Brady swept the midget portion of the Kokomo Grand Prix last weekend (Rich Forman/USAC Photo)
(Bill W) April 11, 2017 – Brady Bacon and the Frank Manafort Racing #76M team were hitting on all cylinders last weekend, as the swept the USAC National Midget portion of the Kokomo Speedway Grand Prix in Indiana. The Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver also did double duty in the Dooling/Hayward Racing #63 sprint car, placing second both nights. Brady will be piloting the Bacon/Marshall Motorsports #99 with the World of Outlaws the next few weeks. This weekend finds three stops in Texas. Things will start Thursday at Gator Motorplex near Willis, before moving on to the historic Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite Friday and Saturday.
The two-night event at Kokomo was moved back a day to Saturday and Sunday due to weather. Saturday saw Brady time in third quick in the midget. “We went out early and got a good lap,” he says. “We started fourth and finished fourth in the heat. We got caught up there for a little while.”
Starting fourth in the feature, it took about a half lap for Brady to get out front. “We were leading off of turn two on the first lap,” he says. “We were running the bottom and the car was good down there. I knew eventually the top was going to be better, but when you’re leading you have to kind of wait for someone to show it to you. Spencer Bayston got by me up there and I went up there and got things sorted out.”
No problem. “The track started slicking up a little bit,” says Brady. “Our car was a little tight to start with, so the track came back to us and we were able to diamond off the top of turns three and four and get the lead back. From there, we were able to get the win.”
In Sunday’s finale for the midgets, qualifying didn’t go so well. “We were a little tight in qualifying and bobbled on the cushion both laps,” says Brady, who timed in 11th quick. “We ran third in the heat, but we were kind of in a hole for the feature.”
Starting 11th, Brady would surge forward immediately. “We got to the very bottom and we were able to get to fourth pretty quickly,” he says. “We moved around a little bit and got to third. We were able to pick Chad Boat off on a restart for second. We had to work over (leader Tanner) Thorson for a while.”
He would take advantage of a mistake by the leader. “The track had gotten a little rough on the bottom and got some holes,” says Brady. “Tanner pushed up in one of those and we got by him. We ran the bottom for a few laps and I felt it was getting a little slow. We moved to the top of three and diamonded across the bottom of four. Once we did that, we kind of pulled away from them, winning by quite a bit (over four seconds).”
The win was huge for the FMR #76M team, who leads the USAC National Midget point standings heading into that series’ next event at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Illinois on May 19. “It’s so nice to have a car you can move around in and not be stuck on one part of the track,” says Brady. “Bob (East) is doing a great job with that. It felt pretty good to not only win on Saturday, but lose the lead and take it back. The car has been good since the end of last year. The team worked really hard in the offseason and that is paying off now. We survived DuQuoin with a fourth, but that was a different race. We’re back to our normal schedule and we’re strong. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year.”
The sprint car portion of the weekend went almost as well. “We qualified third in our group on Saturday,” says Brady. “We were good in our features in Florida (Ocala in February), but we were working on a baseline for the whole night. We started eighth in the feature, and we were really good. We were able to get up to second. We thought we had a shot to win, but the cautions weren’t in our favor. It seemed every time we got to traffic, a yellow would come out and we ended up second.”
The Dooling/Hayward team built on that momentum for the finale. “Sunday, we were second quick in our group by just a couple hundredths of a second,” says Brady. “We started third in our heat and won with (Shane) Cottle and Justin Grant. We felt good about that. We were dialed in pretty well. It’s a different chassis, and we’re getting used to my driving style. Matt Hummel has been working with our shocks and I think we have a really good package.”
The redraw didn’t go well for Brady, when he drew six out of six to start outside the third row for the feature. “It took us a while to get to third,” he says. “Once we did that, we ran down the leaders. We actually slid Grant once for the lead. It takes a couple laps to get good enough to clear someone at Kokomo, and the yellow came out right when we did. We hit the cushion after the restart and packed the right rear full of mud. We were shaking pretty good after that and we held on to second. It would have been nice to have been able to get after him again.”
Still, two second place finishes were strong for the team moving forward. “There were a lot of good cars, and it was a good gauge of where we are with the sprint car,” says Brady. “It was really good that we ran well at Kokomo. It’s not a track I have done super-well at in the past.”
The Outlaws await this weekend in Texas. “We’re looking forward to keeping the momentum we left with in Kilgore (charging from 12th to seventh in March),” says Brady. “We’d like to get in a rhythm there, and see if we can put ourselves in position to be up front consistently.”
Follow Brady on his Website, Twitter and Facebook!
Follow Brady at his website located at www.BradyBaconRacing.com! Also keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter (which also can be accessed at the website) at the following links…
Twitter Link – http://twitter.com/BradyBacon
Facebook Link - www.facebook.com/pages/Brady-Bacon-Racing/278125555137
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Associate Marketing Partner of the Week – Smiley’s Race Products
Smileys Racing Products and Hoosier Tire Southwest have been in the racing business for 30 years in the Dallas, Fort Worth area. Visit Smiley’s, either in Kennedale, at the showroom store in Mesquite, or at the racetracks. All employees at Smiley's Racing Products and Hoosier Tire Southwest are directly involved with race teams either as owners, drivers, pit crew members etc. What this means to you our customers is racing advice that has been tested on the track first, and then they pass their findings on to the customer. From parts and tires to complete race cars, Smiley’s Racing Products and Hoosier Tire Southwest is ready to help you get to the checkered flag first. All aspects of their business can be seen at www.SmileysRacing.com. Click on catalog and put your information in and you will be sent a catalog free of charge.
Bacon/Marshall Motorsports would like to thank the following sponsors for all their help: Priority Aviation, Fatheadz Eyewear, Triple X Race Co., Tel-Star Technologies, KTA Kiser’s Truck and Auto (formerly Sham’s Garage), Heath Clips Lawn Care, Factory Kahne, FK Indy, Lightning Wings, CP Carrillo, FK Rod Ends, Valvoline, Keizer Wheels, Smiley’s Racing Products, Sweet Mfg., Butlerbuilt Seats, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Proglide Coatings, Diversified Machine Inc., Wilwood, Allstar Performance, Simpson, Octane Ink, PAC Springs, Schroeder, Schroth Racing, Smith Titanium, King Racing Products and Schoenfeld Headers.
Dooling/Hayward Racing would like to thank the following sponsors for all their help: Dooling Machine, B&H Contractors, Diversified Machine, Inc., Stanton Engines, Spike Chassis, Sander, Sweet Mfg., FK Indy, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Simpson, Butlerbuilt, Schroeder, Schoenfeld and Schroth Racing.
Photo:Brady swept the midget portion of the Kokomo Grand Prix last weekend (Rich Forman/USAC Photo)
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