(Image: SCRAFAN.COM)
26 Promotions – Nipomo, CA – (May 2, 2018) – 2018 USAC West Coast Sprint Car Series Rookie of the Year contender, Austin Ervine, rebounded from early struggles to score his first top-ten finish with the series on Saturday night at Santa Maria Raceway.
“We went out for engine heat and came in to realize we had a small puncture in our radiator,” Ervine explained. “We instantly shut the car down and worked fast to fix the puncture in time for hot laps. In hot laps we were struggling with the engine not getting enough fuel, causing it to stumble. We fixed the problem before qualifying and were ready to go.”
The issues continued in qualifying and the heat race as Ervine struggled with the power steering making it difficult for him to maneuver through the corners.
Ervine qualified nineteenth and finished seventh in his heat, placing him on the inside of the tenth row for the start of the feature.
“By the time we got to the main, we had all out problems fixed,” he said. “One by one I was slowly picking cars off passing them on the outside just trying to move my way through the field.”
After a couple of cautions around the half-way point, Ervine found himself running in eleventh on a restart.
“The track quickly took rubber making it difficult to find a groove someone wasn’t running to pass them,” he said. “When all was said and done, we got by a few more cars to turn a bad night into a good one.”
Ervine’s nineteenth to eighth-place run earned him the nights Saldana Racing Products / Racing Optics Hard Charger Award
Ervin will be back in action this weekend with the AMSOIL USAC/CRA Sprint Car Series at Ventura Raceway.
Austin Ervine would like to thank Pritchett Metal Products, Valley Pacific Petroleum, Healthy Soil, Crop Production Services, Hernandez Mobile Golf Carts, and Gomez Brothers Wrought Iron for their continued support.
Results
Qualifying: 19th, 17.294
Heat: 7th -> 7th
Feature: 19th -> 8th
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AustinErvineRacing/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AustinJErvine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/austinjervine/
Article Credit: 26 Promotions