By DDR Motorsports PR
Watertown, Conn.—July 16, 2012 — Five feature events at four tracks in three states over a span of five nights. That’s the game plan for David Gravel this week as a busy month of July continues for the young driver. He’ll compete with both the World of Outlaws, as well as the UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions.
Gravel takes to the track with the World of Outlaws at Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., for the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup Twin 30’s on Tuesday, July 17. He then heads east to Brewerton Speedway in New York on Wednesday, July 18, followed by a visit to Fonda Speedway, also in the Empire State on Thursday, July 19. The All Stars then travel back to the Midwest for a stop at Wilmot Raceway in Wisconsin on Saturday, July 21.
Gravel, who made his debut at Lernerville in 2009, finished second at the track last September with the All Stars, after opening the night as the second-fastest driver in time trials. In 2010, the 20-year-old made a pair of starts at the high-banked four-tenths-mile with the All Stars, finishing fourth and 10th. Gravel finished 18th in his most recent World of Outlaws start at Lernerville in the Commonwealth Clash last year. The first feature event on Tuesday night will be a standard World of Outlaws race, with the second 30-lapper lined up by an inversion of the lead lap cars from the opener.
“You definitely want to get in the show, because then you’ll get to race two features,” said Gravel. “Where you start in the second one depends on where you finish in the first one. There will be a lot of good cars there, so it will tough. You have to be on your game and not make any mistakes. The key is to just drive as hard as you can in both features.”
Gravel will be part of the first-ever 410-sprint car race Brewerton Speedway, as the All Stars take to the high-banked one-third-mile on Wednesday. The native of Watertown, Conn., has made two starts in New York this season, with both of those coming with the World of Outlaws, first at Rolling Wheels Raceway Park, where he was running second when a broken throttle pedal ended his night, and then at Orange County Fair Speedway, where he finished fifth.
“It will different for the fans there to watch for sure and that’s pretty neat that we’ll part of the first 410-sprint car race there,” said Gravel. “I’ve never been there before, so it will be all new to me. When we get there, we’ll look at the track and see if it’s similar to anywhere we’ve run in the past and go from there. It will be important to run as hard as you can in hot laps and learn as much as you can as well during hot laps.”
Gravel has raced twice with the All Stars at Fonda Speedway in his career. He finished fifth last season, after opening the night as the fifth-fastest driver in qualifying. In 2010, he finished sixth in the 30-lap main event at the semi-banked half-mile. He opened that night as the fourth-fastest qualifier of the 25 drivers that were in attendance. In first eight-lap heat race he finished fifth, and would line up fourth for the A-Feature.
“Fonda usually gets pretty slick, but last time we were there it poured rain and was really heavy,” noted the young driver. “It’s a D-shaped track and a little different than everywhere else, We ran pretty good there last time, so hopefully we can be good again.”
Wilmot Raceway, a flat one-third-mile bullring near the Wisconsin/Illinois border, will mark the third track in Wisconsin that Gravel has competed at this month. He made his debut in the Badger State on July 6, with the World of Outlaws at Cedar Lake Speedway, where he set fast time and matched his best finish of the season with a second-place effort. The following night he made his debut at Beaver Dam Raceway, coming home 13th.
“Wilmot will be another new track for me,” he Gravel. “I really haven’t heard much about the track, other than its really small. When I get there, I’ll take a look at it and see if I can compare to somewhere I’ve raced in the past. Hopefully we’ll have a good set-up on the car and have a good night.”
Gravel is currently fifth in points with the All Stars, just 17 markers out of the fourth position. The East Coast racer has earned 12 Top-10 finishes with the series, including a season-best runner-up performance on opening night at Screven Speedway in Georgia. He has been fastest in time trials with the All Stars four times. From the middle of July until the middle of August the All Stars will compete 15 times over a four-week span.
“Tyler (Swank) and Kyle (Ripper) are working very hard to make sure we are prepared for all the races this week,” said Gravel. “I’ve been putting some nose wings together, and we have our engines ready to go, as well as tires and our spare car ready. Those kinds of things are important when you have to travel quite a bit, which we’ll be doing this week. We’ll try to get as much rest as we can between races, and give it our all every race.”
David Gravel and DDR Motorsports would like to thank: J&J Chassis, JRC Transportation, Kistler Engines, Musco Fuels and P&M Transportation for their continued support.
Keep up-to-date with David Gravel and DDR Motorsports by visiting www.DavidGravel89.com. Follow David on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/DavidGravel89g. Like David on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Gravel-Racing/143538695709198