didn’t spin out, but we were able to come back from that. We fell back to seventh or eighth, but we were able to come back up to fourth, so it ended up being a positive night. I’ve been going well on the banked tracks, and we’d like to keep it up.”
Brandon’s first visit to the Belleville High Banks in Kansas was an eye-opener. The high-banked half-mile is formed in a circle with no real straights. Brandon briefly held the 8-lap record there after winning his heat, but records were falling quickly on Thursday. “Holy cow, that place is big!” he exclaims. “Once you get up to those high speeds, it makes it hard to pass. We were able to run a little lower than everyone else and that really worked in our favor in the feature.
We got going really well (finishing 6th after starting 13th). I thought we’d get both Droud and Hannagan there at the end, but we ran out of laps.”
A second night at Belleville was scheduled after a cancellation at the Thunder Hill Raceway in Mayetta, Kansas on Friday. After qualifying sixth and winning his heat, Brandon and the rest watched it rain.
Drivers were paid equally. “It wasn’t a bad night,” he says. “We made $1200 for running six laps. I don’t think I’ve done that before.”
The All Star caravan traveled north to the 1/3 mile Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota on Saturday. Brandon qualified 12th, and ran second in his heat and the dash. He lined up outside row five for the feature. “We raced our way up to about sixth,” he says. “It was pretty rough. We got into the cushion in turn one and the right rear wheel hub broke. That sent us right into the wall. At that point, I was just along for the ride.”
The DNF did not deter them from the weekend’s finale at Huset’s on Sunday, and the team had the car ready to go. “We qualified better
(11th) on Sunday,” says Brandon. “The track was so heavy, there just wasn’t any passing in the heats (4th). We tried a 95 Goodyear on the left rear for the feature, and we were just too tight. It was a race where you just wanted to avoid a wreck and survive (11 cars finished).”
Brandon finished seventh in the finale, and felt good about the week as a whole. “I think the week was a success,” he says. “We were running in the top ten in every race. The car count wasn’t too high, but the quality of the cars was out of sight. I’d like to thank Rick and Shorty for all their hard work too.”
Friday and Saturday, the team will compete at I-55 before heading back North to Oskaloosa, Iowa and the Southern Iowa Speedway’s Musco Lighting Front Row Challenge on Monday.
Brandon and Rick Ferkel would like to thank the following sponsors for all their help: Shorty’s Truck Repair, Smith’s Farm, Goodyear Tires, Griff’s Engines, Kear’s Speed Shop, Huggins Cams, BRODIX Heads, Barnes Oil Pumps, Prism Lubricants, Zeis Land Development, Butlerbuilt, Simpson, Winning With Wellness and WRT Web Designs.
[i Photo -
Brandon going really fast at the Belleville High Banks (IBRACN Photo)]
- Bill Wright on Aug 07, 2009
- Article Date: 8/7/2009