From Peterson Media
With a rough 410 stint in Florida behind him, Jayme Barnes and his Destiny Motorsports team had a much better showing during the Ronald Laney Memorial as they racked up two 12th place finishes, before a final night crash sidelined them.
“The results weren’t the best, but we had a pretty good car, but these new Eagle Motorsports cars are good, we are just having trouble figuring out what they like,” Barnes said.
With a star studded field on hand and 48 cars checked in for the event, the pill draw format saw Barnes pull a high pill and he opened the weekend up by lining up his Mondak Portables/Rick Rogers Construction/Eagle Motorsports No.9B up in the last row of his heat.
Working up to a sixth place finish, Barnes narrowly missed the top-12 in points and started on the front row of the B.
On a very slick track, Barnes held his spot in a transfer spot, and transferred to the teams’ first feature of the season, a breath of fresh air to all involved.
“It was nice finally making that feature event on Thursday,” he said. “It was brutal the first few races, but progress is good.”
Starting 18th in the field, the Everett, WA driver tiptoed his Speedmart/Driver Websites/Wesmar powered machine around the slicked off track, and scored a 12th place finish.
“The track was slick, and our car felt good, there was a pretty good green flag run, that was good for us to make good laps, but we couldn’t gain any ground. We had a late restart and got a few spots, overall it was a good night for this team.”
Coming back on Friday night, the team sat 12th in overall points, and needed to get to the top six to lock into the Saturday night feature.
Pulling a two, Barnes lined up on the pole of his heat, however, he lost the drag race into turn one, and settled for the second spot, however, passing points hurt Barnes and he found himself on the pole of the B.
Winning the B in convincing fashion, Barnes transferred to the feature again where he would start in the 13th spot, and had a little bit of confidence on his side heading into the feature.
“We had a great car in the B, and I was hoping it would be just as good in the feature and have a good finish,” Barnes said.
In the feature, Barnes fought his racecar, and it wasn’t nearly as good as he had hoped as he searched the track hoping to find a line that would work.
Scoring a 12th place finish again, Barnes and his Destiny Motorsports team sat 10th in points, meaning they would be on the pole of their heat on Saturday, with the top two locking in to the feature event.
Kicking off the final night on the front row of his heat, Barnes had a great start in his heat, and would march on to pick up the win, and lock into the 30-lap feature event race as he would line up in the 10th spot.
Unfortuantely, Barnes was involved in a lap three crash, and repairs could not be made in the 2 minutes of time, and his night was over.
“It’s a shame that our trip ended on that note, but I’m pleased with the progress we made here at East Bay,” he said. “I have to thank Rick Rogers, and Scott Benic for all of their help, and hopefully we can get back home, regroup, and get a little better.”
Jayme and his team would like to thank Mondak Portables, Rick Rogers Construction, Eagle Motorsports, Speedmart, Wesmar Racing Engines, Driver Websites, and Benic Enterprises for their support through the 2013 season.
2013 BY THE NUMBERS: Starts-8, Wins-0, Top 5’s-0, Top 10’s-0
ON TAP: Jayme and his Destiny Motorsports team will now travel back to their home shop in North Dakota, and return to action at the Attica Speedway in March.
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