Alexander Racing Team story

[NickHolt]

Alexander Racing Team ready for some good luck on the track

By Chuck Licata

There’s a saying that goes, “Better to have bad luck rather than no luck at all.”

That could be the motto for the Alexander Racing Team out of San Antonio, which is more-than-ready to see their luck change to good.

For (Arthur) Lloyd Alexander, 21, and (Edwin) Allen Alexander, 34, life in the fast lane has been rather bumpy, to say the least.

Allen lives with his wife Amy and their two kids (Lauren and Collin) in San Antonio right down the block from their father, Arthur Wright Alexander, and his wife of 23 years, Susan Alexander. Lloyd, a finance major at Southwest Texas State University, is making plans to move to San Marcos to be closer to school.

Lloyd Alexander drives the #5 car in the Texas Super Racing Series while Allen drives the #99 in TSRS. Unfortunately for both, neither car has seen Victory Lane – in fact, neither of the cars has seen a whole lot of track

time.

“I’d like to think the bad luck is behind us,” chuckled Lloyd Alexander, who drove quarter midgets for five years and two years in street stocks at San Antonio Speedway before joining TSRS this season. “Things just have

to get better from here, don’t they?”

You’d think they would.

In the first-ever TSRS race on March 22 at Houston Motor Speedway, both of the Alexanders were suited up for what they hoped would be a long racing season.

The race didn’t last long for Allen. On a complete-race restart, he got tangled up with another car in Turn 4 as the field of cars took the green flag. Both cars were heavily damaged and taken off the track.

After Lloyd registered a 17th place finish at the series’ next race, April 5 at Thunder Hill Raceway in Kyle, things went from bad to worse for the racing brothers.

Even worse, it happened on May 3 at their home track, San Antonio Speedway. The two Alexanders were running in practice along with “Stormin’”Steve Sims of Austin, who drives the #58 car. All three cars went into Turns 1 and

2 of the half-mile oval intact, but none of them came out without serious sheet-metal damage.

Lloyd, a class act, steps up and claims complete responsibility for the mishap, which forced the #5 and #58 cars out of the race (Allen let Lloyd to drive his damaged #99 car in the race).

“I wrecked in practice with Allen and Steve Sims at San Antonio, and it was completely my fault,” Lloyd declared. “I got the car too low coming out of Turn 2, and those two (Allen and Sims) had no where to go. That accident

was completely my fault - I’m sorry they paid because of my dumb move.”

 

Lloyd finished 23rd in the race while driving Allen’s car.

The Alexanders actually got to compete in the next TSRS race, held May 30 at Thunder Hill. Lloyd claimed an 11th-place finish by finishing 99 of 100 laps while Allen grabbed 17th place by completing 86 laps.

But Lloyd’s luck turned bad again at the June 21st race, the Tom Meredith 75, at THR. He was running well the first half of the race before a flat tire forced him to spin out in Turn 3 on the 3/8-mile oval. Alexander finished in 11th place.

Still, neither Lloyd nor Allen has let the bad start sink in and bother them too much.

“Despite the weird year we’ve had so far, we feel we’re headed in the right direction,” Lloyd explained. “I feel pretty fast in my car and we’re both very happy to be competing at the high level of racing that is offered

by TSRS. Both Allen and I joined TSRS because we liked the idea of running at different tracks and gaining experience at different tracks, as opposed to running at same track every week. Really, we’re having a lot of fun this season.”

Lloyd added, “We’re ready to run (this weekend) at Houston; I like that track and feel we should do well there. We’ve certainly had all the bad luck we should have for the entire season; we just need a little GOOD luck now.”

 

When you consider the fact that Arthur, the boys’ father, has owned cars that were run by Ervin Breiten, who owns Oval Components in SA and used to run in the old TIDA late-model series, and by their cousin, L.R., you can see that auto racing is certainly a family affair. Breiten finished second in points one year, and Lloyd ran Breiten’s number, 4, at San Antonio Speedway as a tribute to Breiten.

So is the family business, Alexander House Leveling. The elder Alexander owns it and gets help from both Allen and Jason, his 31-year-old son. The family also has dauhter/sister, Tina (Hollingsworth), 34, who lives in

nearby Castroville with her husband, William.

Things are certainly looking up for Lloyd, who has been dating Fallon Myers, one of the two Miss TSRS, for over five years. Maybe now, both he and his brother have all the bad “vibes” out of their system. Things certainly have to get better – don’t they?