Inside Line Promotions
– RAPID CITY, S.D. (Aug. 24) – Five races in seven days was the perfect way to wrap up Austen Wheatley’s trip to the Midwest.
And there was no better way to cap it than by recording a World of Outlaws’ career-best finish, which he did on Tuesday at Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, S.D., before the team headed home to Washington.
“It really was a great way to end it and head home with some momentum,” Wheatley said.
The 18-year-old Lake Stevens, Wash., resident set a bunch of personal bests with the premier 410 tour. Wheatley qualified 11th quickest and finished second in his heat race, which locked him into his first dash.
Wheatley placed 10th, which is where he started the 25-lap feature on the rocky, ½-mile dirt oval. He maintained that position for the first half of the race before dropping a couple of spots.
“We got into lapped traffic and I got held up by two or three lapped cars and I kinda got freight-trained,” he said after finishing 13th – two positions better than his previous best with the World of Outlaws.
“Just to know that we could have been top 10 is more exciting. It shows the speed is there and we’re capable of doing it.”
It was a great ending to an otherwise successful week of five races at four tracks throughout North Dakota and South Dakota with the World of Outlaws and All Star Circuit of Champions.
Competing against some of the best in the country, Wheatley advanced to every feature and ended with one top 10, two top 15s and four top-20 finishes.
It began a week ago Wednesday at Red River Valley Speedway in Fargo, N.D., with the All Stars.
Wheatley qualified 17th quickest to earn a spot in the invert. However, he missed his opportunity to start on the outside of the front row of his heat race when the team didn’t hear the race being called to staging. Wheatley narrowly made it out in time for the feature and started last – seventh – which is where he finished.
He then claimed fourth place in the B Main to earn a transfer to the feature, where he started 17th. Wheatley drove up to 12th, but the power steering line broke with approximately five laps remaining and he was forced to the pits.
“I tried to go a couple of laps,” Wheatley said after finishing 21st. “Once you run out of fluid, the steering basically locks up.”
After battling through similar results on Friday with the World of Outlaws, Wheatley was caught up in an early crash in the feature at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D. The team fixed the damage and he restarted the race, but was told to go to the pits with about 10 laps remaining because of a loose nose wing. Wheatley, who was running in the top 15 at the time, finished 20th.
On Saturday, Wheatley was poised for his first career top 10 with the World of Outlaws in the feature at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D.
“On a green-white-checkered finish, a couple of cars ahead of me got into each other on the restart in turn one,” he said. “It knocked the front end out on one guy, who didn’t have any steering and hit me on the right side. It spun me around backwards and another car plowed into my left side.”
Wheatley restarted and finished 16th on the rubber-down track.
He returned to Huset’s Speedway on Sunday for the local show and picked up where he left off the night before. Wheatley’s qualifying lap of 11.23 seconds was the quickest and his fifth-place finish in the heat race locked his time into the feature. However, the invert was 10, which is where Wheatley started.
“We were really good qualifying,” Wheatley said. “But that’s by yourself, clean air, running wherever you want.
“Definitely having a 10-car invert on the quick time didn’t help our situation any.”
Wheatley climbed to seventh and settled for eighth on a track that was difficult to pass on. It was his sixth top 10 of the season.
“It’s not the way I wanted it to play out,” he said. “The car was a little off. We were too tight on top and too free on the bottom. I think we had a top-five car.”
Wheatley will take this weekend off as the team travels back to Washington. He’ll return to action on Sept. 2-3 at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., with the World of Outlaws.
QUICK RESULTS –
Aug. 17 – Red River Valley Speedway in Fargo, N.D. – Qualifying: 17; Heat race: 7 (2); B Main: 4 (4); Feature: 21 (17).
Aug. 19 – River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D. – Qualifying: 24; Heat race: 6 (6); B Main: 2 (4); Feature: 20 (21).
Aug. 20 – Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D. – Qualifying: 18; Heat race: 8 (6); B Main: 1 (3); Feature: 16 (17).
Aug. 21 – Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D. – Qualifying: 1; Heat race: 5 (6); Feature: 8 (10).
Aug. 23 – Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, S.D. – Qualifying: 11; Heat race: 2 (1); Dash: 10 (10); Feature: 13 (10).
SEASON STATS –
39 races, 25 features, 0 wins, 1 top five, 6 top 10s, 13 top 15s, 19 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Sept. 2-3 at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash., with the World of Outlaws
FAVORITE NUMBER –
13: Result on Tuesday at Black Hills Speedway in Rapid City, S.D., which is Wheatley’s career-best finish with the World of Outlaws.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS –
Website: www.austenwheatley.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MiniWheats44w
ON THE AIR –
Click on the link below for video of Wheatley’s bad crash on his qualifying night at the Knoxville Nationals on the Dirt Report on Speed TV:
http://www.speedtv.com//video/newest/dirt-weekend-update-august-14-2011-1110509367001/1#_vtop
Here is another link to the wreck from the Knoxville Raceway network and High Vista Video Productions:
APPAREL –
Wheatley has gray and white t-shirts, gray sweatshirts, and charcoal gray hats and beanies for sale. For more information, visit www.austenwheatley.com.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Astro Titanium
Established in 1999, Astro Titanium manufactures quality titanium fasteners for sprint cars and midgets. Based out of Noti, Ore., owner Dave Sims has developed his business into a titanium leader on a national scale. For more information, visit www.astrotitanium.com.
“Astro Titanium and Dave Sims have been with me since the beginning of my career,” Wheatley said. “Anytime we have a problem, we call Dave up and he helps. He’s a really personable guy and his products work great.”
Wheatley would like to thank his sponsors, including Wolfweld, The Oil Medics, SpeedMart, Fire-Down Graphics, Advanced Racing Suspensions, DMI, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Goodyear and Redlined Welding & Construction for their continued support.