TSRS Houston race report, 5/8/04

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Texas Super Racing Series

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For Immediate Release

 

Pollard Takes Houston 100

 

By: Pat Mayberry

 

The stars of the Texas Super Racing Series were ready, willing and able to race after being rained out their last two dates. Series drivers were fired up for the non-points all-star race because of the largest purse in series history being up for grabs, thanks to the hard work of Steve Turner, Graham Baker and David Baker of Houston Motorsports Park.

 

Houston native, Jeff Pollard, set the standard for the evening when he put up a hot lap in qualifying of 14.779 seconds. The sway bar and wedge adjustments Pollard made to free up his machine after practice paid off.

 

"Since they added this sealer, the track is really neat," said Pollard. "It's gripping really well. It has picked up at least a tenth maybe two. I'm looking forward to racing on it."

 

Pollard caught a big break when during the trademark roll of the giant dice for the field inversion, a two came up, causing only Brad Hudak and Pollard to need to switch places on the front row. "Brad and I have been racing together a long time. We've run door to door a lot of times and he knows what to expect from me and I know what to expect from him," said Pollard about the field inversion. "I don't anticipate any problems at all, just race clean and get it going. You can't win anything on the first lap, so we'll just fall in line and hopefully, with a little luck, we might end up in front of him."

 

As the green flag waved over the field of twenty-one cars, Hudak drove deep into turn one and grabbed the lead away from Pollard. The field quickly fell in line behind Hudak, Pollard and Chris Schild as the three cars broke away from the rest of the pack. Powered by his Westside Performance power plant, Hudak looked dominant early as he led the trio into lapped traffic only 10 laps into the race.

 

Because of a mandatory competition yellow in this race, Hudak ran the first half of the race with a very simple plan. "I just want to stay out in front of everyone and save the tires," stated Hudak. "Having the competition yellow makes for a calmer first half of the race. We just want to survive the first fifty and then race the last fifty."

 

Hudak's plan was working to perfection until lap 60 when Pollard got a great run on Hudak coming out of turn two and captured the lead on the backstretch. Pollard powered away from the field opening up a three-second lead over Hudak and Schild and looked as if he would check out for the win until a caution on lap 71 tightened up the field.

 

On the restart, Pollard and Hudak traded paint in the middle of turns 1 and 2, opening up an opportunity for Schild to get underneath them both and lead his first lap of the young season. "Going into turn 1 we just kind of laid back to let things fall out," recalled Schild of his pass for the lead. "The guys were starting to race pretty hard and we wanted to be there in case the opportunity presented itself. When they got together and went high, I figured this was the only shot I've got, so I took it."

 

However, on the next pass by the flag stand, Pollard got set up for another power run coming out of turn two and recaptured the lead on the backstretch for good, holding off Schild while the two Texans opened a full straight-a-way lead over the rest of the field.

 

When asked about the competition yellow stop before the race, Pollard said, "It's helpful to us when we've run races in the past with it. It a chance to remedy a bad handling car and hopefully we won't have to do that tonight." Pollard's words were prophetic, as he only needed a quick drink of water and a towel to wipe his face during his stop. At that point, the veteran driver was ready to go when the field returned to the track off pit road for the second half of the race.

 

The two days of practice sessions for this race were a great learning experience for Pollard and his team. "We learned some things about this car that we didn't know even though we've been running this car for several years now," mused Pollard on his victory. "We felt like we would have a good car on long runs. We just wanted to ride the first half of the race and stay out of trouble, which fortunately our qualifying position allowed us to do. The second half of the race we figured we needed to get busy pretty

quick."

 

Pollard's night looked like it might go up in flames when a broken ring gear on the flywheel caused the car to start sparking badly underneath with only 6 laps remaining. But, with a three plus car lead over Schild, Pollard had enough to cross the line without a serious challenge for his top spot.

 

Following Pollard to the checkers was Chris Schild, Tommy Gural, Lloyd Alexander, Jamie Fuller, Don Fowler, Ian Webster, Brian Schild, John Benker, and Ryan Englehardt rounding out the top ten. The Bartell Motorsports Hard Charger Award went to Jamie Fuller who started 20th and improved fifteen positions to finish 5th for the evening.

 

The next stop for the Texas Super racing Series will be May 29th at Houston Motorsports Park. For more information on series rules please visit the series web site at www.manracingpromotions.com.

 

Race Information:

Name: Jeff Pollard

City: Houston

Age: 42

Years in racing: 9

Chassis: Bopp/DB Motorsports

Body: Grand Prix

Engine Builder: KAM Racing Engines

Brakes: Willwood

Shocks: Penske

Sponsors: DC Eagle, KAM Racing Engines, Poly Dyn

Cautions: 9 for 27 laps

Fastest green flag lap: Brad Hudak 15.017 sec. - 91.097mph

Lap Leaders:

Brad Hudak 1- 60

Jeff Pollard 61-74

Chris Schild 75

Jeff Pollard 76-100

Time of race: 33:21