(Bill W) March 30, 2016 – The two-night Texas weekend with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series saw a lot of action to be sure. Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx Global #o5 team had a fast racecar all weekend, and came home with a fifth place finish at Cotton Bowl Speedway near Paige, a track that the Sunset Hills, Missouri driver had never seen. The ASCS is scheduled to compete at the “Rock ‘N Roll 50” this Saturday at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Last Friday, the series hit Cotton Bowl Speedway. “We’ve been having some bad heat draws as far as position and as far as having some tough drivers lined up ahead of us,” says Brad. “I think Friday, we started third and finished third. We had a good car…we did our best, but that’s just all we had.”
Things were much different in the feature, where Brad lined up 15th. “We had a rocket ship,” he says. “I ran the bottom the first five laps, and we were able to pass a ton of cars. We were able to get to fifth or sixth and rode there a while. Then we made a move for fourth, and the yellow came out. We got put back in fifth or sixth at that point.”
After a tough restart, he would charge back to checker fifth. “We kind of got slid there on the restart,” says Brad. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a clean one, and we lost about four spots. I had to work my way back up, and at that point, everyone was on top. We kept our foot on the floor and tried to work our way back up. We took a fifth, which for us was a good night.”
A wet racetrack greeted the group on Saturday at Bronco Raceway Park near Cleveland. “It was lockdown heavy all night long,” says Brad. “It looked like a never-ending hot lap session. We were supposed to start eighth in the heat. We ended up starting sixth and finishing fourth. That put us eleventh in points.”
Starting in the sixth row, Brad knew he had his work cut out for him. “I was worried, because I didn’t think there’d be a lot of passing,” he says. “We actually got an amazing start, and got up to sixth right away. Then a guy literally went from the wall to the infield. I was on his path of destruction. That took out our front end, spun us into the infield and laid our nose wing down.”
He would return to the race. “We had to go to the back, and we were trying to make moves back there,” says Brad. “The leader was out in clean air, and he lapped us. (Sam) Hafertepe, (Seth) Bergman and I were lapped, but we were really fast. We had a red about halfway through the race, and the guys were able to change our nose wing.”
Brad had plenty of speed, but being a lap down made it hard to advance. “It was clear as day we had a fast racecar,” he says. “Hafertepe and I both blew back by the guy running second, but there wasn’t anything we could do with the leader. We were lapped. We ended up 16th. We finished the race though, it was just unfortunate we got lapped early there.”
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Brad and the Loyet Motorsports team would like to thank primary sponsors: Vacuworx Global and Loyet Landscape Maintenance. Associate sponsors: Maxim Race Cars, J and D Performance Racing Engines, Butlerbuilt Professional Seat Systems, Meramec Heights Collision Center, KSE Racing, Weld Wheels, Penske Shocks, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Hepfner Racing Products, DMI, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Bell Helmets, TI 64, Conroy Control, The Engine Heater, Ealey Transportation, and Speedway Motors.
Photo: Brad takes the low line at Cotton Bowl Speedway (Dancer Motorsports/ASCS Photo)
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