limit was 70mph. With a warning violation we then headed off, at 70mph.
Arriving at the track we saw all the named drivers with their rigs set up for the USAC event. This was the first time they raced here for some 30 years. It turns out the lap record was a little over 19 seconds, every car in qualifying broke it.
The race format was individual qualifying and Brad came home with a 17.808-sec lap placing him in 5th spot. The commentator was really behind him as the only non-American and a Kiwi in Wichita was not something that happens often. Then the field was split into heats and Brad had to finish in the top 5, which he did coming home in 4th. The deal is that the top 6 qualifiers go through to the A Main provided they finish their heat in the top 5. The A Main inverted the top 3 rows which put Brad on Grid 2, front row.
Brad put the pass on the pole sitter Michael Lewis going into turn 1 and had a 3 car lead on the field into turn 3 and round she went. There was a cloud of dust in the infield and it was Brad. I couldn’t believe my eyes. He got restarted and had to go to rear of the field. The 30-lap race went with little drama, Brad managed to get up to 13th which was good, but nothing like we had expected.
I guess having that 6 week gap between racing didn’t help. So we put that one down to youth and adrenaline and move onto Belleville on Friday and Saturday Nights. It’s good to see that Brad can run wheel to wheel with these guys, once we get past these initial hiccups it could be fun to watch. Interested to see that nearly all the grandstand seats have sold out. I heard the commentator say that this race is live on www.racefanradio.com if you want to listen to it. I will try and get some action photos when at Belleville, you just can’t get close enough to the tracks over here to get the good shots. Anyway watch this space as we will update Saturday morning so it should be done when you all get up Sunday.
Greg Mosen
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