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Bright Start, Tough End For Abreu At Ocean Taco Bravo
Watsonville, California. June 3, 2011. With rain imminent, a hurried program was in effect for competitors in the Taco Bravo 360 Sprint Car Series at Watsonville’s Ocean Speedway Friday night. For St. Helena, California’s Rico Abreu hurried would be a apt description for his performance in qualifying, his heat race, and into the early laps of the main event. However, his night ended on a disappointing note as brake issues sent him pitside and ended a solid streak of top ten finishes with the series.
Abreu began the night by setting the third fastest time in the group qualifying, topped only by Kaeding Performance teammates Brent Kaeding and Kyle Larson. In his heat race a jumped start by the original front row placed Abreu and two time defending Taco Bravo Series champion Tommy Tarlton at the front for the eight lap event. From his outside starting position the 19 year old rookie showed his continuing progression as he drove to a dominating win by over a straightaway.
In the 30 lap feature event the Abreu Vineyards Maxim/Shaver #89 started fourth on the grid. From the outset the youngster showed he would be a contender for his first win as he fell into third behind front row starter Tarlton and Andy Forsberg. Through several early caution periods Abreu firmly held his grip on third.
However, on lap five things began to unravel for Abreu as the loss of his rear brakes caused him to jump the turn two cushion. When he finally gathered his mount back underneath him he had fallen to tenth and a lap later he had slipped to 12th.
When another yellow flag appeared the following lap it was for Abreu, who was stopped on the backstretch. He ducked into the pits to have his crew ascertain if repairs could be made. With the crew unable to remedy the situation Abreu returned to the tail of the pack for the restart. Underway again, Abreu found the problem too much to overcome and headed pitward for the final time, out of the race. Third place in points heading into this event, the disappointing end was Abreu’s first DNF of the Taco Bravo slate of events and also his first finish out of the top ten in the highly competitive series. He was scored 20th in the final rundown and now finds himself fourth in points, trailing Day, Tarlton, and Sanders.
Abreu will now drop a 410 engine into his machine and do some travelling. He will begin Friday at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California where he will compete in the Dave Bradway Jr./ Gary Patterson Memorial race sanctioned by the King of the West Sprints. The following night the same series heads to Southern Oregon Speedway in Medford, Oregon, before stopping at Cottage Grove Speedway for a non-sanctioned event on Monday.
Abreu’s racing efforts are sponsored by Abreu Vineyards, Stadelhofer Construction, Kaeding Performance and Swift Metals.
Visit www.ricoabreuracing.com for more information and news on Rico Abreu.
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