8/3/2015
Cole Wood
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Roller Coaster Weekend!
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Roller Coaster Weekend!
(Bill W) August 3, 2015 – It was another new racetrack for driver Bryan Clauson in the Wood Racing #17w car. This time, it was I-80 Speedway near Greenwood, Nebraska and the FVP National Sprint League “Road to Knoxville” event. The team got faster and faster Thursday and Friday before a disappointing ending. Bryan bounced back Saturday, however, in Joe Dooling’s midget and won his third career Belleville Midget Nationals on the Belleville High Banks in Kansas.
Things started Thursday at I-80 with a seventh quick effort in qualifying. “It was a decent qualifying effort for us,” says Bryan. “It wasn’t where we wanted to be necessarily, but it was good enough for a shot at the redraw. It was a new place for me, so it was an o.k. start to the weekend.”
Bryan would start third in his heat, but finish fifth. “We just missed it in the heat on a lot of different fronts,” he says. “The car wasn’t the best, but I didn’t do a good job of getting where I needed to be on the racetrack fast enough. We just sort of missed.”
Starting ninth in the feature, he would checker seventh. “It wasn’t an earthshattering run by any means, but we definitely were better than we had been earlier in the night,” says Bryan. “We felt like at the end of the feature we were better than how we started. We salvaged the night a little bit.”
The Noblesville, Indiana driver used Thursday’s insight to time in fifth quick Friday. He qualified for the feature redraw with a third place heat run as well. “We had a better qualifying run,” says Bryan. “Then we had a better run in the heat, where we moved up in the heat and made the redraw.”
Bryan would start outside row one for the main event. “We got a good starting spot,” he says. “The only thing that would have made it better, was not starting next to Danny (Lasoski)! He’s been really good this year. We were able to hang there for a little bit, but he started to get away.”
While battling for the second spot with Tim Kaeding, the motor gave way. “Obviously, we got to battling with TK and had the motor issue,” says Bryan. “That was bad for a number of reasons. We felt like we were at least a third place car. We felt like we were going to turn in a good night, and we had made some progress in the points. We had pulled away a little on the owners’ side in second, and even on the drivers’ side we had made some progress. We felt Friday was a big hit to that. I’m still really proud of what we had. To go to a new place like that, and get faster and faster…it was a good weekend in that respect.”
Twenty four hours later, Bryan was standing in Victory Lane at Belleville, joining Jerry Coons Jr. as the only three-time winners of the prestigious event. “I had a rough one at Beloit (Kansas in the midget) on Tuesday too,” he says. “We hurt a motor there. I think we saved our good luck for Saturday. We had to work for it after missing the prelim night. That started us back further early in the night and we had to dig out of a hole. We put ourselves in good position to start the feature, and we kind of ran away with it.”
This week, the team will run the 360 Nationals at Knoxville, qualifying on Thursday. It will be Bryan’s first time in that event. They will also run the Capitani Classic at Knoxville Sunday and the $20,000 to win Front Row Challenge at the Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa on Monday.
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 at I-80 Speedway (Brandon Anderson/NSL Photo)
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