Photo: Brad in Victory Lane at the Hockett/McMillin Memorial (Paul Gray Photo)
(Bill W) September 28, 2015 – Brad Loyet and the Vacuworx Global #o5 team posted one of the biggest wins in their career Saturday night at the Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway near Wheatland, Missouri. The win came with 55 competitors in the field and was sanctioned by the Lucas Oil ASCS National Series. This Friday and Saturday, the Sunset Hills, Missouri drivers helps the FVP National Sprint League finish their season at the $7,000 to win “Fearless 410 Finale” at I-80 Speedway near Greenwood, Nebraska.
Brad won from the pole of his heat in Friday’s prelim. “We were good in the heat,” he says. “We checked out really, and then we had a red. I had heard something in the motor. I heard it right before the red came out. I honestly didn’t think the car would fire back up, but it did. Everything seemed o.k., but I heard it again the last two laps.”
There was trouble. “I watched the rest of the heats and came back to the car,” says Brad. “I pulled the valve covers off, and there was a broken valve spring. We changed motors at that point. Because we did that, we had to start back in sixteenth. Going from twelfth to sixteenth wasn’t a huge deal.”
The car was on rails, and Brad would charge from 16th to fourth, locking himself into Saturday’s finale. “We had a really good car all weekend, really,” he says. “It was a deal where I screwed up several times. I gave up some spots, and had to battle back by them. We were eighth with about five to go. We got up to sixth with two laps left. We were able to get by (Ian) Madsen and (Sam) Hafertepe coming off three and four on the last lap for fourth to lock us into Saturday.”
He would draw a starting spot inside row two for Saturday’s finale. “With 55 cars there, it’s important to be locked in to have a fighting chance in your head,” says Brad. “The start of the feature on Saturday was disappointing. We had some bad starts on Friday. In the driver’s meeting on Saturday, they told us we had one shot to get it right. But we ended up having two starts in a row Saturday night where the front row was playing games with each other.”
Misfortune turned into fortune for Brad, however. “It ended quite a few people’s nights early,” he says of the front row games. “We got lucky. On the first start, the pole-sitter did a brake-check deal. My nose wing was knocked back on my hood. I thought we were done. On the second start, they did it again, but it resulted in a big red flag. It was open, so my guys were able to fix the nose wing. That made the difference in the night.”
He would race to the lead in traffic on lap ten. “We knew we had a good car and we were rolling,” says Brad. “I knew the top was the place to be. It took a while to clean it off to where I could use it. We caught lapped traffic and we rolled by them. We didn’t have any issues in traffic. We ended up winning by almost seven seconds.”
The win was special to the team. “It was a great win,” says Brad. “Jack (Hockett) came down and told me the first sprint car I drove was Jesse’s. That was true. It was at Lake Ozark Speedway. I think we finished third. Jesse drove for us at the Chili Bowl too. To win a race like that where you have a connection is really cool. To have Jack there was the best. I’ve won in a midget at Wheatland and we’ve been so close in a sprint car. To finally do it on MavTV with a Memorial race like that is really big for us.”
On Sunday night, the team found some MOWA action in Quincy, Illinois. Brad would draw last (ninth) to start his heat. “Whenever you have just the amount of cars to run a feature, it makes the heats tough when you draw,” he says. “You have such a mix of cars. We rolled past three guys on the first lap and a guy spun out in front of us. We had nowhere to go and made contact. We turned over enough to damage the win and the right side radius rods. We had time to change the wing, but not the radius rods.”
He would start dead last (18th) in the feature, and drive up to eighth. “The last time we were at Quincy, we had like 30 yellows,” says Brad. “I thought that would be fine. We’ll just work our way up. Well, we went green to checker, and we got to eighth. I think we had a top three car, but without the yellows it was tough to make up ground. It was a night that started out bad, but ended up o.k.”
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Brad and the Loyet Motorsports team would like to thank primary sponsors: Vacuworx Global and Loyet Landscape Maintenance. Associate sponsors: Maxim Race Cars, J and D Performance Racing Engines, Butlerbuilt Professional Seat Systems, Meramec Heights Collision Center, KSE Racing, Weld Wheels, Penske Shocks, Wilwood Disc Brakes, Hepfner Racing Products, DMI, Saldana Racing Products, Rod End Supply, Bell Helmets, TI 64, Conroy Control, The Engine Heater, Ealey Transportation, and Speedway Motors.
Photo: Brad in Victory Lane at the Hockett/McMillin Memorial (Paul Gray Photo)
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