(Bill W) July 20, 2009 – The week didn’t start out so well, but the weekend picked up steam, resulting in Fairmount, Indiana’s Brandon Wimmer recording a pair of top ten finishes. A tenth place showing at the King’s Royal in his first event of the year in Alan Barton’s #7TW was not shabby. Brandon and car owner Rick Ferkel then teamed up for a charge to sixth place Sunday night at the Tri-City Speedway near Franklin, Pennsylvania in the #0.
After struggling in qualifying at both the Brad Doty Classic at Limaland Raceway Park on Wednesday in the #0 and at the Knight Before the King’s Royal at Eldora Speedway on Friday in the #7TW, things settled in. After his poor qualifying effort on Friday, Brandon charged from 11th to second in the C main and from 18th to 10th in the B main amongst some strong competition. “Friday, we were getting accustomed to the car,” says Brandon. “It was our first time in it this year. Unfortunately, it was raining while three or four cars were qualifying, and we were one of them.”
The strong finish to the night gave them some momentum heading into Saturday’s King’s Royal. With a car count in the high 40’s, Brandon nailed his time trial in the 14th spot. “We drew a good number and that was important on Saturday,” he adds. “Anybody who went out late was in trouble.”
With the top two finishers in the heat transferring to the dash, it was important to hold your ground with a start up front. Brandon did just that, finishing second. “We tried to get by (Joey) Saldana there on the first lap of the heat race,” he says. “I didn’t get it to stick. I tried to slide in front of him, but he drove between me and the wall.”
In the dash, Brandon drew the seventh starting spot, but backed up to ninth. “We tried something for the dash, but it didn’t work as well as we thought,” he says. “I have to thank Rick (Ferkel), he was a big help to us on Saturday. We went back to where we were for the heat race as far as setup for the feature. It looked like it would take rubber, and eventually it did.”
Slated to start inside row five for the $50,000 to win event, Brandon was penalized a row before the green flag fell. “It was kind of a messed up deal,” he says. “We were parked on the front stretch, and had our car ready to go. They told us to back it out on the concrete, so we did. When I got on the track, they penalized us a row for being late to staging.”
Brandon was able to move forward, ending with a respectable tenth place finish. “We passed a few cars, and the two that came from the back (Terry McCarl and Tim Kaeding) got by us, but we were able to finish tenth, which was a good run for the first time out this year in the #7TW,” he says. “It definitely helped to have Rick there helping too.”
The All Star Circuit of Champions visited Franklin on Sunday night, and it was back to work with the Rick Ferkel #0. “We were back to our normal draw and drew a late number,” says Brandon. “We got through the heat (3rd), and slowly worked our way up in the feature (from 13th to 6th). For awhile, it was tough to pass. The bottom was really good, but it started to go away a bit, and the top came in. We went up and used that momentum to pass some guys.”
“All in all, we had a pretty good weekend,” says Brandon. “We’ll hit Attica’s (Ohio) weekly show on Friday, and with the All Stars in Terre Haute (Indiana) on Saturday, before we head west for ‘Thunder through the Plains.’”
Brandon and Rick Ferkel would like to thank the following sponsors for all their help: Shorty’s Truck Repair, Smith’s Farm, Goodyear Tires, Griff’s Engines, Kear’s Speed Shop, Huggins Cams, BRODIX Heads, Barnes Oil Pumps, Prism Lubricants, Zeis Land Development, Butlerbuilt, Simpson, Winning With Wellness and WRT Web Designs.
Photo -
Brandon works by Kenny Jacobs at Eldora (Paul Arch Photo)
- Bill Wright on Jul 20, 2009
- Article Date: 7/20/2009