By Bill Sullivan/Sullivan Images Media
ELK GROVE, CA (7-7-10) – Over the last couple of weeks, Billy Strange has had his share of mixed luck. A multitude of events in a small period of time combined with extensive damage in a recent accident have kept this competitive team very busy both physically and mentally recently. This Saturday, Strange and his team are ready to get back to a competitive routine.
“We’ve been really busy lately that’s for sure,” said Strange, who destroyed his #28x car during the June 26 point race at Placerville. “I’m hoping starting this week we can starting drawing a better pill and improve our qualifying spot. We’ve been doing alright considering where we start each night but we just work so hard to dig ourselves out of a hole each night.”
During the June 26th event, Strange had a strong seventh place run in qualifying with a 10:651 second lap. In his heat race he started fourth and ended his night with a violent rollover off of the first and second turns. The accident caused severe damage to the 28x sprint car and the team worked feverishly in order to be ready for the following Wednesday night “Who’s the Fastest Cup” at Placerville Speedway.
“We started working on it first thing Sunday morning. It was pretty bad,” said Strange. “We were still literally putting pieces on the car at the track on Wednesday night.”
During the Wednesday night open competition event, Strange finished first in his heat race. His finish involved racing wheel to wheel with the nationally known Brad Sweet who flew in for the special event.
“Wednesday started out pretty good for us,” said Strange, who qualified 16th. “Holding off Brad Sweet was a great confidence booster for us. Especially after how hard this whole team worked to get back out there.”
In the feature event, Strange started 16th and began charging through the field with authority as the race entered its final 10 laps. Unfortunately, contact with another car sent the #28x into a spin and he fell back to the 16th position at the checkered flag.
“The car really started working well for me in those final 10 laps,” said Strange. “Then I had the contact and did the 360 spin so I just rode it out and finished the race.”
On Sunday, Strange returned to Placerville Speedway for the annual July Fourth Spectacular where he qualified 17th on the grid. He won his fourth heat race of the season. In the feature event he finished 14th overall on a track that was extremely dry slick.
“Pulling out another heat race win was great for us on Sunday,” said Strange. ‘It was really dry slick but the car was really good for the main event until we had some ignition problems during the race.”
Strange returns to Placerville Speedway this Saturday night for the final regular point race prior to the upcoming $5000 to win Mark Forni Classic on July 17th. Strange is one of 27 drivers already qualified for the upcoming race that is the richest of the year at Placerville Speedway. Saturday night the team will insure the #28x sprinter is ready for the much anticipated high dollar race.
Strange Motorsports has a number of marketing partners that they are thankful for. Among their supporters are QWK Racing Components, ART Enterprises, Rex Hutchison Racing Engines, Kevin Sharrah Designs, Swepco Lubricants, Pronol Race Fuels, MotoWear International, America’s Tire, High Country Painting and Amerikote.
. To learn more about Billy Strange visit his official website at www.billystrangejr.com.