Brad Loyet – A Lot of Passing in Elma!

From Bill W

July 15, 2013 – Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx Motorsports #o5 team found themselves in a position they didn’t necessarily want at the Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Washington last Friday and Saturday nights.  Both nights were spent going through the B.  However, the Sunset Hills, Missouri driver was spot on come feature time and made a pair of charges that resulted in top ten finishes.  The Lucas Oil ASCS Nationals Series heads south to the Cottage Grove Speedway in Oregon this weekend.

Friday night’s heat race found Brad trying to move forward from his fifth starting spot to no avail.  “It was pretty spread out as far as national cars and local guys in the heat races,” he says.  “We probably had the toughest heat race though.  We started fifth and just couldn’t get going anywhere.  We were lucky enough to win the B and learn a little bit.”

The win in the B, set him up to start 17^th in Friday’s prelim.  “We had a pretty good setup for the feature,” says Brad.  “The first night of a two-night show is 25 laps, but I could have used those extra five laps.  I’m not sure where we finished (eighth), but I know we were moving.”

Misfortune hit in Saturday’s heat race and ended in a DNF.  “We had a really good car on Saturday,” says Brad.  “I was driving underneath a guy on the first lap.  I didn’t think I would get into him.  Everyone told me he was spinning out, and I caught his front end.  Believe it or not, it did a lot of damage to our car.  It broke our torsion stop and bent our rear arm and jacob’s ladder.”

It was a scramble to get ready for a B main in which Brad would start eighth.  “We had to fix all of that before the B,” he says.  “We were able to win that on the last lap.  We had a really good car at that point.”

It was the same story in the feature.  “We were picking off cars left and right,” says Brad.  “It was one of those deals where I would pass a car or two, and the yellow would come out.  I don’t know how many times that happened…probably three or four different times.”

Despite that, he would checker sixth.  “We were able get up to sixth,” says Brad.  “We would have liked a top five, but from 17^th, that was a good run for us.”

Cottage Grove will run Friday and Saturday.  It will be a new venue for Brad.  “I’ve never been there,” he says.  “I don’t know what to expect, other than a lot of people have come up and said it suits my style.  Hopefully, it does.”