Seth Bounces Back To Take 4th On Night 3 of Speedweek
24 hours is a long time in racing and Seth showed it as he was able to recover for a 4th place finish on Night 3 of Speedweek at Banks Oregon.
Afer junking the car the night before in the A feature the team looked like it was heading home to regroup for Friday and Saturday at Elma. On the drive home Papa Steve changed his mind and the boys thrashed all day Wednesday to put the car together for the nights race. I need to send a special shout out to Dave and Josh DeWitt for their help on Wednesday as well as lending us their spare tail tank for the nights race.
With “Princess” taking his afternoon shower I decided to moizy on over to the pill draw stand and draw for the team. Needless to say I drew the second worst number possible and we were slated to start at the back for heat race.
When heat races were finished Seth ended up being top point guy, but lady luck was not on our side during the pill draw as we drew the number five for the A feature.
It was going to be a crazy A Main with 20 cars on a small track and we found ourself with work to do with Kyle Hirst, Steve Vauge, Henry VanDam and Kyle Miller all in front of us. As the race went green Seth rolled the car in smoothly onto the bottom while Miller in the 10 thrashed on the top which allowed us to take 4th on the opening lap before the caution came out for Jay Cole. On the restart Seth worked the botton of the track on Vauge in the 08 and got by him on lap three only to have the caution come out again for Cole who’s night was now done after bringing out the yellow for the second time. We went green again and this time Seth had to wait patiently as Vauge drove a tighter line on the bottom of the track. On lap seven Seth went to the top and got by Vauge to take third as he began the chase for VanDam in second.
All the drivers were crashing to the bottom of the track, and with laps ticking by quickly Seth made a choice to see if he could make the top work for him as he made a move on VanDam. Unfortunately the top had gone away and Solwold in the 39c was able to slip under us with 10 laps to go. From there it was a case of follow the leader and protect your spot as the cars raced to the stripe.
Kyle Hirst took the win, with VanDam second, Solwold third and Seth fourth. After the race I spoke with Seth about the race. “I could have stayed on the bottom for the rest of the race and finished third, but I had to see if the top was still working. At that point we still could have won but the top had gone away and unfortunately solwold was able to get by us”.
Considering where the team was at the night before it was a tremendous effort and with Hirst winning Speedweek is still up for grabs as we head to home field advantage for the Fred Brownfield Memorial on Friday and Saturday night.
Warwick "Aussie" McLaren has looked after the Seth Bergman website since the 2008 season. Any suggestions or comments just send add a post.
