[Task Force]

MIKE WALLACE RACING SEES MIXED RESULTS IN OPENING NIGHT OF GATOR DIRT NATIONALS
By Zach Tasker

Thursday night February 12 saw the opening night of the three-day D2 midget extravaganza known as the Gator Dirt Nationals at the North Florida Speedway in Lake City, Florida. Mike Wallace Racing Technology out of Joliet, Illinois had two factory cars in attendance, three-time and defending Illini Racing Series champion Patrick Bruns and 2014 IRS rookie of the year Jimmy Clark Jr.

The nights practice sessions where important as neither driver had seen this track. Both commented how fast and wide the racing surface was. In the first heat race of the night, Bruns would start in 2nd and Clark 5th. Bruns would stage a great side by side duel for multiple laps with Vermont's Adam Pierson before Pierson would slip ahead to take the win ahead of Bruns. Clark would soldier home in 4th.

The 20 lap feature was up next with Bruns starting in 5th and Clark in 11th.The veteran driver out of Champaign, Illinois would march to the front early on running as high as 3rd halfway until a series of restarts would see him slide high into turns 1 and 2 and lose multiple positions. He would eventually finish in 7th position. 7th is not what the driver of the #10b Darcy GMC/Mobil 1/Triple T Car Wash & Lube/MWR Lightning/Ecotec wanted but is still a solid top ten against a very stout field. “We had a good strong 3rd place run going we just kind of had some things happen there late in the race with the motor. We will tune on it and get it fired back up and running on all cylinders and rocking and rolling. Congrats to Dillon Buhr winning with an MWR Ecotec tonight, that’s awesome to see one of Mikes motors up front winning, and hopefully we can make top 3 or 4 tomorrow night.The track was real slick tonight, super slick. We will get it figured out. “

The driver nicknamed “wild thing”, Jimmy Clark Jr had a decent run in the feature going until mechanical woes forced him out of the race and relegated him to a 14th place finish. “It was just unfortunate; we had a little bit of a mechanical problem on the car, but the car was really hooked up and I was having a lot of fun out there. I changed my line from where I was running in practice, and that helped me out a lot. I was getting a lot better grip and just jump off the corner, so I was making good passes it just is an unfortunate circumstances.” The driver of the #10c MWR Lightning/Ecotec says the North Florida Speedway doesn't compare to any track he races with on the Illini Racing Series tour. “Honestly it’s a lot bigger, it’s a lot wider and you are on the gas a lot more. You could just throw it in the corner hard and it's definitely a lot different dirt though. Its dry but it's kind of sandy almost and it kind of throws a lot of stuff in your eyes and the visibility is really though when you are out there. When you are racing with four guys on track you just kind of hope for the best and turn the wheel.”

The night wasnt all struggles for MWR though as Southren States Midget Series customer Dillon Buhr picked up the feature win.

Racing continues tonight, Friday Febuary 13 and tomorrow Febuary 14 with two complete shows of racing including the Friday night Race of Champions which Bruns is entered in. Follow MWR Technology/Lightning Chassis for live updates throughout the weekend.

[DAD]

I can think of a half dozen or so of chain drive cars and drivers that I wish were there competing.

Honest Dad himself

[Task Force]

MIKE WALLACE RACING STRUGGLES ON NIGHT #2 OF GATOR DIRT NATIONALS
By Zach Tasker

In the sport of motor racing there will always be highs and lows, Friday night at the North Florida Speedway was one of the lows for the D2 midget powerhouse team of Mike Wallace Racing. MWR had two factory cars in attendance. The #10b Darcy GMC/Mobil 1/Triple T Car Wash & Lube/MWR Lightning/Ecotec of Patrick Bruns started the night out decent with a 2nd place finish in the first heat race. The three time and defending Illini Racing Series champion would then finish 5th in the race of champions.

The Champaign, Illinois driver would start in 4th position in the 20 lap feature. Bruns would struggle with handling on the car and fade back to around 8th position before the last lap when his rear end would fail on the car causing him a DNF and bringing a premature end to the weekend. “We had a lot of fun, I’m proud to be down here representing MWR and the Illini Series and the IMRA and everybody else back home. Unfortunately we lost a rear end and those things happen.”

The night wasn’t any better for his teammate Jimmy Clark Jr. The driver of the #10c MWR Lightning/Ecotec was facing gremlins all night and could not get the car to fire at all for practice, the heat race, race of champions or the feature and was extremely frustrated. The Joliet, Illinois based team will be back at it tomorrow to throw all its resources and getting Clark a better finish. Team owner Mike Wallace reflected on the night “We pretty much fought it all night; we kept beating on her but really tonight was a tough one. We lost the rear end in Patricks car and we got the ignition box wet or just something stupid to Jimmys car so I don’t know if we are going to be able to fix the rear end but we might pull a couple of parts off of Pats car and get Jimmy going tomorrow but hopefully we can overcome it and get Jimmy a good finish here tomorrow.”

Follow MWR Technology/Lightning Chassis on Facebook for more updates.

[Task Force]

MIKE WALLACE RACING CONCLUDES BITTERSWEET GATOR DIRT NATIONALS
By Zach Tasker

Mike Wallace Racing finished a very trying Gator Dirt Nationals for the Southern States Midget Series in Lake City, Florida. After a rear end failure Friday night three time and defending Illini Racing Series champion Patrick Bruns was unable to compete Saturday night in his #10b Darcy GMC/Mobil 1/Triple T Car Wash & Lube Lightning/Ecotec. This left all of the factory teams efforts on the #10c MWR Lightning Ecotec being piloted by 2014 IRS rookie of the year Jimmy Clark Jr.

Mechanical problems have been the name of the game all weekend for the driver nicknamed “wild thing” and that continued on Saturday night. Clark started his six lap heat race in third position and was battling for the lead before a lap was completed; however his car would grind to a halt on the front stretch with a lap remaining and would end his night prematurely again.

Team owner Mike Wallace summed up the frustration. “We had some issues, we lost a header on Thursday and we think it damaged the wiring harness and damaged a couple of wires. It is just too much to fix at the track and not enough time. It was a good night for Dillon Buhr and Brandon Denton, both of them have our power plants down here. They represented us very well with the Florida region of MWR. Basically a lot of what we did this winter was R&D work, it was trying to perfect what we are doing to be able to run IMRA and Illini with better power than we had last year. It’s an ongoing process, we go from the engine dyno to the chassis dyno to the race track and basically we have done that every time we have hit the track this year and we are looking really stout.”

The weekend wasn’t all bad though as MWR engines ran by the #24 Super Shox/MWR/Atlantic Powder Coating/Denton Motorsports Eagle/Ecotec driven by Dillon Buhr and the #45 Atlantic Powder Coating/Cooper Racing/East Coast Oils/MWR Technology/Innovate Graphics/Design by Denton/Butler Built XXX/Ecotec driven by Brandon Denton had some very good runs this weekend. Buhr picked up the feature win on Thursday night. “Customers are #1, that’s why we do what we do. We had issues and you will have that but any time you can be beat by your customers it proves that you are putting out a product that is equal if not better than your own. You are going to have highs, you are going to have lows but with plenty of large stuff out there, it proves that we are definitely one of the best in the country.”