6/7/2020
Jason Berg
Recap of the #100 Lucas Oil POWRI Minn-Kota Lightning Sprint Team
Well this past week was a crazy one with the #100 team as we have continued to struggle with what we thought was either a fuel or electrical issue since the beginning of the season. This past week we replaced the harness and the fuel pump among looking into the fuel system itself and nothing seemed to jump out as the problem!! It wasn't until Wednesday we think we decided that we may have found the biggest contributor to our problem and along with some new electrical items we felt confident we found the problem. Friday night we loaded up the car so it was ready to head to Devils Lake and give it a go and once we got out there for hot laps it seemed to have the power it should have. Thanks to a lucky draw i started on the pole for heat number two and got beat off the line by Alex who lead the entire race which i found to be entertaining and frustrating as i held second for several laps until a rain came in and really caused the track to get slippery to (8 tear offs in 3 laps) where it was an uncomfortable few laps and got passed by another car relegating me to a 3rd place finish. Not helping the situation was at the end of the race the oil fill cap had somehow come loose and blew oil out of the car so the car is now full of oil as well as the driver! Thankfully we didn't lose much oil and thanks the Pederson racing they had an extra cap and were able to help out the #100 team and get us ready for the feature. Due to our 3rd place finish in the heat we made the redraw which started the #100 inside second row for the feature so fingers were crossed that the weather stayed away and we had a good run! At the drop of the flag i dropped back a few cars and stayed in 5th for the first few laps before a caution came out slowing the field. We had a much better restart and ended up getting an opportunity to get underneath Dexter and battle him for the 4th spot and was able to pass him coming out of turn 4 before a caution came out a half lap later moving me back behind the #11 car who has been on a tear lately! The race did have an unfortunate incident with a driver spinning out and rookie driver Kate Taves unable to miss the car ended up clipping the stopped lightning sprint and getting upside down for her 1st time ever! Thankfully she was okay and i told her after the race at least she got that out of her system and can say she did it once. After the race resumed something broke the left front brake line off the car and basically had to ride it out the last few laps and was able to salvage a top 5 finish as the race was won by Alex, followed by Alan, Kelsi, Dexter and myself! Racing schedule for this weekend is a return to the Red River Valley Speedway this Friday night where i hope to repeat as feature winner from our last trip their last year along with being at the Devils Lake Speedway again Saturday night along with the NLRA Late Models in town!!
Special thanks to all the sponsors of the #100 team that allow me to do something i love to do!!! And a big thank you to family and friends that come support us at the track and in the shop so we can do what we love!!
Article Credit: Jason Berg
