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WHITT ENDURES MECHANICAL ISSUES DURING MIDGET WEEK |
Monday, June 15, 2009 – The 2009 USAC Indiana Midget Week concluded on Sunday night in Kokomo, IN. This event is a taxing week-long tour of various Indiana dirt tracks. For Cole Whitt and his no. 1 USAC Red Bull Toyota midget, a number of engine related issues meant that the week was a difficult one. The addition of two nights of racing in the no. 29w Red Bull sprint car meant for a busy week of racing where better results were found in the sprint car.
The week began at Gas City I-69 Speedway in Gas City, IN. The track is one that Cole knows well as he races there quite often. The event was one of two where he would campaign the no. 1 USAC midget and the no. 29w sprint car. On the midget side, the night began slowly as the crew worked with their newly designed TRD engine. Cole made the best of his early qualifying session yet was only able to qualify 19th due to greasy track conditions. In the heat race, Cole pulled off a strong 1st place finish and would start the main in 18th. Once in the main, Cole worked very hard on a super fast track to get into a top five finishing position before a spin from the 4th place car collected Cole and sent him to the rear of the field very late in the event. A 15th was the final result. On the sprint car side, a good heat race result and starting position resulted in a strong 2nd place finish.
After a rainout at Twin Cities Raceway Park, the Midget Week moved on to Bloomington Speedway. Once again, early mechanical issues put Cole and his no. 1 Red Bull-Toyota midget in a position where they were not able to compete in qualifying. A victory in the heat race meant a transfer to the feature. In the feature, Cole was not able to make a lot of progress due to mechanical issues of a bad plug wire resulting in a missing engine. Cole was able to hold on to a 13th finishing position. Night four of the five-race week moved to Lawrenceburg Speedway. Once again mechanical issues were apparent. Cole was able to qualify 15th and win the heat race. However was forced to retire early just as he was able to race his way into the top 10 when the motor ceased.
Sunday night at Kokomo Speedway found Cole pulling double duty once again. After a hard night of working to get motors changed and cars ready the Keith Kunz team and Cole Whitt hit the track hard. Again, Cole worked through motor issues. After a 3rd place finish in the heat, meant Cole would start the feature in 16th. Cole knew he had to keep the motor wound up as he drove to the high side of the track. Cole was able to drive hard and get through traffic and into the top 6 early in the race. As the laps wound down, Whitt raced a hard battle with the top 5 cars and fought for a 4th place finish. In addition, the no. 29w sprint car had another solid evening as Cole was able to recover from a heat race crash and race his way to a 3rd place finish. The 3rd place at the finish was a solid finish and made the evening the best of the week for Cole.
Cole had this to say, “That was a tough week. We had a lot of mechanical issues to deal with seemingly every night with the no. 1 midget. The crew worked hard to trace down the problems. When you start back in the field though, it is difficult to always charge to the front. We will get back at it this weekend.”
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