Brad Mosen Motorsport
|
National Midget Car Series 2008 Round 2 |
|
 10th November 2008 : Round 2 of the National Midget Car Series.
We returned to the ‘Springs’ knowing we had a bit of work to do. Sitting 6th in the Series after the Opening Night was not the ideal start. I guess the lesson was….you must finish the heat races to score the points in the Feature Race. Especially when you are gridded 16th and we have a race which is expected to run 9 laps due to the curfew being 6 minutes away. There were a number of drivers who might have thought Brad was aggressive on the Opening Night, however if you are going to get up towards the front in 9 laps there isn’t a lot of time to stop and chat to everyone along the way.Last Saturday suggested we were in for a similar track to the first. Up until about half way through the night it was, and then it started to tear up and it was game on. Brad had two good heats. Winning the first off the front, and then starting behind the field in the second heat was a bit harder. The relegation from the tower after Brad put a left front over the pole on turn 3 was expected. Doesn’t matter whether you gain position or not, you loose 2 spots. So, onto the feature. In my opinion, the fastest 5 cars/drivers were on the first 5 spots. Brad, Scott, Shane, Michael and Bryce. These 5 guys seem to have a slight edge over the rest of the field and I am certain that the USA off season has kept them sharp.The race was probably one of the best I have seen at Western Springs. It was a shame that Shane dropped out early, however the excitement built as the race unfolded. The 4 cars exchanged spots a number of times and on the last turn Brad and Michael were within 200mm of each other crossing the finish line.The result puts Brad up into 3rd in the Series total. The night had a couple of high points for us, Brad breaking his own 1 Lap Track Record now at 13.930sec and equaling the 12 lap record in his 2nd heat was great to get.We have a couple of weeks off now to go over the car to tighten up anything that rattled loose on that track, and now look forward to the 1st December.
Greg |
|
|
Chili Bowl Champion of Champions Race - Tuesday Night |
|
Brad heads away on Sunday to Tulsa - Oklahoma to compete in the 26th Annual Chili Bowl Nationals. Brad will drive the Andi Bondio Midget as he did last year. These two guys have some unfinished business as they suffered engine issues. He will run in the Friday Night Qualifying session which is clearly the toughest night of the week.
We had some great news today with Brad being chosen to compete in the 'Champions of Champions' race which is on the Tuesday night. This is great opportunity to run the car, and very cool to be running alongside the competitors in this race. I have listed the competitors and you can see what I mean.
I will speak to the guys to get the latest news from Chili Bowl and post them here, however if you want to listen to the racing I suggest you click on the link below and sign on.
http://www.racinboysradio.com/schedule-detail.php/event/chili_bowl_2012.html
Heres the list of the Champions of Champions Entries:
1 Sammy Swindell (Germantown, TN)
Five Golden Drillers keeps Swindell entrenched in the VIROC field. Swindell has topped two of three previous VIROC events.
05 Brad Loyet (Sunset Hills, MO)
With the VIROC field not yet filled, the 2011 ASCS Warrior Region and POWRi Midget champion lands a spot by way of his 2010 VIROC triumph. Loyet landed in the 2010 event on the strength of 21 Midget feature wins in 2009, the first to reach such a mark since Billy Boat posted 21 Midget wins in 1995.
05g Damion Gardner (Concord, CA)
“The Demon”, who flipped across the finish line in preliminary action last year, snared the Golden Driller in 2008.
11 Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, OK)
Hailing from nearby Broken Arrow, Bacon is tabbed as the Wilke-Pak rep in VIROC. Wilke-Pak took top Chili Bowl honors in 2003 with Tracy Hines at the wheel.
14 Tony Stewart (Columbus, IN)
The reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup champion returns to the Chili Bowl for the first time since 2008. “Smoke” snared Golden Drillers in both 2002 and 2007.
21k Cory Kruseman (Ventura, OK)
Spearheading a four-car team that includes freestyle motocross star Brian Deegan, Kruseman claimed Chili Bowl glory in 2000 and 2004.
24 Tracy Hines (Wilkinson, IN)
T. Hines drove a Wilke-Pak entry to Chili Bowl victory lane in 2003.
39 Kevin Swindell (Germantown, TN)
Kevin pulled off something that neither his dad nor 1,154 other Chili Bowl competitors have been able to do; pull off back-to-back wins. Swindell tries for a three-peat after wins in the past two editions of the Chili Bowl.
39c Bryan Clauson (Noblesville, IN)
Clauson lands a spot after earning National Midget Driver of the Year honors in 2011. Clauson also claimed USAC’s National Driver’s Championship, which landed him a ride in the 2012 Indianapolis 500.
39i Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (Olive Branch, MS)
Further evidence that the sticky quarter-mile circle of black gumbo clay in West Memphis known as “The Ditch” breeds good racers (reference Sammy Swindell above), Stenhouse, Jr., lands in VIRCO after capturing the 2011 NASCAR Nationwide championship.
47 Brad Mosen (Auckland, NZ)
Rookie of the Year in 2010, the KIWI gives VIROC some true “international” flavor. Mosen is the primary driver for Andy Bondio, who has claimed three Golden Drillers, one with Lealand McSpadden in 1991 and then Kruseman in 2000 and 2004.
67 Kyle Larson (Elk Grove, CA)
The Tebow times Ten of dirt track racing, the 19-year-old seemingly walked on water over portions of 2011 with wins in winged sprint cars (World of Outlaws and ASCS National) along with all three USAC National divisions (Silver Crown, Sprint Cars and Midgets). Driving for past Chili Bowl winning owner Keith Kunz, a Belleville Nationals triumph and a sweep of all three open wheel portions of Eldora’s Four Crown Nationals were among his notable triumphs.
