WBR/ Team 6R is on the way to PIR to conclude the 2009 Silver Crown season. The Fatheadz Sunglasses, Lucas Oil, Jet Star Toyota #07 driven by Jake Wilson put in a solid run at Phoenix last year with a 5th in qualifying and 5th place feature run in his first trip to PIR and his first time utilizing Toyota power. Team manager Jack French said "5th was a good run last year for a rookie driver, but after seeing what he could do at Iowa this year, I think we can win the Copper World." Wilson set fast time and led 88 laps at Iowa Speedway before a fuel pick up problem spoiled his first bid for Silver Crown victory. Jacob's crew chief and younger brother has been working hard to prepare the car and team for the trip. He added " I am going to make sure what happened at Iowa will not happen to us again".


Travel news for our westbound friends:
No delays from Crawfordsville to Missouri via I-70 west. I-44 has short sections of construction in Missouri restricting to one lane at times for less than a mile or two. The largest construction was the mile marker 184 to 176 on I-44 southbound. We went downtown in Tulsa and there was some construction and backups, the bypass around Tulsa would be a better route. I-44 in Oklahoma City has major construction just before you get to I-40. The traffic moved fairly well but the road surface is pretty rough. I-40 in Oklahoma has construction and down to one lane from approximately 40 mile marker south for 27 miles. One lane closed off and on, we moved right through with just light traffic- mostly semi trucks. We are stopping at the Big Texan in Amarillo for lunch today and I’ll update you further on the trip after that.
Drive safely.

Good luck to WBR on the trip West n great finish on the Desert Mile!!....heads up coming into Phx....as they've got RADAR Cameras everywhere on loop 101....I-10!!....just watch for signs indicating "Radar Speed Zone" ahead...best to keep it under 5 mi. over to be safe....traffic will still be rolln reguardless....just don't let it catch ya sleepin'!!........
___________
Brucer'

Is anybody taking the Big Texan Challenge?
Posted via Mobile Device

Clint and I both considered the Big Texan Free 72oz Steak. I think we got intimidated by the size of it and opted for a more reasonable sized dinner. Clint had the 22oz prime rib and I had the Man vs. Food tribute meal; 18oz sirloin with salad, shrimp, baked potato and rolls. The 18oz is 1/4 the size of the challenge steak claims the menu. Diane and Jake ate off the more modest lunch special menu. Nobody was able to clean their plates at our table. I have a new favorite steakhouse- shame its only 1000 miles from home!!!

Traffic update:
No road construction in Texas as far as Amarillo. The roads here are bumpier than I had imagined they would be.
Next Update from Flagstaff.
Drive safely.

Travel news for our westbound friends:
No delays from Crawfordsville to Missouri via I-70 west. I-44 has short sections of construction in Missouri restricting to one lane at times for less than a mile or two. The largest construction was the mile marker 184 to 176 on I-44 southbound. We went downtown in Tulsa and there was some construction and backups, the bypass around Tulsa would be a better route. I-44 in Oklahoma City has major construction just before you get to I-40. The traffic moved fairly well but the road surface is pretty rough. I-40 in Oklahoma has construction and down to one lane from approximately 40 mile marker south for 27 miles. One lane closed off and on, we moved right through with just light traffic- mostly semi trucks. We are stopping at the Big Texan in Amarillo for lunch today and I’ll update you further on the trip after that. Good Steaks- its a must stop and see if you have time.
Drive safely.

Traffic update:
No road construction in Texas as far as Amarillo. The roads here are bumpier than I had imagined they would be.
Texas is clear to New Mexico on I-40.
New Mexico has completed most of their construction. 75mph speed limit and no construction to speak of until mile marker 324 to 316 just past Tucumcari, New Mexico. Down to one lane each direction on the same side 55mph speed limit.
Its clear from there to Albuquereque and the construction in town is now complete and very nice. You will encounter a couple of small construction projects west of Albuquereque, but nothing to worry about traffic wise.
We are staying tonight half way between Albuquerque and Arizona at exit 84 Super Walmart. 75mph speed and no construction to that point.
More updates from here to Phoenix tomorrow.
Drive safely.

Good luck on your trip out west.

Mark, Glad you have had a safe trip up to this point and hope the balance of the trip into Phoenix goes safely as well. As Brucer pointed out watch out for the photo radar in Arizona, they are using it in all parts of the state now and have been covering the I10 Avondale, Goodyear and Buckeye construction corridor heavily since I got back to Phoenix the end of September. Best of luck at PIR, see you there.



Patti

Gook luck in Phoenix. Represent the AMSA. lol

Final update: We encountered one lane crossover at 60mm in NM on I-40; speed limit went from 75 down to 55 but we experienced no delays. I-40 is wide open to Flagstaff and we took I-17 and then I-10 into Phoenix. I-17 had some small construction projects with no delays at all. The weather has been wonderful the whole way. Kind of wished I hadn't eaten such a big steak yesterday about 4am this morning.

Thanks for all the well wishes and warnings about the speedcams. They do have mobile ones in Ford Escapes set up every now and then, no trouble for us with speeding though.

I hope all the teams have a good run this week and USAC does well enough to come back here in 2010. Travel safely we are pulling in to Romans for a cold beverage and off to the campground for the night.

Good luck at PIR! Be safe!