9/3/2015
Cole Wood
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Another Solid Weekend Sets up Jackson Nationals!
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Another Solid Weekend Sets up Jackson Nationals!
(Bill W) September 3, 2015 – Bryan Clauson and the Matt Wood Racing #17w team turned in another great weekend with the FVP National Sprint League. They posted a second place finish at Randolph County Raceway near Moberly, Missouri Friday, a seventh place finish at the Knoxville Raceway in Iowa Saturday and a fifth place run at Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin Sunday. This weekend the team will run with the NSL at the two-day Jackson Nationals in Minnesota Friday and Saturday, and the Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota Sunday.
Despite coming out second to last on the high-banked ½-mile near Moberly on Friday, Bryan timed in fourth quick. “It was a new place for just about everyone, but going out late and qualifying fourth quick was a good way to get the night kicked off,” he says. “Someone fell out ahead of us (Jonathan Cornell) and moved us up to the pole for the heat. We got an o.k. start. We just didn’t get the run we needed down the front straightaway. Once we got our momentum up, we felt our car was o.k.”
The third place finish put him into the feature redraw, and he would start outside row three. “We were really good,” he says. “We committed early to where no one was running. We found a way to make it work on the top. We were able to pick off three or so early on. Obviously, we had a battle late there with Terry (McCarl), and we were able to get to second.”
On Saturday, mechanical gremlins surfaced in qualifying. “We had an issue in qualifying and had to take one lap at the end,” says Bryan. “We were able to get sixth quick, but being out late kept us out of the redraw.”
Bryan would transfer to the main event through the B. “We used the heat as a test session a little bit,” he says. “We moved around a little bit more than we normally would and fell back to seventh. We came back and finished second in the B.”
Starting tenth in the feature, he would move up to seventh by the checkers. “The track was really fast,” says Bryan. “It was hard to move up a ton. We took advantage on a restart, and went I think from ninth to sixth. We had a little gremlin at the end that cost us some speed and let Ian (Madsen) get around us. Overall, it was a solid night for not getting in the redraw.”
Bryan was excited to get to Sun Prairie on Sunday. “That’s a place that we’ve had a lot of success at in the midget,” he says. “It was cool to run a winged sprint car around there. Really, I wasn’t able to translate that knowledge a lot, but it was cool to be on familiar grounds. We were able to lay down a really good lap in qualifying (2nd quick in the 42-car field).”
An entertaining heat race saw him move from sixth to third. “The track was really racy in the heat races,” says Bryan. “There was almost three lanes at times. You could really move around. We were able to get to the two leaders who were running side by side (McCarl and Steve Meyer), and really had nowhere to go.”
Bryan’s finish ensured he was in the redraw, and he would start fifth in the feature. “It was a lot of fun!” he says. “We never had that long green flag to get buried in traffic though. The top was quite a bit better, and you were committed to that until you got in traffic. More traffic would have allowed us to move around a little more. We were able to get up to fourth at one point, but we finished fifth. Overall, it was another solid weekend for us.”
This Saturday night, the Jackson Nationals will pay $25,000 to the winner. “Jackson is a place we were good at,” says Bryan. “I was able to run there once in July and we ran second. We have some confidence going into the place. We’re knocking on the door of the top five in (NSL driver) points. It would be nice to get in there before the weekend is over and keep plugging along.”
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 Tim Kaeding at Angell Park Speedway (Rob Kocak Photo)
Bill W Media
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Monroe, IA USA