67z Joey Saldana (Brownsburg, IN)
The World of Outlaws ace lands a spot driving a Midget co-owned by Gary Zarounian, who owned the Midget driven to Chili Bowl victory lane in 1995 by Donnie Beechler.
71 Jason Leffler (Long Beach, CA)
The NASCAR Nationwide shoe captured his Golden Driller as the car owner for 2008 Chili Bowl winner Damion Gardner.
|
|
25 and 40 Lapper - Western Springs |
With the International Series underway, we are seeing just how good some of these visitors are. The opening night which was the 25 lapper on Boxing Day had a huge crowd in. It was a shame that the track was as dry as it was. Ideally you have two lines good enough to run on at Feature time. Unfortunately the top had gone to the degree that if you ran there it was a long way around and the cars on the pole held their positions when trying to pass. Brad started 5th and finished 5th. he did try as did a couple of guys to run up the top and he actually slipped back 3 spots. He spent the rest of the race getting back to 5th.
The 40 Lapper produced one of those tracks that had everyone guessing. The thing was as dry as a chip, the only reason the top showed some promise was they continued to run around with the water truck through the meeting. Unfortunately you needed to be in one of the 'push trucks' to get up there. Again the guys finished where they started with the exception of Larsen who had spun early and went to the rear. He got upto 6th place and he wasn't going any further.
Brad's car had a number of bent bits we picked up throughout the night which didn't help, however the main issue was the right rear was going flat which does help.
We look forward to the 50 lapper on Thursday night and we all hope that we will see some passing in the Feature.
 |
|
|
National Midget Car Series 2008 Round 3 |
|
Having run 2 Rounds, Brad was sitting in 3rd place in the Series, our intention was to get towards the front of the Feature Grids and then see what we could do. Brad started his heats in Race 2 which was a bit slippery as the track seemed to have plenty of water on it. He ran well enough to finish 2nd from Grid 3. The track seemed to look like it was going to hold up all night, problem was the cushion was very low through the corners. This meant passing was going to be tough as going high put the car in the heavy clay. Brad ran off the back of the last heat and finished 3rd. The Grids were posted and we were to start off Grid 3 in the Feature behind both Graeme Standring and Shayne Allach. Both these guys had been running hard all night and we had a race on our hands.The race was one of the best we have seen at ‘The Springs’ for sometime. Both Shayne and Brad swapped the lead a couple of times running wide open for the entire 25 laps without a yellow. At one stage the pair of them ended up on the infield to avoid lapped traffic, and the race built to a fantastic finish. Brad chose to run the high line on the last corner and Shayne protected the bottom and got in behind a lapped car. Brad won his first Feature for the season which ended a great nights racing. It is great to see two guys run that hard for 25 laps and look like they knew what they were doing. I feel for Graeme with another DNF, three in a row, luck must change soon.If this is the quality of racing we can expect from these guys then we are all in for a great season.Brad has reduced the margin to first place in the National Series Points Table to just 6 points, so this is now our focus in the next 2 Meetings before the Americans get here.Great news from the Aggressor Stable, having 4 cars finishing in the top 7 places. If anyone saw Shaun Insley throughout the night, he deserves a pat on the back as he could hardly walk. Racing with a bad virus, and a broken hand, he did a fantastic job. It was a shame that one of the drivers thought it important enough to head up to the Tower to complain about other drivers allegedly driving on the grass in the Feature, relegating both Shaun and Bryce T. Anyway, the Dodge/Dickies Team are very happy with the season to date and look forward to getting back there this Saturday Night for Round 4.I have attached a link for those of you wanting to re-live last Saturday’s Feature Race. Well worth listening to.
http://www.midgetracingnews.com/new_zealand_springs0708_7.html
Greg |
|
National Midget Car Series 2008 Round 4 |
|
When we arrived we had all talked about what the track might be like this time. SPL have served up 3 drivey tracks so far this season, and we expected that the rain through the week had restricted the ability for them to get out and put plenty of water into it. It seemed to look dry and after the wheel pack it was going off quickly. It was to be one of the hardest tracks to set the car I have seen for a long time. The car needed to be loose in and tight coming off.The heats got under way and Brad finished in both 4th and 1st in his. This placed him on the outside of the second row for the Feature. The two drivers in the top three on the National Series Points Table had had problems earlier and they both were starting from the rear of the Feature.We seem to be at the beginning of the season, however with only 3 more Features left to finish the National Series we talked about protecting the advantage we had in this race.The Feature got underway and Brad passed the 3 guys early to go to the lead. The car was fast and Brad soon put distance between him and the group behind him. A couple of yellows through the race and he would soon pull away each time on the re starts. We ran the 24 laps and Brad had a nice lead when he crossed the line with 1 to go. I couldn’t believe it when we had a car spin and we go back to yellow. Restart order was Brad, Pickens, Alach, Townsend……On the restart Brad got away and heading across the line with a lap to go, Pickens got underneath him and they both caught a rut, this unsettled Pickens and tossed Brad up into the marbles up high and it was all over.This has Pickens 2 places (12 points) ahead of Brad with the 3 rounds to run. It is quickly becoming a 2 horse race so we can expect plenty of action as these 2 drivers battle it out for this title.The NZ Team is slowly taking shape, as it is selected by the National Series Points Table and with one round to go there is a real battle for the last spot.With the next round due on Boxing Night, we all look forward to this close, fast racing to continue.
Greg. |
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 19 |
|
