The POWRi Speedway Motors Outlaw Micro Series begins the season at Jacksonville (Ill.) Speedway on Friday (April 26) and Macon (Ill.) Speedway on Saturday (April 27). They’re tracks with different lengths—Jacksonville is a quarter-mile, Macon a one-fifth mile—but share a characteristic that Jacob Patton finds appealing and it has helped him have considerable success on both.
“We always feel good going back to those tracks,” the 21-year-old driver from Bethalto, Ill. , said. “We’ve always had success. They’re wide tracks and we always feel we can pass on those tracks pretty well. Even if we have a rough heat race, you still have a chance of moving forward in the main.”
Patton has one win and finished second, third twice, sixth and seventh in eight features at Macon and a pair of thirds and a sixth at Jacksonville over the past two seasons. He closed out the 2012 campaign with four third places in the last five events including thirds at Jacksonville and Macon.
Patton didn’t have the season he was expecting a year ago. He had three victories—raising his POWRi career total to five–and was third in the championship in 2011, but went through a midseason slump last season where he failed to advance to the main in five of six events. Patton rebounded by advancing to the feature in the last seven events and climbed to fifth in the championship.
“Our end of the season run did rebuild our confidence,” Patton said. “We couldn’t exactly figure out why we had those problems in the middle of the year. We had some terrible luck. But we picked the momentum back up with some better finishes and by the end of the season, everything was working just right when we needed it.”
Patton will drive at Jacksonville and Macon with the same Suzuki-powered Brodrix from a year ago, but expects to switch to the first-year Boss chassis for the third event at Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Ill., on May 17. Bill Patton, his father, will continue to be the team’s crew chief, but Jacob will have a new car owner in Tom Via and a new sponsor in Roof Bolt Express.
“We were looking for another sponsor and were talking with Tom and he offered to be our sponsor and buy us the new car,” Jacob Patton said.
The Boss was co-designed by Austin Brown, a feature winner in POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series and the POWRi Outlaw Micros, and famed Spike chassis builder John Godfrey. Spike will fabricate and build the Boss and it will be distributed by Brown’s KBR Performance.
Patton doesn’t believe changing chassis two events into the season will disrupt his chances at the championship.
“We’re as confident just as if we’d never changed cars,” Patton said. “Austin Brown and John Godfrey know what they’re doing. Sure, there will be a little bit of a learning curve for the few weeks and hopefully we’ll learn the car quick. We still expect to be in the points title chase.”
The POWRi Midgets will also open their season at Jacksonville and Macon. The opening three events of both the POWRi Midgets and Micros have been rained out. The Micros have 23 events remaining, the Midgets 36.
For more information, visit www.powri.com.