FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Saturday, September 27, 2003 – Placerville Speedway, Placerville, CA (Civil War Series) The last three times out for the Brad Furr race team prior to this race were not that good. It is not that the team did not run good. In fact Brad was running a strong 4th during the Harvest Classic when he lost an engine in the feature and he qualified for the Gold Cup main event in Chico when the third engine in as many nights out blew up. Probably the most surprising was the first of the three straight blown engines because it was a brand new 360 CID Don Ott engine that completely exploded in less than four laps during the warm-up period the very first time out.

All the bad luck was to change in Placerville with the team opting for the less than two hour drive to Placerville over the three hours plus drive to Hanford. There were 57 cars registered for the Civil War Series event and Brad drew an early number, qualifying in the seventh slot when the track was still a bit greasy. Nevertheless, he still managed an eighth overall at the end of the qualifying. That meant that he would have to start 5th in his heat and by the time the heat races started the track had “come in” and was exceptionally fast, making it difficult to pass. Brad still managed a 3rd (with some help of a first lap crash in which he was not involved), qualifying him for the night’s main event (the first four from the heats automatically transferred to the main event). An eight inversion pill was drawn and, given that three cars that qualified better did not transfer from the heats to the main, he was to start 4th in the night’s main event.

Brad did not get an exceptionally good start and Mike set the car up for the end of the race rather than the beginning and, as a result, Brad found himself running sixth early on in the race. However, as the track got drier and drier, Brad got better and better and began picking off the cars ahead of him one by one. Brad was one of only two really consistently running the top of the track. The track had built a big cushion and, although it was very tricky running it, it was the fastest way around.

The event was 30 laps total and by lap 22 Brad had found the way to the front and held on the win by a straightaway. A good win for the team and one providing a little momentum headed into the Pacific Nationals next week and hopefully the Trophy Cup three weeks out.

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