HEAVNER TWELFTH AT THE ROCK
Written By: DLP Marketing Inc.
ROCKINGHAM, NC (May 14th, 2011) The USAR Pro Cup Series made their first of two visits to historical Rockingham Speedway Saturday for the Advantage Construction Equipment and Parts Carolina 200. And, with the largest field of cars and the most competitive group of drivers, the 150-lap main race was destined to be the best event thus far in 2011.
Ryan Heavner and the Lofton Motorsports Team had high hopes entering the Carolina 200. In fact, the 15-year old competitor from Lincolnton, North Carolina lists Rockingham as his favorite track. Heavner finished seventh at Rockingham in the USAR event last season and was coming off his first top ten finish (8th) of the 2011 season at Dillon in the previous race.
The two-day event at The Rock began with two practice sessions and qualifying on Friday, May 13th. Heavner and the Bob Schacht-led team worked hard during practice to get the best race setup on the car. In qualifying, Heavner toured the 1.012-mile track in 25.055 seconds to earn the 17th-starting position in the 26 car field.
In the pre race meeting, Crew Chief Bob Schacht gave Heavner an interesting piece of advice for the 150-lap race.
“Ryan, your best friends today are your front fenders and your tires,” Schacht said. “Take care of both of them.” Wise advice from a veteran of many races at Rockingham. The fenders are important because of the aerodynamics, and tires because The Rock has a reputation of being very tough on tires. The driver who manages his tires well will certainly have an advantage at the end of the race.
During the early laps, Heavner wanted to maintain a competitive race pace and take care of his equipment. When the first caution waved on lap 12, Heavner had gained four positions. However, Heavner’s Chevrolet got really loose during the next forty laps. When caution waved on lap 64, Heavner came to pit road where the crew made a chassis adjustment and refueled. He would come back to pit road twice for right, then left side tires. Heavner would restart 11th on lap 72.
On lap 81, Schacht told Heavner on the radio that he was turning laps faster than the leader. When caution waved on lap 88, some of the leaders came to pit road, but Schacht told Heavner to stay on the track. He would restart fourth on lap 96 and move into third one lap later. However, by lap 100, the handling issue resurfaced and Heavner fell to tenth in the next fifteen laps.
“I could race with anyone in the corners, but they’d get me back on the straightaways,” Heavner commented. “The changes that my crew made really helped the car, but I just had no speed on the straightaways.”
Heavner made his final pit stop of the afternoon on lap 128 for four “sticker” tires. Even with new tires, Heavner could not overcome the speed issue and took the checkered flag in twelfth position.
“I really appreciate the hard work by the team all weekend,” Heavner added. “Bob (Schacht) made great calls on adjustments during the race, but no straightaway speed really hurt in the long run. I really like Rockingham, and I’m already looking forward to coming back here in November.” The USAR Pro Cup Series will return to Rockingham for their season finale on November 5th.
After four races on the USAR Pro Cup schedule, Heavner is tenth in the overall point standings. However, he is only six points out of seventh as the point race remains very close. The next race on the schedule will be May 28th at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia.
To learn more about sponsorship opportunities with Ryan Heavner and Matt Lofton Motorsports, please visit the teams contact page. They would be happy to go in to detail with you about how motorsports marketing can help to grow your business.
Ryan Heavner would like to thank all of the team partners for the 2010 racing season. These include; Strutmasters.com, Lawing Marble, DLP Marketing, LJ DeZigns, W.D. Enterprises and WaltersWebDesign.com.
For information about Ryan Heavner, visit www.RyanHeavner.com