The team celebrates their win in Oshkosh (Dave Penske Photo)
(Bill W) July 27, 2016 – Brad Loyet and the Loyet Motorsports/Vacuworx Global #o5 headed to Wisconsin last weekend and picked up an IRA win at the Oshkosh Speedzone Raceway. The Sunset Hills, Missouri driver waged an early battle in the feature and went on to win his fifth main event of the year. On July 15, Brad competed with the POWRi midget series at Belle-Clair Speedway in Belleville, Illinois as well.
It was Brad’s first midget start of the year at little Belleville. “We really felt competitive that night,” he says. “The brake pedal fell off about six laps in. So we were running with no brakes. Up until then, we were contending for the lead. We were running fourth with the Keith Kunz cars and the rear-end broke with about four laps to go. It was fun. I think we’ll run double duty with the sprint and midget at the Ironman (I-55 Raceway in Pevely) next week.”
It was his first trip to Oshkosh last Friday. “A lot of people said that it may be blowing dust in hot laps, but they actually overwatered the track,” says Brad of the 1/3-mile oval. “They took so long to get it run in, that I was worried they were going to cancel.”
Brad timed in eighth quick. “We rebuilt the car that we crashed with (Terry) McCarl at Knoxville last year,” he says. “It was the first night out with that. In hot laps, the car jumped out of gear, because I didn’t have the rear-end adjusted right. They did group qualifying. With their format, with three heats, you want to be in the top seven qualifiers to make the invert or win your heat, so we were one spot out.”
He started fourth in his heat. “I drove into one and two, and got underneath first and second for the lead,” says Brad. “I spun the thing out. The car was not good in the heat. I couldn’t get a feel for it. Luckily, we were able to get up to fifth and transfer into the feature.”
More luck would follow for Brad. “We lucked out when someone didn’t make the feature through the heat that had qualified better than us,” he says. “That put us in the redraw, and they drew a big invert that put us on the pole. After the heat, we pulled all four shocks off the car. We had them rebuilt after a crash at Farmington. It was my fault that I hadn’t dyno-ed them in the shop and compared our dyno to theirs. I had them set way off from where our baseline was. Once we got that figured out, the car was good in the feature.”
He would contend for the lead early on. “We didn’t get the best jump on the start, and we battled there with Scotty Neitzel for six or seven laps,” says Brad. “Once we got to lapped traffic, we were able to get by him. Everybody was saying that you had to run the bottom in both corners all night long. I just put it up on the curb in one and two and blasted it. In three and four, there was a rough patch in the middle. It was bumpy, but it had good moisture. So I drove right through it most of the race.”
Brad also withstood a late challenge. “We had a yellow with three to go,” he says. “Mike Reinke was gaining on us, so I changed my line a little bit in one and two. I ran through the slick and caught the curb coming off. It was enough to hold him off. It felt really good to get another win.”
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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: The team celebrates their win in Oshkosh (Dave Penske Photo)
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Monroe, IA USA