At the Bullring!

I work as a pit crew member for Ron Sutton Winner Circle Racing. We run USAC Ford Focus midgets, four of them. Our drivers are Jessica Brunelli, Brendan Langlois, Brennan Newberry, and Jeff Oleen. We are at the midway point in our season. We just got back from the very fast short track oval "Las Vegas Bullring". During practice Wednesday night all four cars were near track record pace, very low 15 second range. Toward the end of the practice sessions we had a problem with the 09 of Brennan Newberry with the left rear wheel loosening while he was out on track. This ended up messing up the end of the axle to the point were we could not get the rim off, so the following morning, the day of the race we had to remove the entire rear end and replace it with our spare. Thursday July 3rd was our race day. Temperature in Vegas that day would reach 118.

With the new rear end in Newberry's car pactice would pick right where we left off the night before fastest of the 18 car field. During practice two cars would develope engine problems the would plague us the rest of the night. In qualifing Jessica Brunelli's engine would not go over 4000rpm giving her the slowest qualifing time. Brendan Langlois would qualify on the pole, Jeff Oleen qualified 2nd and Brennan Newberry qualified 4th. All four cars would start at the backs of the heat races and hope to move into position to get times back from qualifing to set the position for the main event.

In the first heat race Langlois and Newberry started 5th and 6th in the 6 car 8 lap heat race. They would quickly move up to 1st and 2nd with Langlois beating Newberry by a very short margin.

The second heat race was a lot like the first. Oleen start 5th and Brunelli would start 6th. With her engine repaired and running like a top Brunelli followed Oleen to the front of the pack as they would finish 1st and 2nd in their heat race.

The main event would invert the top 6 cars from qualifing leaving Newberry starting 3rd, Oleen 5th, Langois 6th, and Brunelli would start 12th. At the drop of the green Newberry moved to the lead on the second lap with Langois right behind him. Oleen was up to 4th on the 3rd lap when his engine started cutting out and he was forced to park it. Brunelli would put on quit a show moving from 12th to 6th in the 30 lap main event, but it was Newberry and Langois that stole show. They pulled away from the pack and Newberry never put a wheel wrong to take the win over fast qualifer Langois.

This is the 3rd win for the team this season. We won at Irwindale in the second race of the season with Brendan Langois. Langois won again just a week ago Satuday June 28th at Altamont Speedway.

Way to go Mike!! Great to see your team doing so well. So you won on track...how about at the casino?

I did not put a dime in a slot machine or a dollar on a table. I think I came out a winner. We did enough gambling at the track :)