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Brett Moffitt Competes for the Last Time as a Fifteen Year Old Rookie By: Chuck Stowe GRIMES, Iowa (August 7, 2008) – Brett Moffitt, the fifteen year old asphalt rookie from Grimes, Iowa, competed last Tuesday night with the stars of the ASA Midwest Tour during the SCAG Power Equipment Dixieland 150 held at the Wisconsin International Raceway. It was Moffitt’s second occasion in just the past few weeks to compete against super late model drivers like Chris Wimmer, Steve Carlson, and NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader, Kyle Busch. However it will be the last time Moffitt will compete as a fifteen year old, as on Thursday, the talented first year asphalt driver will, in his words, “finally turn sixteen”. Moffitt and the 5K Motorsports team used last Thursday afternoon and the Thursday night weekly race event at Wisconsin International Raceway as a practice session in preparation for the ASA Midwest Tour SCAG Power Equipment Dixieland 150, held last Tuesday night, August 5th. The preparation paid off, as the 5K Motorsports team unloaded a car for the Tuesday night special that was ready to race right out of the box. Moffitt’s practice times looked great, and the rookie posted the eighth quickest time in his first attempt to qualify for an ASA Midwest Tour super late model event. Thirty-eight cars were on hand, with twenty cars qualifying on time and four series regulars using provisional starting positions to fill the twenty-four car field. With the field set, the top ten qualifiers would redraw for starting positions in the first five rows. Moffitt would draw the three, putting him on the inside of row two for the start of the race. At the start, Moffitt would fade back to ninth place. When asked later about the start, Moffitt would explain, “In this series, we are racing on a radial tire. When we qualify, the tire pressures are set to race pressures, but at the start of the race, the pressures are off for a few laps”. By lap fifty-eight, the car had came to Moffitt, and he had worked his way back into seventh, after passing Kyle Busch, who had posted the fastest qualifying time, but who would eventually fall out of the race on lap ninety-two, finishing twenty-fourth due to handling problems. On lap 101, the leaders caught up with lap cars, and while the lap cars battled to stay on the lead lap, a crash occurred. Moffitt was able to avoid contact, but in doing so, he spun, ending up off the racing surface on the track apron. Relegated to rear of the field for the restart, for the next thirty laps Moffitt would slowly work his way back toward the front. On lap 131, Moffitt’s night would come to an end, as Moffitt would pull to the pits with a very ill-handling car. An inspection of the car would find a broken sway bar mount, probably caused when the car bottomed out during Moffitt’s lap 101 spin and transition from racing surface to track apron. For the young Moffitt, it was another night of paying your racing dues; another night where the end results really do not reflect the awesome preparation by the 5K Motorsports crew and the seasoned driving style being developed by Brett Moffitt. Thursday, on his sixteenth birthday, Moffitt and the 5K Motorsports team will make the trip to Bristol, Tennessee, for the ASA Late Model Challenge Series Thompson Metals 200. Practice will begin on Friday, August 8th, with additional practice, qualifying, and the 200 lap event taking place on Saturday, August 9th. Moffitt will make his first appearance on the .533 mile, variable banked coliseum of motorsports facilities simply known as Bristol. This event will mark Moffitt’s second Challenge Series appearance and his first trip the place also known as “Thunder Valley”. This weekend’s event will be the second trip for the ASALMS to Bristol; however, it will be the first time for the race to be held under the lights. Although last year's action took place under the Tennessee sun, a Bristol track record still managed to fall. The ASA Late Model Challenge Series cars have the distinction of being the fastest vehicles to tackle Bristol's thirty degree banking. Jacob Goede claimed the pole last season, completing a lap in 15.364 seconds. For comparison, Kasey Kahne won the pole for last season's Sharpie 500 with a lap of 16.016 seconds. A review of pre-entered drivers finds USAC star and part time NASCAR development driver, Bobby East, Goede, Moffitt’s teammate Kris Stump, and Sean Murphy among the field of America’s most talented short track competitors. Moffitt and the 5K Motorsports team will be looking to make a mark in ASALMS’s elite “Challenge Series”, as this weekend’s event will provide driver and crew with more valuable experience competing on the radial tire verses the bias tread tires used in ASA Late Model North Series competition. In the ASA Late Model North Series, Moffitt finds himself as the leading “Rookie of the Year” contender, with a firm hold on third place in the overall North Series points, positioned in front of 2007 ASALMS North Champion, Trent Snyder, by 100 points, just behind second place Jesse Saunders by 85 points, and only 116 points behind current North division points leader, Eddie Hoffman. To follow Moffitt’s racing career and accomplishments log on to his web site at: www.brettmoffitt.com and for more information about the 5K Motorsports team log on at: www.5kmotorsports.com |