6/22/2015
Cole Wood
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Tales from the Buckeye State!
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Tales from the Buckeye State!
(Bill W) June 22, 2015 – Bryan Clauson and the Matt Wood Racing #17w team are in the middle of six races at Ohio Speedweek. The highlight has been a fourth place run in the Noblesville, Indiana driver’s second ever visit to Eldora Speedway near Rossburg on Saturday. The team will run three more events in the “Buckeye State” before returning to Iowa this weekend for races with the World of Outlaws and the FVP National Sprint League.
Bryan was making his first appearance ever at Attica Raceway Park when Ohio Speedweek opened on Friday. “We actually raced really well, but coming to a new place with one lap of qualifying bit us to start the night (timing in 43rd in the 58-car field),” he says. “When you’re pushing these cars to the limit to get everything out of them, there’s a fine line between overdriving them and not driving hard enough. I was on the wrong side of that qualifying at Attica.”
The team had the #17w clicking after qualifying though. “We raced really well there the rest of the night,” says Bryan. “Once we got going, we went from ninth to sixth in the heat, seventh to second in the C and 18th to tenth in the B. We passed a lot of good cars, but once you’re buried in the C, there’s not a lot you can do.”
Bryan’s second trip to Eldora saw him set the 11th quick time overall. “We turned a solid lap there to get the night started, and that put us in good position for the heat (outside row one),” he says. “We were able to get by Danny (Dietrich) there on the start. We never looked back. The car was really good out there in clean air.”
The heat win put him in the Dash. He would draw a starting spot outside of row three. “It was a goofy start,” says Bryan. “Greg Wilson didn’t really take off and we got held up. We were back to eighth and worked our way up to sixth.”
Bryan lined up in the same spot for the main event. “We were really pretty good,” he says. “We were running between fifth and seventh a lot of the way. The car really came to life late. We got a late caution, and we were able to get into fourth. We made a couple of runs at (Sheldon) Haud(enschild) for third there late and came up a little short. Overall, it was a great night for us. We accomplished a lot of things that we want to there before we come back in July (King’s Royal).”
Last night at Waynesfield Raceway Park, Bryan timed in 33rd quick. “I hung it off the edge a little bit in qualifying,” he says. “That didn’t put us in a great position, but we were able to rally in the heat race.”
The run from sixth to fourth gave him a transfer to the main event. “We threw some things at the car for the feature that brought it to life,” says Bryan. “We were able to go from 19th to eleventh.”
The team will compete at Wayne County Speedway near Orrville tonight, before moving on to Sharon Speedway in Hartford and Atomic Speedway near Chillicothe. They will take Thursday off before competing with the World of Outlaws at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa. The FVP National Sprint League will be back in action Saturday at the Knoxville Raceway.
Matt Wood Racing would like to thank: Elk Grove Ford, Quick Lane, Fuel Safe, Schoenfeld and Vortex Wings!
To follow the Matt Wood Racing’s progress online, visit www.ColeWoodRacing.com!
Follow Bryan Clauson online at www.BryanClauson.com!
Photo: Bryan hangs it off the edge at Waynesfield Raceway Park (Mike Campbell – www.CampbellPhoto.com)
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Monroe, IA USA
