(Photo by Bailey Marie Photography)
Inside Line Promotions – GREAT FALLS, Mont. (Sept. 14, 2020) – Tyler Thompson made the most of his first-ever trip to Montana.
Thompson led laps during two of the three nights of the 26th annual Montana Round Up hosted by Electric City Speedway before posting a second-place showing during the event finale a week ago Sunday.
“I felt like it was a good weekend for us,” he said. “Three days in a row definitely helped us. The first night it took us a while to get comfortable. By the end of the night we felt comfortable.”
The three-day event began on Sept. 4 with Thompson qualifying third quickest in his group. He then advanced from fourth to third place in a heat race, which locked him into the 10th starting position for the A Main.
“We tried to get to the bottom because that seemed like the preferred line,” he said. “I struggled getting the car to work down there. I think we fell back to 13th. I finally went to the top and we started working well. We made a lot of progress and charged to seventh. We checked the lap times after the race and had the same times as the leader.”
Thompson returned to the oval the following day and nearly mirrored his previous performance, qualifying third quickest in his group and gaining a position in a heat race to finish third. This time that was good enough to make the feature redraw and Thompson pulled the No. 3 to line up third for the main event.
“We had a good car going into that night,” he said. “We snuck into the redraw and started third in the main. We got the lead on the first lap. Then we had a caution that bunched us back together. The track was starting to take rubber. I thought we could drive through it, but we spun our tires. That allowed Colton Heath to stay close enough to get a slider on us into turn one. I had to brake for it and then we were in dirty air. I got passed and fell to third. I didn’t get into a good rhythm after that.
“Just after the midpoint I hit the wall on the exit of turn four with my right rear and it sucked the right front in. The next lap we went into turn one and the car didn’t want to turn.”
The damage relegated Thompson to a 15th-place result.
The event concluded on Sept. 6.
“It was actually kind of a struggle,” he said. “We were eighth in points going into Sunday and had some engine issues. We couldn’t get the eighth cylinder to fire. We started on the pole of our heat race and fell to second, but we ended up winning. We were the last guy to draw in the feature redraw, but ended up getting the No. 1.”
The heat race win earned Thompson a spot into the feature redraw and his No. 1 draw put him on the pole for the main event. He led the first 10 laps.
“We weren’t as good in dirty air and got passed in traffic,” he said. “I couldn’t keep up. We came up on one group of cars in a bad spot. I had to get out of the gas. Then around Lap 15 our throttle spring broke. It made it really hard driving with as big of a cushion as there was.”
Thompson salvaged a second-place result.
“We were really pleased with the weekend,” he said. “I felt like each night we had one of the fastest cars. We made some mistakes, but it was nice to know our car is fast and the engine is running good.”
Thompson plans on racing this Thursday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., during Thursday Night Thunder presented by the Rayce Rudeen Foundation.
QUICK RESULTS –
Sept. 4 – Electric City Speedway in Great Falls, Mont. – Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 3 (4); Feature: 7 (10).
Sept. 5 – Electric City Speedway in Great Falls, Mont. – Qualifying: 3; Heat race: 3 (4); Feature: 15 (3).
Sept. 6 – Electric City Speedway in Great Falls, Mont. – Heat race: 1 (1); Feature: 2 (1).
UP NEXT –
Thursday at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., for Thursday Night Thunder presented by the Rayce Rudeen Foundation
MEDIA LINKS –
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tylerthompsonracing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TylerThompsonRacing/
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Ed Glazier at Auto-Chlor Systems
“I would like to thank Ed and Shawna and Auto-Chlor Systems for coming on board with us last year,” Thompson said. “We have really appreciated their help and support each weekend.”
Thompson would also like to thank J&K Auto Repair, BC Motorsports, Dorman Construction Inc., 3C Custom Commercial Concrete, Action Rent-All, IBEW 280, Northwest Solvents and Supply, Double R Powder Coating, James Gang Pizza, Bunce Equipment and Rocket Designs for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Sep 14, 2020
- Article Date: 9/14/2020 by Inside Line Promotions