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MWR SCORES DOUBLE TOP TEN AT TULSA SHOOTOUT
By Zach Tasker
Mike Wallace Racing is back home after celebrating a competitive weekend at the Tulsa Shootout in Oklahoma. The duo of Illini Racing Series champion Patrick Bruns and Illini midget rookie of the year Jimmy Clark Jr made the trek down south to compete in the Ecotec/Focus midget class. A strong field of 23 midgets were on hand inside of the Tulsa Expo Center. Patrick Bruns had a great weekend of heat races, qualifiers and the feature on Saturday night and was battling for the win with just a few laps remaining after charging through the field from his 6th starting position. The Champaign, Illinois driver was pleased with the result even after coming up just a bit short of victory lane.
“We had a great run; we moved forward in the feature, ran 2nd for the 2nd half of the race and there in the end we laid it on pretty thick. We put everything that we had at (Blake) Hahn that’s kind of his playground so dethroning him there was going to be a major undertaking, and we came up just a little bit short. To have that good of a showing for this Illini based group is great. MWR technology and the MWR ecotec proved to be more than capable and powerful enough at that venue, and I’m just very proud to be a part of it.”
The driver of the #10b Darcy GMC/Mobil 1/Triple T Car Wash & Lube/MWR Lightning/Ecotec was happy to bounce back after a difficult weekend at the Rumble in Fort Wayne. "Fort Wayne was tough, emotionally and physically demanding. We had a long weekend up in Fort Wayne and then we had one day off and then had to turn around and head right to Tulsa. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong at Fort Wayne. Nothing major happened; just little things and it can be very trying and challenging, and they worked hard to stay mentally focused. We had a 24 hour turnaround time from Fort Wayne to Tulsa, and we drove down there and I think right when we pulled off at the first practice session down there we had bounced back. We were ready to go, and we knew we had a car that could compete.”
A podium finish at the Tulsa Shootout for MWR Technology just proves that the Joliet, Illinois based squad can no longer be labeled as a pavement specialist team like they were just a few short years ago. “(Team manager) Scott Corry and I were laughing. I take cheap shots at him all the time because he told me a little over a year ago that they were only a pavement shop; they weren’t a dirt shop. I said hey, just let us handle the dirt, we will be just fine. So Mike handles the pavement side, I handle the dirt side and we meet in the middle with a championship effort every week. “
Team owner Mike Wallace was not only pleased with a podium for Bruns, but also for his teammate Jimmy Clark Jr., who drove the #10c MWR Lightning/Ecotec to an 8th place finish. “Actually in the running order he was supposed to start 21st, which was the inside of the 2nd to last row. I guess he wanted a little more of a challenge for himself, so he actually tagged the back of the field. We set Patricks car up to run the top and we set Jimmy’s car up to run the bottom and we knew we pretty much had to be where other people weren’t and the high line seemed to be the place to be at. Basically we gave him what he needed and a little bit of thought from Patrick and all the guys and we told him to just stay on the bottom and keep his nose clean and keep picking them off and that’s exactly what he did. “
Wallace not only made waves on the ¼ mile dirt oval in Tulsa but also off of it. “What got us a lot of attention this weekend was some of the parts development that we are doing on dirt cars now. We don’t use a Jacobs ladder, and we haven’t used a panhard bar for many years. We are using what we are calling the Mike ladder, which is a linear guide in place of a Jacobs ladder, and it was phenomenal this weekend. It made the car drive, and it kept it stable. The parts that we are putting out, developing and engineering are paying dividends, and it's definitely turned us into a multi-faceted shop.”
There is no rest for the weary as a busy offseason continues for MWR. The team, who competed at the Powri Battle at the Center in DuQuoin, Illinois and the Rumble in Fort Wayne in December and the Tulsa Shootout in January now turns their attention to February. They will race at the DuQuoin indoor sportsman midget race then head to Florida for the Gator Dirt Nationals with the Soutrhen States Midget Series. This grueling “off season” schedule sees the team race more in the winter than some teams will race all summer.
“We are looking forward to both of those. We are heading back to DuQuoin where we had some success with the Powri group. Then we will be headed down to the Southern States Midget Series with Wayne Davis’ group and some of our new customers with Buhr motorsports. They got their stuff to run with us and put on a great show with MWR.”
The Tulsa Shootout will air on Mav TV Saturday January 17 at 6:30pm central. For live updates as MWR heads down to North Florida Speedway on Febuary 12-14 like MWR Technology/Lightning Chassis on Facebook.
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