Inside Line Promotions – BAYTOWN, Texas (Aug. 22) – Frustrating, annoying, maddening, irritating and trying, to say the least.
All describe Channin Tankersley’s weekend, which was anything but happy for the 20-year-old from Highlands, Texas, competing with the ASCS Gulf South Region. Tankersley failed to finish his feature on Friday night at Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont, Texas, after an early crash and he failed to start the main event Saturday at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas, because of ignition issues.
“It was one of those tough weekends in racing,” he said. “Nobody wants to have them, but it’s part of motor sports.”
It began on Friday at Golden Triangle Raceway Park, where Tankersley has won twice this season. After finishing third in his heat race, Tankersley started the feature 11th.
“We were super tight in the A Main,” he said. “We picked off probably three cars and were up to eighth about seven or eight laps into the race.
“A guy looped it right in front of me. I squared him up and hit my front bumper to his front end. It turned me sideways and kinda tipped up a little bit. About the time it was getting ready to sit down, somebody clobbered me and I ended up on my side.”
The impact knocked Tankersley’s front end out and damaged his top wing. The crew scrambled to get a new front end to the work area, but the race resumed before they could change the broken part. Tankersley finished 17th.
It wasn’t much better on Saturday at Royal Purple Raceway. Tankersley finished second in his heat race and garnered almost enough points to advance to the redraw, missing it by only one position. However, the car wasn’t running to optimal performance.
“The car was kind of missing a little bit,” Tankersley said. “We put a new MSD box on it. And then the thing wouldn’t fire.”
When he was pushed off to lineup for the feature, Tankersley couldn’t get his car to start.
“It wouldn’t even fire at all,” he said. “We put the other box back on it and it did the same thing.”
Tankersley was unable to start the race and credited with a last-place finish – 24th.
“When I was back at the shop and washing the car, I found the problem,” he said. “The wire that goes to the magneto has a four-pronged plug. Three of the prongs were there and one wasn’t sticking out, so it was a bad connection. We got that fixed so I really hope we can get rid of this bad luck soon.”
Tankersley, who ranks seventh in the ASCS Gulf South standings, will take this weekend off before an ASCS Gulf South Texas tripleheader the first week of September.
He’ll race on Sept. 2 at Texana Raceway Park in Edna, Sept. 3 at Gator Motorplex in Willis and Sept. 4 at Speedarama Raceway in Lufkin.
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 19 – Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont, Texas – Heat race: 3 (3); Feature: 17 (11).
Aug. 20 – Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas – Heat race: 2 (2); Feature: DNS (9).
SEASON STATS –
22 races, 19 features, 2 wins, 7 top fives, 10 top 10s, 11 top 15s, 16 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Sept. 2 at Texana Raceway Park in Edna, Texas, Sept. 3 at Gator Motorplex in Willis, Texas, and Sept. 4 at Speedarama Raceway in Lufkin, Texas – all with the ASCS Gulf South Region
FAVORITE NUMBER –
2,086: Points with the ASCS Gulf South Region, which ranks seventh.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS –
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Tankersley71
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Custom Vinyl Designs
Custom Vinyl Designs creates and prints various vinyl options for race teams. From the race car to the trailer, and even parts, Custom Vinyl Designs can produce what any race team needs.
“Custom Vinyl Designs has been with me since I started racing sprint cars,” Tankersley said. “They’ve been really good friends and really good sponsors.”
Tankersley would like to thank his sponsors, including Griffith Truck & Equipment and Miller’s Machine & Welding for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations, media management and merchandising services for sprint car teams. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and your sponsors’ return on investment.
To meet the media relations needs of your team, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or sprintcarreporter@yahoo.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit www.insidelinepromotions.com.
- Admin Account on Aug 23, 2011
- Article Date: 8/22/2011 by Shawn Miller