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Brandon Wimmer – Gaining Ground!
(Bill W) March 7, 2009 – After struggling in the Ohio All Star opener at Attica (OH) Raceway Park on April 11, sprint car pilot Brandon Wimmer and his owner, Rick Ferkel, rebounded with a solid charge through the feature field last Saturday at the Fremont (OH) Speedway. This week finds the team competing in local events at Attica and Fremont, before they head for Pennsylvania with the All Stars the following week.
The night started with a familiar refrain. The #0 was not handling in time trials. The result was a 19th place showing in the 31-car field. "We struggled in qualifying," said Brandon. "We were off on setup, but in the heat, things started to click and the car felt good. They say we drove away with it."
Drive away with it he did, after starting outside row one and beating pole-sitter Brandon Martin to the checkers. Unfortunately, his qualifying effort still haunted him, and he started outside row nine for the 30-lap main event. "We tightened it up a bit for the feature, because it was slicking off," says Brandon of his setup decisions before the feature. "Otherwise, we didn't do a whole lot to the car. We were good in the heat."
The car was dynamite the first 15 laps, and Brandon cut through the field nicely, gaining ten positions up to eighth. "We had the car where I could run high or low with it, and it was the best it has felt in awhile," he says. "We gained most of our positions the first half of the race though."
The car went away a bit and Brandon was hanging on the last half of the race. He finished eighth, a good run after starting eighteenth. "The handling of the car went away a little bit the second half of the race," he says. "We didn't move forward much after that, and stayed right where we were. It was definitely an improvement from the last couple of weeks that we ran."
This weekend marks the start of local Fremont/Attica Sprint Title (FAST) racing, and the #0 will be on hand at Attica Friday and Fremont Saturday. On May 1 and May 2, the All Star Circuit of Champions will head to Williams Grove Speedway and Lincoln Speedway in central Pennsylvania. Brandon's confidence is growing each time out in Ferkel's machine. "We've definitely struggled with the car the last couple weeks, but we're getting there," he says. "We're getting to a point where we can work with it and drive forward. We were quite a ways off before. I think we're getting to a point where we can start running up front."
Brandon and Rick Ferkel would like to thank the following sponsors for all their help: Shorty's Truck Repair, Smith's Farm, Goodyear Tires, Griff's Engines, Kear's Speed Shop, Huggins Cams, BRODIX Heads, Barnes Oil Pumps, Prism Lubricants, Zeis Land Development, Butlerbuilt, Simpson, and WRT Web Designs.
Brandon in action at Fremont Speedway (Rick Rarer Photo)
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