8/26/2015
Cole Wood
MWR/Bryan Clauson – NSL Top Tens Set up Another Busy Weekend!
MWR/Bryan Clauson – NSL Top Tens Set up Another Busy Weekend!
(Bill W) August 26, 2015 – Bryan Clauson and the Matt Wood Racing #17w team racked up a pair of top tens last weekend with the FVP National Sprint League at Fairmont Raceway in Minnesota, and at the Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota. This weekend, brings three nights of excitement and three vastly different venues. The series visits Randolph County Raceway near Moberly, Missouri on Friday, Knoxville Raceway in Iowa Saturday, and Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on Sunday.
Last Friday at Fairmont, Bryan timed in seventh quick. “It was another little different place that we’d never seen,” says Bryan. “We qualified o.k. It wasn’t a great lap, but it gave us a shot at the redraw.”
Trouble struck in the heat race. “We had an issue where we lost a cylinder,” says Bryan. “You obviously don’t want that at a big place like that. We ran until we felt we fell out of the redraw. We pulled it in and swapped it out for the feature.”
Bryan would start eleventh in the 25-lap feature. “We felt like the track was still really fast, even in the feature,” he says. “We weren’t really sure how far we were going move. We were committed to running the top, especially in one and two to try and see if we couldn’t find something. We were able to get by three or four cars there until everyone saw where they needed to be. By that time, it was tough to move forward.”
He would checker seventh. “I think we ran the third fastest lap of the race, which is tough back where we were running,” says Bryan. “We had a really good car, but with the motor issue earlier, we couldn’t put ourselves in position to win.”
Coming out late in the order at Huset’s on Sunday, Bryan timed in tenth quick. “The track definitely went away,” he says. “It looked like it was going to be really wet early, and I think the extra hot laps may have killed it a little bit. Coming out late, we didn’t feel it would be a big issue. It hadn’t been all year at Huset’s. Obviously, the cushion got really big in one and two and it made it hard to get any speed off of two. We were tenth quick, and with the way we’ve run at Huset’s this year, that wasn’t good at all.”
A fifth place run in the heat race didn’t improve things. “It was a little bit of a product of a big invert,” says Bryan. “We got checked up by the pole-sitter a little bit and I was stuck in the middle of the racetrack. We lost a few spots and got a couple back, but it wasn’t what we needed.”
He would start 11th in the feature and finish eighth. “It felt like we were o.k.,” says Bryan of the car. “We got mired a little bit back there. I made a bad decision a couple times. I wasn’t able to make it back through there quite as fast as I needed to.”
The team is excited about the weekend ahead. “We’re looking forward to the weekend, especially Knoxville,” says Bryan. “We ran well there at the Nationals (winning the Friday night prelim). Angell Park is a place I’ve had a lot of success at in a midget. I’m looking forward to trying it out in a winged sprint car.”
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 races with Paige Polyak at Huset’s (Jeff Bylsma Photo)
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Monroe, IA USA
