Let's get this rig and trailer loaded and head on down the road into the Wild Wild West!! The first road trip for the USAC/CRA of 2015 produced lots of excitement for Team Moose.A new track for the 410 sprinters created lots of speculation as everyone had heard that USA Raceway was a "fast joint."
Leaving HB at 8 pm - Dave, Rich and Nikole would caravan with the MOose Hauler. Plans to get to the Arizona border and pull over to sleep afew hours before continuing on with the 7 hour drive - NOT... apparently Rich & Tom, decided they were wide awake and just kept driving and driving. Getting to only 1 1/2 away fromt he track before finally pullng over to get some shut eye.
For Tom the opportunity to present the Moosemobile in Tucson was extremely special, as he lived in Tucson for years and this gave him the chance to invite family and friends that rarely get to share in his passion. So, on hand for the excitement was his mom, Carol, brother Rick and his wife, Robin, old friends Jerry & Jeff and newbies to sprint car racing Ted & Louise, The team is always excited when George, the Ram/Bull guy is able to make the trips from Las Vegas!
24 sprinters from various states gathered for the Copper On DIrt - taming the track was the challenge on hand, as most of the teams had never seen this track.
Team enthusium was ramped up as Jake quided the Moosemobile to a P5 qualifying effort. Lining up the 2nd Heat - gonna finish in the top 4 to keep that qualifying time and start up towards the front. Bingo, no problem for Jake and the HB Glass- Ram/Bull sprinter. Main Event time -- a hard fought battle on unfamiliar track saw Jake cross the start finish line in 7th. A great effort running up front with a few of the top sprint car drivers in the country!
With Rich's 5th wheel parked in the camping area Rich pulled out the fire pit and the team gathered for a few toddies, lots of laughs and evaluated the evenings events. You would of thought that after driving all night Thursday the guys would of wanted to roll into bed wary. Oh, it was early all right, like 4 am!!! YIKES!!!
Saturday the alarm clocks blared way to early and the team was up and scampering to get the car serviced and ready for night 2. The teams hard work paid off, as Saturday qualifying resulted in P4!! Heat race # 1-- a P3 finish!! And rounding out the weekend a finish of 8th in the Main...
Load up, and back on the road-----see ya a the next race, March 28th in Hanford, Ca.!!!
- Laurie Sertich on Mar 29, 2015
- Article Date: 3/29/2015