Gerald Racing: Bark River 2 Report
8/26/09 Matt and his team and his team arrived in Bark River focused and hungry for a win. In Friday's practice session, Matt laid down the fastest laps by over one second per lap. The team went to work and prepped the car Friday night while crew chief Curt Gerald made a minor jetting adjustment to squeeze a little bit more out of the Gerald built VW engine. Gerald Racing Team also brought in a new crewmember for the rest of the season, Jeff Wagoner. Jeff has worked with Baldwin Racing and Art Schmitt’s factory Nissan team over the years. The team is really excited to bring Jeff's knowledge and experience to the program.
In Saturday's race, Matt got a horrible jump off the start, nearly getting stuck in a huge mud puddle. Matt crossed the finish line on the first lap, third from last place. Matt's spotter kept him cool and relaxed in the car as he put together an impressive march towards the front of the field, passing car after car. At the competition yellow Matt had cracked the top eight. Matt quickly passed a few cars and was into the top five. On the last lap Matt tried making a pass on Wesley Fhrese on the last corner. Fhrese tried every thing he could to keep the #195 behind him and parked on the hood of the #195 car in the last corner. Matt dropped back to 6th place after the attempted take out by Fhrese. Matt's fast aggressive driving style has taken notice the last few weekends by nearly everyone, including track announcers Scott Rehn and Wes Kain. Wes coined Matt as “G-Money” and the new nickname is slowly starting to take off throughout the pits.
In Sunday's race, Gerald got off to a better start and moved up into the top 10 coming out of turn one. Matt battled with several cars and, as usual, the #114 car of Bill Korton's was out of control and made contact with the #195. The contact resulted in knocking the front-end alignment out and caused a huge amount of negative camber to the front of the Amsoil/Lennox car. Matt went into the competition yellow in 5th place. At the restart it didn't take long for Matt to pass Virnig, Fhrese and Kliekamp. Matt soon set his sights on the 1st place driver, Greg Stingle. On the last lap Matt had a good run on Stingle and was blocked several times and couldn't make a pass stick. Matt safely settled for 2nd place, claiming his fifth, 2nd place finish this season. "We're really hungry for a win. Just haven’t been able to get good starts this year. We'll be working on that for Crandon," said Matt after another 2nd place finish.
Gerald Racing is now hard at work preparing for the World Championships in Crandon, WI. The team will be participating in the test sessions the weekend of August 29th and 30th and ready to run for the World Championship and points championship on September 5th and 6th! Right now, Gerald Racing sits 4th in the points standings, just 8 points out of the lead, with only two rounds remaining in the Traxxas TORC Sportsman series.
Gerald Racing Team LLC. Bark River 2 Video by 3DCSVIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re7cHgNpU0I
Gerald Racing Team would like to thank the following partners AMSOIL Lennox HVAC Goodyear tire and rubber company Ogio 3DCS Video Independent Off-Road Flying Dutchman Off-Road Spy Optics Kicker Audio
Contact Gerald Racing Team LLC.
Matt Gerald
920 858-6561
www.geraldracing.com
www.twitter.com/mgerald195