(Image Credit: Bryan Lugo)
26 Promotion – Northern California – (July 5th, 2017) – After a tenth-place finish at the Budweiser Outlaw Nationals, Dale Eliason Jr and Eliason Motorsports stayed in California last week for the third annual California Speedweek.
Speedweek kicked off last Tuesday at Dixon Speedway. Eliason Jr qualified eighth with a lap of 12.303, which lined him up on the outside of the front row.
“I usually don’t have good finishes at Dixon, if I finish at all,” said Eliason Jr. “After qualifying eighth, my dad put the normal setup in the car for the heat but the track was already taking rubber. I ended up falling back to fourth because the car pushed really bad.”
Eliason Jr’s fourth-place finish in the heat earned him enough points to lock into the feature where he would start eleventh.
“My dad missed the setup in the main and the car wouldn’t turn in the corner because it was so tight,” he said. “I somehow found a way to run the middle to get the car to turn in the corner and finish eleventh.”
Delta Speedway in Stockton hosted the second night of action. Eliason Jr qualified sixteenth with a lap of 11.277, lining him up sixth in his heat.
“Delta is usually the only track that stays heavy, but I talked to one of my buddies that race there every weekend and he said they didn’t prep the track like they usually do,” Eliason Jr explained. “When I went out for hot laps I noticed that the track was already taking rubber, so we tightened up the car. I fell back to seventh at the start of the heat, but came back to finish sixth.”
The result forced Eliason Jr to the B-Main where he started second and needed to finish in the top six to transfer into the feature.
“I ran the bottom for the first seven laps of the B until I fell back to third,” he said. “Then I realized that there was grip up top so I went to the top and finished third to transfer to the main.”
Eliason Jr started the 25-lap feature in nineteenth and methodically worked his way up, but ran out of laps before reaching the top ten. He would end the night with side by side action finishing twelfth by .015 seconds.
After a travel day on Thursday, CA Speedweek resumed Friday at Visalia’s Plaza Park Raceway.
“I had extra seat time at Plaza from the Buds so I knew what the track was like and what it was going to do. We put the same setup in the car that we had the previous week,” he said. “We went out and set quick time in qualifying.”
Eliason Jr started fourth and finished fifth in his heat, earning enough points to transfer straight to the feature, where he would line up tenth.
“I was up to about seventh with three to go when another driver ran over the left side of the car going into turn one,” Eliason Jr explained. “I restarted in the back and on the restart, there was a pile-up on the front stretch. I was able to avoid it until the same driver ran over the same side of the car again, ending our night.”
CA Speedweek concluded Saturday night at Lemoore Raceway.
“Lemoore is my favorite track. I noticed that this was the only track that looked like it wasn’t going to slick off at all,” he said. “The track was still a bit heavy during qualifying and I qualified tenth, placing us on the pole for the heat. I won the heat running the bottom as the track was starting to take rubber.”
Eliason Jr transferred straight into the feature placing him fifth in the starting grid.
On the third attempt to go green, Eliason Jr locked bumpers with the car in front of him. The two stayed locked together down the front stretch, through turns one and two and separated after spinning out of the back stretch. A car coming out of turn two, then drilled the left side of Eliason Jr’s car as he sat on the track ending his night before an official lap was completed.
“Overall, we had a good Speedweek, we made all the mains,” he said. “I can’t thank my dad enough for all his hard work all week.”
Eliason Motorsports left Arizona with the goal of finishing tenth or better in California Speedweek points but came up a little short finishing thirteenth in the Restricted division.
Dale Eliason Jr would like to thank Affordable Powder Coating, Copper State Bolt & Nut, Custom Caretaking Plus INC, DOLCRX, Guhl Motors, HJ Tile, Industrial Machinery Services, PMP Chassis, Seros Racing Engines, and T & K Repair for their continued support.
Dixon Results
Qualifying: 8th, 12.303
Heat: 2nd -> 4th
Feature: 11th -> 11th
Delta Results
Qualifying: 16th, 11.277
Heat: 6th -> 6th
B Main: 2nd -> 3rd
Feature: 19th -> 12th
Plaza Park Results
Qualifying: 1st, 12.254
Heat: 4th -> 5th
Feature: 10th -> 19th
Lemoore Results:
Qualifying: 10th, 12.029
Heat: 1st -> 1st
Feature: 5th -> 21st
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaleEliasonJr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daleeliasonracing
Website: https://www.DaleEliasonJr.com
- Darren Ward on Jul 05, 2017
- Article Date: 7/5/2017 by 26 Promotions