Whether it is in 360 or 305 sprint car competition, Bailey Goldesberry is gaining momentum! The sixteen-year-old Springfield, Illinois native registered a top ten at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa last Saturday night in the 305 class. That followed a Sprint Invaders event at the same track that produced her first heat win and Dash with the 360 series. She’ll return to 34 to race the 305 this Saturday, and finish the weekend off Sunday at Quincy Raceways in Illinois.
Last Saturday, Bailey ran second in her heat in the 305. “It was really wet in hot laps and slimy in the heat race,” she says. “It slicked off for the feature, which threw us off a bit. It was hard to figure out what to do there. The car ended up really loose.”
After starting the main event third, Bailey struggled a bit to an eighth-place finish. “We’re figuring out some things that are helping us,” she says. “We have a lot to learn, but we’re getting better every time out. The track was really slick on Saturday, and those tracks are the biggest challenge for me.”
On August 19, Bailey drew the pole for her Sprint Invaders heat and pulled away to win in impressive fashion. “That was the first heat win we’ve had in a 360, so we were really excited about that,” she says. “To be honest, it’s the first time that I’ve really noticed a difference between the 360 and the 305. We were really fast in that heat race and so was the track. The car was perfect.”
Winning the heat meant being locked into the Dash, where she finished sixth. “It was cool to qualify for the Dash,” says Bailey. “That’s the first Dash we’ve qualified for with the Sprint Invaders. Any laps we can get out there in the 360 or in the sprint car period, help us out a lot.”
Bailey would experience brake problems in the feature that night. “As soon as we started, something was wrong,” she says. “I don’t know if we missed the setup, or I wasn’t driving the car where I needed to be, but we weren’t good. Then there was a red and we didn’t have brakes. So I took it to the pits.”
- administrator on Aug 31, 2017
- Article Date: 8/31/2017