The 2016 race season as officially begun for the Scott Thiel Motorsports sprint car team. This past Friday night the team travelled to Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL to race with the Midwest Open Wheel Association and travelled Saturday to LaSalle Speedway in LaSalle, IL for the Bumper to Bumper IRA season opener! The team was pleased with the overall momentum throughout the weekend even though the results didn’t show it was great.
On Friday night at Tri-City Speedway, 27 sprint cars were on hand. Scotty was 13th quick overall and would start the heat race event in the fourth position. Only the top three cars would transfer into the night’s A-main event. At the drop of the green, Scotty moved his way to the bottom groove going into turn one. He grabbed the third position away coming off of turn two and began to battle for the next spot. A few laps later, he slid his way into the second spot but would not be able to hold it off at the finish line. A margin of 0.128 would be the difference from second to third but Thiel still managed to lock himself into the nights A-main event. Scotty would go on to start the A-main in the ninth position. The track took rubber during the b-main events so the team knew it was going to be difficult to move forward and also very hard on tires. They decided to some different things to the car as this was not a point’s event for them and see if it would work on the abrasive track conditions. The 20 car field took the green for the A-main event, Scotty tried several different grooves but the grip was not there. The rubber down track came back into play only four laps into the main and everyone was racing the same groove. After 11 laps into the event, Scotty elected to pull off due to an ill handling car and also didn’t want to chew up the tires any more than they already were. The official finish for Thiel was 19th. “It was a trial night for us. Being that it wasn’t a points show I figured we could take this time to try something different and well it didn’t exactly work.” Thiel laughed. “The car felt great early on in the night so we will put our focus into tomorrow at LaSalle.”
Saturday night kicked off the Bumper to Bumper IRA season opener and their 50th anniversary as a series. 37 cars were on hand for this event and Scotty drew a 10 pill which put him fifth out in the time trial order. After laying down an 11.949 lap time, he would hold the quickest time for majority of the order. One car slipped by Thiel in time and would drop him to second overall. That would place him to start sixth in the heat race event. After the field took the green, Thiel charged around the top side of the track. He held the fifth spot but would jump the cushion in turn one and fell back to sixth. A caution came out quickly after for a car slowing. On the restart, Thiel slid his way back to fifth but wasn’t done yet as he slid his way into fourth the next lap. He chased down the top three cars quickly but would hold on to the fourth position after ten laps and would transfer himself into the a-main event and the nights redraw lineup. During the redraw segment, the #2 pill was picked and that would invert two rows of the quickest times and finishes between qualifying and the heats which would place Thiel to start in the third position. The crew went to work and prepared the car for the 30 lap A-main event. The 24 car field took the track and began to lineup for the action. The green flag flew and Thiel used the bottom groove for one lap and quickly charged up to the cushion and held the fourth position. A few laps later he found himself passing for the third spot but a caution would slow the race. After returning back to green for a few laps, the second place car slowed down and that allowed Thiel to move up into the second position. He held that spot for a few laps but would fall back to third several laps later. With only eight laps to go, Thiel was charging around the top side in the third position but another driver threw a dirty slide job and would force Scotty to jump on the brakes to avoid getting wrecked and spun the car out. Because of the spin, Thiel would have to go and tag the rear of the field. After finishing out the remaining laps, Thiel would cross the finish line in the 15th position. “I’m a little disappointed on the finish. I didn’t really have any other option than to hit the brakes hard to avoid getting sent. The car just came from underneath me and I couldn’t save it. Luckily, we didn’t wreck anything and still had a nice qualifying attempt to start off the season. We will get refocused this week and prepare for Beaver Dam next Saturday” Thiel stated.
Next on tap for the STM team is this coming Saturday night at the Beaver Dam Raceway in Beaver Dam, WI. Follow along on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ScottThielMotorsports for updates all race night long.
Scott Thiel Motorsports would like to thank all of their great marketing partners for the 2015 racing season and encourages everyone to check out these fine companies! Please support the people who support racing!
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- Scotty Thiel on Apr 18, 2016
- Article Date: 4/18/2016 by SixFour Promotions