Tough Midget week ends with Top 10 run for Chad at Kokomo
July 6th, 2010
After a 2nd place finish at Las Vegas, and a 3rd place finish at Perris Auto Speedway to begin the season, Chad approached USAC Indiana Midget Week with high hopes, and an abundance of confidence. Unfortunately, his return would come with much heartache, and very little success.
Gas City I-69 Speedway was the site of Midget Week Race #1, and the night was looking good after a heat race win. In the feature event, fuel issues would keep the #30 Spike/Esslinger from running strong, and ultimately doom Chad to a 14th place finish.
The next two nights of Midget week were held at Lincoln Park Speedway, and Bloomington Speedway. More fuel issues, as well as ignition issues would keep the Billy Boat Motorsports crew working hard, but no results to show for it.
Lawrenceburg Speedway was the sight of Night #4 of Midget Week. With the fuel issue solved and the #30 running strong again, Chad would lay down a lap of 14.98 seconds on the fast Lawrenceburg 3/8 mile track, which would be the 5th quickest time in qualifying. The struggles of Midget Week would catch up to Chad again though in the feature event, as more ignition issues relegated Chad to another DNF.
With nearly a completely different race car than what the Billy Boat Motorsports crew had brought to Indiana, Chad and the guys showed up at Kokomo with beaten down spirits, desperate for a good finish. The #30 looked strong early with a 10th place qualifying effort, and a 3rd place finish in the heat race. Chad would run in the Top 5 the majority of the feature event, only to see the bottom go away at the end and wind up with an 8th place finish.
“I’ve never been so happy to just finish a race in my life,” Chad would say after the feature. “It’s been a tough and humbling week, but I’m still confident in this car, and confident it will be a car to contend with when we return to Belleville in August.”
Chad will take some time off from racing open wheel cars while he shifts his focus to stock cars. His next race will be at Irwindale Speedway for the King Taco 200 with the K&N Pro Series, West Division. He will return to his open wheel roots for the Belleville Midget Nationals on August 6th where he will look to better his career best finish of 7th in 2009.