[JessicaJ]

Macon Triumph Highlights POWRi Speed Week for Bruns
By Jessica Jenkins

This past week of racing marked the fourth annual POWRi Illinois Speed Week at five different tracks from June 8th to June 12th. When Patrick Bruns rolled into Macon Speedway on Saturday, June 11, no one could forget what had happened his last time at the 1/5th-mile dirt track. But he was determined to move on from that heat race wreck to return to his normal success in Macon.

In the three Speed Week nights leading up to Saturday, Bruns finished sixth in Belleville, came home in the runner-up spot in Quincy and swept the heat and feature wins Friday night in Jacksonville. That was his first win in the four races since the Macon wreck on Memorial Day and it was perfect timing to be riding a wave of momentum in his return to the Speedway.

Once Saturday arrived, Bruns and his #10B POWRi/Illini D2 midget team were right on top of it. They claimed the second fastest speed in hot laps and transferred that to starting on the pole in heat 2. He held on through a couple yellows and several challenges before pulling away to easily win. Since passing points were being used that night, starting and finishing in first didn’t earn him a whole lot of points. As a result, he was given the 7th position as his starting spot in the feature. While they waited, his championship-caliber team kept working on the car to get it perfect for the upcoming challenge.

It took two waved-off attempts before the feature really got under way and Bruns was already up to 6th on lap three when a yellow waved. He took to the high side on the restart and moved to fourth just as another caution appeared on lap four, putting him back into 5th. When the green waved once more, he was ready and began to go wherever he needed to on the track as the cars got spread out again. He stayed riding in the fifth spot until all of a sudden the two drivers he was closely following made contact and stopped in front of him. He was right up on the fourth place car and for a couple seconds it appeared that Bruns would come to a stop as well. However, he gunned the motor and pushed through, coming out clear on the other side as his team in the stands started cheering. When everything settled down he was in second place for the restart and maintained that spot through another yellow and one red flag. With four laps to go, the door opened and he marched into the lead, not looking back and claiming his second win at Macon in 2016.

Amidst the flurry of excitement and activity back at his hauler afterwards, the 4-time Illini Racing Series champion shared these thoughts: “What Kenny Brown and POWRi has done with the D2 series is really exciting. I’ve just got to thank the Lord and Savior above for giving me this great opportunity. Last time we were here, it was kind of a rough night. My guys worked really hard the last couple weeks and gave me a great opportunity to come out here this weekend. Going into tomorrow, we still have one day left in this series and I know it’s going to be tough, but my guys are drilling for oil right now.” He continued, “The competition level is really stout with this D2 series. And there’s some real up and coming stars like Tyler VanToll; he did a really, really good job. We’ve got Chett Gehrke running up there. There was a little bit of attrition tonight, things played out in our favor and we kept our nose clean. We had one opportunity there late in the race with a couple laps to go, we took advantage of it and came out on top. I really thought we were a second place car, but we were really fortunate there at the end.” Bruns also wanted to thank “the guys that work on my car: Brad, Scott, Andrew, Paul, Mike. All of these guys work really, really hard to give me a great racecar every single week. All of our sponsors, from our Boss Chassis to the MWR powered ECOtec, Mobil 1, Triple T Car Wash & Lube and Cain’s Marine Welding. Harold Colbert Plumbing came on tonight and helped us out. These guys have all made it possible for me to do what I do. Without them we wouldn’t have the magic formula that we do right now.”

Bruns’ goal for the final night at Lincoln Speedway was simply, “We just want to keep our nose clean and finish the series real strong.” However, he added “If we are fortunate enough to win and we are blessed with that opportunity, that’s great.” Unfortunately for the Champaign, IL driver, that’s not how it completely worked out. He finished third in his heat race and started fifth in the feature before he got spun out early. He was able to work his orange-and-white midget back up to ninth place by the time the checkered flag flew. Bruns missed out on winning the Speed Week championship, but he still leads the overall series standings.

The POWRi/Illini Lucas Oil D2 series is off until June 24th at Lincoln Speedway, but you can likely find Bruns and his MWR team at Spoon River Speedway in Canton, IL this Saturday. For updates and pictures you can visit the team’s Facebook fan page at Facebook.com/mwrtech or on Twitter @MWRTechnology.