Letdown at Loudon ... | More >> | 2004 Recap Archive | 2003 Race Archive
Start - 12th | Competitors - 19| High - 4th | Low - 16th | Finish - 13th | analyzer report
Ahh Loudon. If there were one track on the circuit that could and should be replicated it would be Loudon. HUH!! Well at least for the AMSOIL team, the track suits the driver and the feel from the wheel suits the driver just fine. All good things can go astray however and this race had about every detriment to a good finish that one driver can stand. The AMSOIL mount slipped on the second lap of qualifying after being very fast in practice. Even so, the first qualifying lap was fast enough for a fifth place slot on the grid. Starting out clean, the ECI Express held its ground in the first segment and started to place pressure on the lead pack when disaster struck. Glen Brown got together with another driver in the infamous turn four and after slamming the barrier rolled down the track and into oncoming traffic. Its probably pretty obvious who was coming along and with no place to go, the AMSOIL Chevy piled in. To add insult to an already bad situation, fellow Patriot Motorsports driver Dan Bailey was rapidly on the scene and solidly wrapped the crippled Ingin and sent him to his roof. The car was destroyed. After getting righted, the car had severe body and engine damage and was off the pace.
Undeterred, Kevin continued on and actually was somewhat competitive for a period of time. A time that is until all HE$$ broke loose. The middle of the segment saw caution after caution and after the smoke had cleared Kevin suffered through FIVE incidents on the night. No car can withstand that kind of punishment and when it was all over the car was used up and the driver had suffered enough. Such a disappointment.
In the end it was an eleventh place finish on the lead lap.
Kevin Inglin, the pilot of the AMSOIL Chevy had this to say after the run:
"Stoked. That would be the word I would choose for our demeanor going into this weeks event. We were fast and confident going in that we would turn this thing around. Fast off the trailer, I think we really had something for them."
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Let Down at Loudon... | << back | 2004 Race Archive | 2003 Race Archive
"There are very few places on the circuit that I feel like we have a legitimate shot at contending for the win so this was to be our week. The first disappointment came in qualifying. We haven't pulled in a pole yet this year and we were in contention this week. Jeff Mahan had put up some impressive numbers in qualifying so I mashed the gas and tried to get all that I could out of it. We hit the mark on the first lap but I drove it in to hard on the second and our opportunity was squashed. The fifth place start on the grid shows how fast were though as it's pretty hard to qualify in the top five these days, especially with the first lap run.
The race was going according to plan, at least for the first segment. We started fifth, got into a rhythm and started pressuring at the tail end of the first run when disaster struck. The turns are narrow and you don't get much of a view as to what's ahead. I dropped into three and when I got to the middle of the turn trouble happened right in front of me. I cranked the car hard left and was almost on the apron when Glen's car sailed across the track and into my path. Dan Bailey was right behind me and he too was down low and had no place to go. The impact was so hard that I ended up on my roof. Before the safety crews could get to me Jim Allen gave me a couple of nudges and got me on my wheels again. It was such a blessing as it let me stay on the lead lap. Of course the car was pretty much shot but we were good enough still to stay with the pack.
To my surprise, I raced up to the fourth spot. The car was essentially on seven cylinders and severely lacking on the straightaways but it didn't spin the wheels off the corner and cornered real well. On short runs we did real well but on the long run, the horsepower of the other competitors gave them the advantage and we slowly slipped through the field. There was one other disadvantage of having a wrecked race car - crashes. We were stuck in the danger zone (aka mid pack) and trouble found us over and over again. In the end one word describes the night - discouraging. We'll keep our chins up and see if we can get past Pocono. Last time out was one of our worse showings of the year and we've already started to work on some improvements for when we go back.
Until next week... "
