By Bill W
September 9, 2015 – Brad Loyet swept a pair of features with the MOWA series last weekend at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois. He pulled double duty as well, finishing up with a pair of top ten finishes in his midget with USAC. This weekend, the Vacuworx Global #o5 team will compete with MOWA in Illinois and Jacksonville Speedway and at the Tom Knowles Memorial at Spoon River Speedway near Canton. He would love to run double duty with the midget again if anyone has a ride.
Brad started fourth in his sprint heat race on Friday. “We got a pretty good start and got up to second,” he says. “(Paul) Nienhiser was pretty quick and took off. Second put us in the Dash. We started fourth there and finished third. The track was still pretty good at that point.”
The Sunset Hills, Missouri driver started the feature third and settled into second. “We were able to get by Jerrod (Hull) in the first set of corners,” says Brad. “We were all over Nienhiser for most of the race. It was probably the most lapped traffic I’ve ever had in one race. It seemed like we were in it from the get-go until the finish.”
Brad would make a late pass for his first win of the season since Eagle Raceway with the NSL. “I got in a situation where I was following too much,” he says. “We got into lapped traffic and I wasn’t running my line. I knew the race was winding down, and I told myself to run where I needed to run, not where the leader was going. That kind of made the difference. I closed on his bumper. I wanted to wait until the white flag and kind of catch him by surprise. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for him, he made a mistake in three and four and got into the wall. We lifted a little and drove on by him. Getting a win in the sprint car was a good feeling. It was the last race of the night and I felt like I was in the car the whole night.”
On Saturday night, he would start sixth in his heat. “We had the car dialed in,” says Brad. “I was able to run the heat a car length lower than anyone. I was able to get to third and we were all over (Hunter) Schuerenberg for second. That was enough to get us in the Dash and we went from fourth to second.”
Starting outside row one, he would lead every lap of the MOWA finale. “I got the jump on Kevin Thomas Jr. at the start and got into the lead,” says Brad. “We were really good in the feature. We stretched our lead out quite a bit. We ran the cushion, and when we got to lapped traffic, we didn’t have too many issues. The track was really in great conditions all weekend long.”
Brad was making his first midget start of the year Friday night. “We just got both the 410 and midget motors back,” he says. “I hadn’t run USAC with the rev limiter rule. I put a gear in that everyone suggested. In the heat, there was no juice. I started on the pole and backed up to sixth. It was disappointing in the car, knowing that’s all we had. We changed gears and we led most of the qualifier and ended up third at the end. That put us fourteenth in overall points.”
He would get what he could in the feature, finishing tenth. “I actually felt pretty racy in the feature,” says Brad. “We ended up tenth. I was happy with it overall. I knew Saturday would go better after knocking the rust off. The motor really dictated where we were going to finish. We haven’t done any research with the motor on the rev limiter rule like the other teams, so we are behind there. That affected us for sure.”
He would go from 12th to ninth in Saturday’s midget feature. “We were motored out again on Saturday,” says Brad. “We started up front in the Qualifier, but all we had was third. We started twelfth in the feature and ran ninth. We had a really good racecar, it was just all the motor had at that point. I had a lot of fun in the midget. That was our goal for the weekend. I wouldn’t mind finding a midget ride for Jacksonville and Spoon River this weekend if anyone has one.”
Brad’s Website
Brad’s website was freshly designed for 2015. Visit the new site at www.LoyetMotorsports.com!
Brad’s Weekly Releases
If you’d like to be added to Brad’s e-mail list for weekly releases, e-mail sprntcar@hotmail.com with “Loyet” in the Subject Line.
Brad and the Loyet Motorsports team would like to thank primary sponsors: Vacuworx Global and Loyet Landscape Maintenance. Associate sponsors: Maxim Race Cars, J and D Performance Racing Engines, Butlerbuilt Professional Seat Systems, Meramec Heights Collision Center, KSE Racing, Weld Wheels, Penske Shocks, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Hepfner Racing Products, DMI, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Bell Helmets, TI 64, Conroy Control, The Engine Heater, Ealey Transportation, and Speedway Motors.