From Bill W, Ron Skinner Photo
March 7, 2011 – Brady Bacon was planning on bringing $3,000 back to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma one way or another when he made the trip to south Texas last weekend. The schedule called for ASCS-Gulf South action on Friday night at Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont and Saturday at Battleground Speedway in Highlands (which would rain out). Instead of bringing back the Beaumont winner’s share, Brady put on a show for the fans, driving from 17th to 4th in a wild feature event.
The 2010 ASCS Hard Charger of the Year knew his skills would be tested when he drew the tail of his heat race on a tacky track. “It was really heavy and narrow, and drawing the back of the heat really set us back,” he says. “We just didn’t have a good heat race (7th to 5th). We were definitely fast in the heat, but sometimes when you are trying to pass guys you haven’t raced with, you need to wait for them to make a mistake rather than take a chance and crash. There weren’t enough mistakes for us to move up.”
The fifth place run set him up inside row two for a B main that would take the top three to the main event. “The B went well,” says Brady. “We got to second right away. We were working the inside. I thought we were the fastest car, and I was trying to figure out how to run the bottom best heading into the A main. We were never quite in position to pass (John Pate).”
The second place run lined him up inside of row nine for the feature. His experience running the bottom of the track in the B paid off when the middle of the track slicked off. “In the A, the track came around,” he says. “We really had a good feel for it. It didn’t really widen out, but the middle got to where guys couldn’t flatfoot around it. They had to choose either the top or bottom.”
A set of cautions and reds ensued, but Brady persevered and by the final restart on lap 8, he was running 11th with 22 laps remaining. He would surge to a fourth place finish at the stripe. “We made a lot of our moves on the bottom, but we were good enough up top to pass cars,” he says. “Our car was working pretty well on both ends. We were better on the bottom, though the top of one and two really came in for us towards the end. That’s how I got past (Michael) Dupuy and then (Kevin) Ramey for fourth and fifth.”
The draw definitely affected Brady’s night, and he understands that that is part of the game. “I really felt we had one of the fastest if not the fastest car in the feature,” he says. “We put ourselves too far back to start with, especially on a track that heavy and fast. I was pretty happy with it though. We didn’t have a whole lot of cautions, and we passed most under green flag conditions, especially at the end of the race.”
Racing in regional competition gives you some room to experiment with the car. Brady hopes to take that knowledge to the next round of Lucas Oil ASCS National Series action on March 25 and 26 at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas. “We tried some new things that I was excited about, and it seemed to work well,” he says. “Hopefully, we can carry that into the Devil’s Bowl in a couple of weeks.”
Youtube Video from USA Speedway
DirtDogTV caught up with Brady in Tucson…
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Follow Brady at his website located at www.BradyBaconRacing.com! Also keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter (which also can be accessed at the website) at the following links…
Twitter Link – http://twitter.com/BradyBacon
Facebook Link – www.facebook.com/pages/Brady-Bacon-Racing/278125555137
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