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Photo courtesy Joe Martinez
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Andy Gregg finishes 7th in GSC competition at Ocean Speedway with ASCS racing on deck this weekend in Oregon
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – August 12, 2009…Returning to action after taking the previous week off Placerville, CA's Andy Gregg rebounded late in the main event at the Ocean Speedway Saturday night to move forward and score a seventh place finish with the Golden State Challenge 410 Sprint Car Series.
So far this season the Ocean Speedway has had the reputation of being one of the raciest tracks on tour and that was certainly the case this past Saturday as the surface slicked off and created multi-groove racing for much of the feature.
The former GSC Rookie of the Year started off the evening by showing speed right from the get-go as he was the fastest driver in warm-ups and then clocked the sixth fastest lap in qualifying out of the 26 cars on hand. Gregg then drove the Guts Racing, Dale Miller Plumbing, RPS Performance No. 16x to a second place finish in the final heat race and a sixth place result in the dash to give himself a third row starting spot for the main event.
Lining-up from sixth Gregg settled into the fifth spot over the first handful of laps, before sliding back and fighting for position on the tricky and slick surface. The Placerville driver would lose the eighth spot to Kyle Larson on lap seven and then drop back to around 10th at one point, before regrouping late in the going and fighting his way back forward to cross the stripe in seventh after 30 laps of racing. It marked his sixth top-10 finish in seven starts with the Golden State Challenge Series this season.
The main event featured a long green flag run that went from lap six to 25 caution free, which made for some hectic action through lapped traffic. "The racing in the main event was pretty good and the track crew did a great job as always," said Gregg. "We ran in the top-five early and then fell back, but late in the race the car really came in and we went forward so that was definitely nice. It was pretty tough with all the lapped cars stacked in there, but I just drove it as hard as I could over the last number of laps and thankfully we were able to pick up some positions."
This weekend will find Gregg heading to Oregon for two night's of racing with the ASCS Northwest Region aboard the Bret Ervin owned Bullet Racing, LRB Manufacturing, M&M Structures No. 53 sprinter. On tap Friday night will be a return visit to the Cottage Grove Speedway, followed by an evening of competition at the Coos Bay Raceway on Saturday. "I'm looking forward to going back up to Oregon this weekend," Gregg commented. "Our last trip up there a couple weeks ago didn't go how we wanted so I definitely would like to give these guys a win this weekend."
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Placerville's Andy Gregg will return to the seat of the Bullet Racing No. 53 machine for ASCS NW Region events in Cottage Grove and Coos Bay this weekend. Photo by http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
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