Phil Potts Suffers First DNF of the Season With Driveline Issues
Team Pro Late Model through turn three at Brighton Speedway. (Photo by Rod Henderson/www.canadianracer.com).
BRIGHTON, Ont. – July 24, 2017 – A top-five run turned into the first DNF of the season for Phil Potts and the Fowl Mood Race Team last Saturday night at Brighton Speedway. Potts had a top-five run going in the main event and the car was beginning to hit its stride.
“As is typical with the way my car is, at lap 23 it was heading for the moon,” Potts explained. “It was really coming in. We got a caution on lap 25 and I was running fifth-place. I was probably a top-three car, maybe a top-two because I was running the high side and a lot of guys were on the bottom.”
Potts didn’t get the chance to see how well his car stacked up, though. Instead, a broken transmission off the restart ended his night and took away what would have been seventh top-five finish in 10 starts this season.
“We re-fired on the restart, I hit the gas and it just went bang,” Potts described. “The yoke broke off the back of the transmission and the driveshaft came around and wacked the tin kit, wacked my leg. It didn’t hurt me and didn’t come through the tin kit, it just bent it in.”
To add insult to injury, point leader Charlie Sandercock was also suffering from mechanical problems, which presented Potts the opportunity to make-up some ground in the championship standings.
“We were going to have a decent points night and my goal was to finish in the top three,” Potts said. “This happened a couple of years ago when we were chasing Charlie. It seemed anytime he broke, we broke too.”
However, with two months left in the season, Potts isn’t discouraged. Instead, with the help of his team, he’ll continue to prepare for each week with the same method that led them to the 2016 track championship.
“We’re just happy the car was better than the week before,” Potts said. “We’re going to make some adjustments on it this week and we’ll make it better again. You can’t hold your head down. There’s nothing you can do about a part failure. It happens in NASCAR too. Multi-million dollar teams have part failures.”
Potts was quick to credit his crew for their resiliency on a tough night.
“I have to thank my crew because they never get down,” Potts said. “They know you can’t do anything about part failures.”
Potts has already ordered the replacement parts to get the Vanderlaan Building Products/Brighton Recycling No.29 back on the racetrack. He’ll do so when Brighton Speedway resumes competition on Saturday July 29. Race time is 7:00pm. For additional event information, visit
www.brightonspeedway.ca.
SEASON STATS
Phil Potts – 10 Starts: 1 Win, 6 Top-5s, 8 Top-10s
FOWL MOOD MEDIA
Website:
www.fowlmoodracing.caFacebook: facebook.com/FowlMoodRaceTeam
Twitter: @FowlMoodRacing.
The Fowl Mood Race Team’s 2017 season is supported by several dedicated corporate sponsors, including Vanderlaan Building Products, Brighton Recycling, Indewey Excavating, Bay Marine, Orange Motorsports, On Time Body and Graphic, Crow Design, Bill’s Johns, K-D Transmission, Image Factor Media and Clayton Johns Media.
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