7/6/2010
Sprint Source
Mason Moore closes in on Civil War point lead with top-5 in Petaluma
Mason Moore scores top-five at WTF Cup and moves to within eight-digits of Civil War point lead with solid outing at Petaluma
By Gary Thomas
Placerville, CA – July 6, 2010…Heading into a big stretch of racing this past week Princeton, California’s Mason Moore kicked it all off by bringing home a fourth place effort at the Placerville Speedway’s WTF Cup on Wednesday night June 30 and then put together another strong showing on Saturday in Petaluma to move within an arm’s reach of the Civil War 360 Series point lead.
The special mid-week “Who’s the fastest Cup” opened things up with a 28-car field on hand at the Placerville Speedway Wednesday, a track Moore has been very fast at all year, but has seemed to have the “bad luck bug” be in his way for much of the season.
Always a strong qualifier at the high-banked quarter-mile Moore began the evening by ripping off the third fastest lap of the night in qualifying behind only Andy Forsberg and Andy Gregg. Starting from sixth in his heat race the 19-year-old then had his work cut out for him to move forward on the tight and challenging track, but he was able to make some nice moves and carve his way to a third place finish and transfer the Friends & Family Racing, Roseville Precision Inc. No. x1 mount into the main event.
With the big 10-pill being drawn for the inversion it stuck Moore back in the fourth row for the feature, but with the track slicked off it made for some great racing as drivers tried to fight their way to the front throughout the 30-lapper. Once again utilizing some great moves to claw his way forward in the thick pack of cars the driver known as “Primetime” proceeded to tally a fourth place finish at the checkered flag, in a race won by Kasey Kahne Racing driver Brad Sweet, who came home to drive for California based Main Motorsports.
"We had a great run on Wednesday night and we were pretty happy with a fourth in the feature," commented Moore. "The track was really racy, but we definitley hoped for more long green flag runs to try and get more traffic and do something with the guys in front of us. My guys gave me a great car all night though so I have to thank them and it was nice to get a good finish."
Going into the most recent week Moore also had a dilemma as he sat on top of the Silver Dollar Speedway 410 point standings while driving his family owned 22 sprinter, but had a conflict in his racing schedule, in which a Civil War Series event at the Petaluma Speedway was up against a weekly point show in Chico on Saturday.
With Moore driving for car owners’ Alan Bradway and Steve Tuccelli in the 360 sprint car ranks and with his commitment and dedication to the team he decided to give up the Silver Dollar Speedway point lead in favor of driving on Saturday in Petaluma. “We hated giving up the point lead at Chico, but Alan and Tooch have been so good to us and have been great in my development as a driver that we decided to go to Petaluma and run with them,” said Moore. “The Civil War points are still close too so we’d definitely like to get that title this year for the x1 team.”
The Petaluma Speedway has been very good to Moore over the last couple seasons and on Saturday night that trend continued with him qualifying second quick to start the event and then tallying a runner up finish in his heat to directly transfer into the feature. Lining up seventh on the grid the youngster diced it up right around the top-five for much of the 30-lap contest and at the conclusion scored a fifth place result to mark his fourth top-five finish in five career outings at the track aboard the Levin’s Auto Supply, A.R.T. Enterprise No. x1 sprint car.
Following the night of racing the California Sprint Car Civil War Series standings have bunched up even tighter with Moore continuing to sit fourth in the points, but now finds himself only eight-markers behind leader Andy Forsberg. The top-five in the standings are also still separated by just 16-digits with six events down and eight remaining in the season for the traveling 360 tour. The series will now take a week off before resuming action on Friday July 16 with an exciting event at the Ocean Speedway in Watsonville, which should feature nearly 40-cars in arguably the stoutest field the circuit will see all year.
Moore then eventually capped the week of competition by returning to Placerville for a regular track point race on Sunday July 4, where he transferred out of the b-main to finish 12th in the feature after starting from 18th on a very dry and icy-slick track surface.
Next up for Moore will be a double-header weekend beginning this Friday night with the annual Bill Brownell Memorial presented by Withrow’s Motorsports and Shane Scott at the Silver Dollar Speedway. The Princeton, CA racer was the winner of the inaugural Brownell Memorial in 2008 and he’ll be looking to duplicate that performance on Friday behind the wheel of the Rolling Hills Casino, Moore Insurance Services No. 22 machine.
Then on Saturday Moore will travel to the Placerville Speedway for the final tune up prior to the running of the $5,000-to-win Mark Forni Classic on July 17. “We’re excited for this upcoming weekend with the Brownell in Chico and then Placerville on Saturday," said Moore. “The Brownell Memorial means a lot to us and it’s the race I won my first sprint car main event at so it holds a little extra meaning as well. With this weekend also being the final race at Placerville before the Forni we’ll just be making sure everything is good to go, because we’ve been fast and feel confident we have a shot at the big money if things play out right.”
For more info on Mason Moore and the Friends & Family Racing team log onto http://www.fnfracing.com
Princeton, California's Mason Moore tallied a fifth place finish in the feature on Saturday night at the Petaluma Speedway and moved to within just eight-markers of point leader Andy Forsberg in the California Sprint Car Civil War Series standings. The 19-year-old this weekend will be in action at the Bill Brownell Memorial Friday in Chico & then the Placerville Speedway Saturday for the final tune up before the Mark Forni Classic on July 17. Photo courtesy Steve Lamothe of http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Submitted By: Gary Thomas
