By Gary Thomas, Johns Racing photo
Placerville, CA – April 19, 2010…Making the short trip to Placerville Speedway for the Red Hawk Casino weekly 360 opener on Saturday night Andy Gregg and the Bret Ervin Racing team made it pay off by charging to a second place finish in the 25-lap main event.
After the opening round of racing a strong overall night has given Gregg a one-point advantage at the top of the weekly standings at the high-banked El Dorado County Fairgrounds quarter-mile. “It’s nice to come out of here with a good finish after the way the last few weeks have gone,” Gregg said. “I have to thank all my crew and sponsors for supporting the No. 53 car and I’m really happy to get up here on the podium for Bret Ervin and Seven Industries.”
Despite drawing a later number for qualifying Gregg was able to rip off the second fastest lap of the night aboard the Seven Industries, Guinness Beer, Ervin Sales Group, Borello Racing Engines No. 53 Maxim. He then got a good jump in his heat race and brought home a fourth place finish in it to transfer into the main event. When the zero pill was drawn for the inversion it put Gregg on the front row and when the green lights came on he would settle into second behind early leader Camron Mendes.
Trying everything to take the lead of the race Gregg got a great run on lap 12 to get alongside Mendes, but contact between the pair ensued on the back straightaway, which ended the night for Mendes and moved Gregg to the lead of the race. “I just want everyone to know how bad I felt for the contact with Camron Mendes while we were battling for the lead midway through the race,” Gregg said. “I went and apologized to Camron and his team because I definitely didn’t intend for us to bang wheels like that. They work hard like we all do out here and you never want to end a night like that and I just wanted to make a public apology to he and his team.”
Once in front Gregg tried to put some distance between he and the rest of the field when the green flag came back out. After a handful of laps Andy Forsberg, Greg Decaires and Sean Becker made it a four-car fight for the lead and before too long Gregg had his hands full with the driver known as the “Shark.” The 30-year-old tried his best to keep the two-time defending Civil War titlist; former King of California and Silver Dollar Speedway champ at bay, but with just three circuits remaining Becker would cut to the inside in turn one and claim the lead of the race. Gregg would run the final few laps safely in second and cross the Ed Entz checkered flag to cap the evening with a runner-up finish just behind Becker and ahead of Forsberg.
“It was definitely a good night and a great race for the fans because the track was as good as we’ve seen it here in a while,” Gregg said. “I’m definitely a bit disappointed we didn’t hang on for the win, but it’s pretty cool to be up here on the podium with Sean Becker and Andy Forsberg when you consider all the titles they’ve acquired in their sprint car careers from track championships to GSC and Civil War. It was a successful night for Seven Industries as well because we sold some hats and shirts so that made us happy and we’ll move on to next week and try to get this car into victory lane.”
Up next for Gregg and the Guts Racing Graphics, King Racing Products, Studio 5 Photography No. 53 sprinter will be a trip to the Marysville Raceway Park this Saturday night. “The Hurricane” tallied a fourth place finish at the quarter-mile clay oval during the Spring Sprint Car Open in March and will use this weekend’s event as a sort of “R&D” session. “We’re going to go to Marysville this week to try and test some various stuff out with the car,” he said. “I think a great way to get better as a team is to try different things and hopefully we can learn some stuff and use it to our advantage as the season goes on.”
For more on Andy Gregg, Bret Ervin Racing and Seven Industries please visit our website at http://www.7industries.com