(Bill W) November 11, 2014 – Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx Global/Miller Truck Lines #o5 team have their eyes on top prize this weekend with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series. The final weekend of the season sees the series at the Cocopah Speedway near Yuma, Arizona. The Sunset Hills, Missouri driver brings a thirty-four point lead into the two-night finale.
Last weekend, the series visited El Paso Speedway Park in Texas on Friday. Brad would draw the pole of his heat. “We were able to start on the front row,” he says. “The track was lockdown, and hard to pass. We got the jump on the start, and on the heat race. We drew the eight on the redraw for the feature.”
He would quickly move forward. “We got up to fourth pretty quickly,” says Brad. “We were there for probably half of the race. We were able to get into third. I think we were getting through lapped traffic a little better than the top two cars. We had a really, really good car.”
In the end, he would land on the podium. “It was one of those deals where the yellows came out at the right time for the leaders,” says Brad. “We came home third, and it was a really good night. It was a good points night overall.”
Things couldn’t have gone much worse the next night at the Southern New Mexico Speedway in Las Cruces. “It was definitely not a good night, that’s for sure!” says Brad. “In the heat race, we had a bunch of restarts. We couldn’t get the race going. Ultimately, I was on the receiving end of a bad start. We had contact with another car and got upside down. It was pretty disheartening, but we got the car back together for the B.”
Things were only beginning for Brad, who would start tenth in the B. “We were starting tenth, but I thought we were fine,” he says. “We could get back through there and wouldn’t have to use a provisional. At the start, I drove it into one and two and tried to drive back underneath. Another guy got into us, and turned us over. That time, it tore up a ton of stuff.”
The team had to work hard to use their feature provisional. “We had to thrash pretty hard,” says Brad. “We had to put a coil-over on the right front, replace everything on the front end, we had to weld the tube behind the panhard bar. It was split in two.”
The team was able to get the #o5 back out on the track. “We got the car back out there and salvaged what we could out of it,” says Brad. “Somehow, we passed some cars and ended up 16th. When we went to do maintenance yesterday, we noticed one of the uprights on the frame was broken. We hadn’t seen that. So we ran the whole race with a broken frame. We were lucky.”
Time this week has focused on getting everything ready for Yuma. “We spent yesterday rebuilding things,” says Brad. “We want to make sure we have all our ducks in a row heading into the last weekend. We’re going to do our best to pull this championship off!”
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Brad and the Loyet Motorsports team would like to thank primary sponsors: Vacuworx Global, Miller Truck Lines, and Loyet Landscape Maintenance. Associate sponsors: Maxim Race Cars, J and D Performance Racing Engines, Butlerbuilt Professional Seat Systems, Meramec Heights Collision Center, KSE Racing, Weld Wheels, Penske Shocks, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Hepfner Racing Products, DMI, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Bell Helmets, TI 64, Conroy Control, The Engine Heater, Ealey Transportation, and Speedway Motors.
Attached: Brad races in Las Cruces (Serena Dalhamer Photo)