From Ferns Racing PR
Shelby Township, MI — (une 28, 2012) — Taylor Ferns is batting a thousand this year in earning Top-10 finishes in her debut in a new type of race car. After opening the season with a Top-10 run in a late model, she finished among the Top-10 last weekend in her first-career USAC Traxxas Silver Crown Series start at Iowa Speedway. The defending USAC Mopar D1 Midget Series champion looks to carry that momentum into this weekend as she makes her second start in a Silver Crown car, along with competing in a pair of races in her midget.
Ferns will take to the track this weekend on Friday, June 29, at the paved half-mile Toledo Speedway in Ohio, with both the USAC Traxxas Silver Crown Series and the USAC Mopar National Midget Series. She will then head to Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill., for a co-sanctioned race for the USAC Mopar National Midget Series and STARS National Midget Series on Saturday, June 30.
“The Silver Crown cars are so fast, so going from a track like Iowa where you are running wide open to a smaller track, everything will slow down quite a bit,” said Ferns. “There will be a transition going into the race at Toledo, but I have a great team behind in Team 6R and racing the midget as well on the same night will help me adjust to the track. Plus I’ve been there before, so I have a feel for it in the midget already.”
Ferns qualified 13th at Iowa Speedway last Friday for the 100-lap Casey’s General Store USAC Challenge at the state-of-the-art seventh-eighths-mile. She ran a steady race and ended the night in the 10th spot in a Toyota-powered Beast for Team 6R. Prior to the event at Iowa, she had tested twice in the Silver Crown car at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.
“I learned a lot throughout the day at Iowa in the Silver Crown car,” said Ferns. “I learned how far you can go in the car and how hard you can drive it, and that should help me again this weekend. The more laps I have in the Silver Crown car, the better I will be able to feel it out and the more that will help. All in all it was a good weekend at Iowa last week for my first Silver Crown race. I always push myself and want to do better, but we had a good finish.”
The native of Shelby Township, Mich., raced at Toledo Speedway in 2011 with the USAC Mopar D1 Midget Series. She finished fifth in the 25-lap main event, and was crowned the series champion that same night. Ferns opened the event as the fourth-fastest qualifier and finished third in the second eight-lap heat race at the half-mile.
“It always helps going into a race at a track you’ve been to before,” noted the 16-year-old, when asked about Toledo Speedway. “Racing two cars, you have to be extra prepared, especially running the 100-lap Silver Crown race. Those 100 laps are very physically demanding and being physically and mentally ready will be very important.”
Ferns made two starts in 2011 on the pavement at the high-banked one-third-mile Grundy County Speedway. During “The Border Battle” event at the track last season, the winningest female in USAC history was third-fastest in time trials, finished third in the dash and came home third in the 30-lap main event. In her most recent start at the track last August, Ferns was 11th-fastest in time trials and followed that up with a win in the second heat race. She has competed in two events this season on the pavement in her family-owned Dea Eyewear Beast, with both those starts coming at Ace Speedway in North Carolina with the USAC Mopar National Midget Series.
“Everyone runs very hard at Grundy County,” she explained. “Sometimes it can be very tough to pass there, and that’s why everyone pushes their cars so hard. Preparing yourself to be able to pass cars is important and just being in the right frame of mind. Having raced there in the past and having done pretty well definitely helps.”
Taylor Ferns and Ferns Racing would like to thank their valued partners: Dea Eyewear, eBay Motors, FK Rod Ends, Frameworks Marketing Group, Lucas Oil, K&N Filters, Lansing Sanitary Supply (LSS), Simpson Race Products, Indy Race Parts, ButlerBuilt, Allstar Performance, Stanton Mopar, Lyn St. James Women in the Winner’s Circle Foundation, Race4Girls and Racing2Cure.