Inside Line Promotions – BELLEVILLE, Ill. (July 9, 2013) – Two more races and two more top 10s for Andrew Felker, who is getting used to that position. He added a pair of top-10 finishes last weekend and has now recorded a top 10 in 17 of his last 19 main events.
“It wasn’t too bad,” he said. “We had a couple of top 10s, but I was looking for a little more.”
Felker opened the Belleville Bash weekend doubleheader at Belle-Clair Speedway, which was co-sanctioned by the Honda USAC National Dirt Midget Series and the POWRi Lucas Oil National Dirt Midget Series, on Friday by qualifying fifth quickest of the more than 50 competitors.
“I laid down a conservative lap, which was fifth quick,” he said. “Then it was a dog fight for the heat race. I ended up sliding Jerry Coons Jr. for a transfer spot and ran it up to third.”
After maneuvering from fifth to third in his heat race, Felker advanced to the main event, which he started fourth.
“I got up to second and battled with (Darren) Hagen,” he said. “I ended up screwing up and letting (Christopher) Bell by me so that dropped me to third. I started racing with Brad Kuhn the last part of the race. Brad pushed off turn four so I had a little run on him entering turn one on the last lap. I slid myself through the middle and it killed too much momentum. It allowed Nick Knepper to slide me. When I went to cross him over in turns three and four I got trapped between him and a guy running the bottom.”
Felker dropped to sixth on the final lap.
“Early we battled for the lead and I just made some mistakes,” he said. “To fall back to our worst position of the race on the last lap was kinda disappointing.”
The action continued at the fifth-mile oval on Saturday when Felker overcame a rough start to his heat race to finish third. After starting on the outside front row and having the first two starts called back, Felker was put in the infield fence in turn three racing for the lead on the opening lap.
The impact bent his front axel and he lost several positions before rebounding in the closing laps to place third. That lined him up fifth during one of the qualifiers, which transferred the top six to the main event.
“There is no B Main, so you really have to be careful,” he said. “I kinda took it easy the first couple of laps and started picking them off on the cushion.”
Felker charged from fifth to the runner-up position to advance to the feature, which he started seventh.
“It was pretty hectic,” he said. “We worked our way up to fifth or sixth running the bottom the first couple of laps. There were six or seven cars running together, trading slide jobs. Everybody was driving over their head. We fell back to 10th or 11th at one point. Once the top got too big we had a caution and I adjusted the shocks. I rolled the bottom the last 10 laps to get back to eighth.”
Felker finished eighth to cap the weekend with his sixth top-eight finish in the last seven races.
He will compete on Saturday at Wilmot Raceway in Wilmot, Wis., and Sunday at Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wis., with the POWRi Lucas Oil National Dirt Midget Series.
QUICK RESULTS –
July 5 – Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Ill. – Qualifying: 5; Heat race: 3 (5); Feature: 6 (4).
July 6 – Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Ill. – Heat race: 3 (2); Qualifier: 2 (5); Feature: 8 (7).
SEASON STATS –
23 races, 1 win, 10 top fives, 18 top 10s, 21 top 15s, 23 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Wilmot Raceway in Wilmot, Wis., and Sunday at Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wis., with the POWRI Lucas Oil National Dirt Midget Series
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.AndrewFelkerRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndrewFelker11a
VIDEO –
Here is a link to XSANTV’s in-car footage of Felker finishing second at Jacksonville Speedway in Jacksonville, Ill., on April 26: http://youtu.be/tSwLTs5L1Zk
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – CSI Shocks
Located in Brownsburg, Ind., CSI Shocks, a.k.a. Competition Suspension, is a leader in the shock industry within short-track racing. Since its inception in 2009, drivers using CSI Shocks have won more than 500 races. For more information, visit http://www.CSIshocks.com.
“Since we’ve gone to the CSI Shocks program it has stepped things up with our program,” Felker said. “Since they came out with the RS-X2 this year, it’s been a key to our success all year.”
Felker would also like to thank Auto Xpress, 66 Truck & Foreign Salvage, Fontana Automotive, MelMark Pipe & Supply, Schluckebier Farms, Pro Powder Coating, All-Pro Auto Interiors, Aggressive Graphics, Momo’s Racing Engines, KBR Performance, Weld Wheels, KMK Enterprises, Heath II, Wilwood, Maxim Racewear and Leading Edge Composites for their continued support.