Brookings, SD native Donovan Peterson headed to Hartford this past weekend in hopes of a “double duty” night driving both the HRA Traditional Wingless Sprint Car and the Willey Wilson Motorsports 360 Winged Sprint Car, but ended up just driving the winged 360 due to mechanical failures on the non-winged car.
“We brought my non-winged sprint down to race the HRA season opener last Saturday,” says Peterson. “But when we tried to fire it off to get some heat in the motor, something was wrong; The motor would not turn over. We hustled to find the problem, but after tearing apart the rear end and the driveline and not finding any issues we decided to load up the car and just focus on our winged program with Willey Wilson Motorsports.”
After realizing that the HRA car was not going to make it for the event, Donovan was up for the heat race in the Paramount Racing Series 360 Sprints. He started on the outside of the third row at 6th on the fast, wide open racetrack of I-90 Speedway and with no cautions and a flag to flag eight lap event, Donovan was able to overtake the fifth position, but finished just outside of the transfer position to the main event.
“After looking back on the reports we were making faster lap times then some of the guys in front of us,” explains the veteran. “But the racetrack was very fast and with no cautions to bunch up the pack, it was awfully tough to catch the pack.”
Donovan started on the pole position for the start of the ‘B’ Main and quickly took the lead once the race went green and led the race in its entirety, securing a 9th row starting spot for the main event.
Peterson sat 17th for the start of the Paramount Racing Series 360 Sprints main event in the Willey Wilson Motorsports #3 and as the race unfolded, the veteran driver began picking off positions and moving forward throughout the 25 lap contest. With many cautions and avoidance of crashes, Donovan was able to charge up just outside the top five and cap off the evening with a sixth place finish.
“Overall I am pretty happy on how the night turned out,” explains Peterson. “I really wanted to get my HRA car out on the track, but we’ll have to wait for this coming Friday in Rock Rapids for that. The Trondson Engines Willey Wilson Motorsports car was fast tonight…we had everything working very well. The track was very fast so it was hard to move forward without any cautions and restarts, but we were able to move forward in the main and I guess that’s what you want to be able to do!”
Next up for Donovan will be another stab at a “double duty” night in Rock Rapids this Friday, driving both the HRA Traditional Sprint Car as well as the Trondson Engines Willey Wilson Motorsports #3 in the 410 Outlaw Sprint class. Following Friday’s Rock Rapids event will be the third event of the season at I-90 Speedway on Saturday.
Follow Donovan through his website, www.donovanpetersonracing.com, and for your twitter fans out there, be sure to go to www.twitter.com/donovanpeterson !
Special thanks to Trondson Engines, GeoComfort Geothermal Systems, Key Auto Sales, Willey Wilson Motorsports, Jim’s Automatic Transmissions, Ziebarth Trucking, West Sioux Brake & Exhaust, and Driver Websites.
- administrator on May 13, 2010
- Article Date: 5/12/2010