Brooktown's Urquhart and Hill take third at Perris

The Brooktown Racing team of Scott Urquhart and Dave Hill had their best ever showing at the Perris Auto Speedway after finishing third in the Cruiser main event July 30.

“It was great. We had three weeks of didn’t even make it to the main event, and finally we got it started and got to race it,” Hill said.

Mechanical problems had kept them from finishing most of this season’s main events. “It seems the car runs fine in Fallbrook, we get up there and something happens,” Urquhart said. “It’s just been real frustrating.”

The July 30 preparations saw the Thunderbird do better than the truck hauling it to the track. “As we were coming up to the track it overheated,” Hill said. “We didn’t even make it to the pill pick.”

After the delay by the intersection of Interstate 15 and Scott Road, the truck, car and drivers reached the track. “Hot laps were fine,” Urquhart said.

Missing the pill pick turned out to be irrelevant, as the car had its nightly problems. “The heat race the car wouldn’t start,” Hill said. “We thought it was going to be another week of disaster.”

A bad ground wire keeps a car from starting, but it’s a minor problem to fix. The Brooktown Racing team of Jim Ramsey and Mike McGlone had a bigger problem in the heat race. “We had a major accident,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey and McGlone broadsided another car, which resulted in damage to their own car. The radiator was pushed into the motor, and they also had electrical problems along with the need to straighten out parts of the car and replace others to make it run. “I think people were shocked we came out in the main after the heat race accident,” Ramsey said.

The Brooktown Racing team of Kevin Martin and Bob Hunsaker finished fourth in their heat race. They started the main event on the inside of the third row. “By turn three we were in second,” Martin said.

Part of that was due to avoiding a multi-car incident. “We just kind of drove around it all,” Martin said.

Urquhart and Hill, who began the main event on the outside of the second row, spun out early. “They really soaked the middle of one corner,” Urquhart said of the track conditions.

Two cars passed them during the spinout. “We were able to get back past them later on,” Urquhart said.

Before a flat tire caused Ramsey and McGlone to be pushed off the track, the racing included a three-wide maneuver involving both Brooktown Racing Thunderbirds (Martin and Hunsaker drive a Chevrolet station wagon). “We kind of got into each other a little bit on the corner,” Urquhart said.

Urquhart and Hill passed Ramsey and McGlone. “I thought it was a pretty clean pass, as clean as I could make it,” Urquhart said.

Another three-wide maneuver turned out to be the undoing of Martin and Hunsaker. “I ended up spinning it,” Martin said.

Martin and Hunsaker still finished sixth. “We did real well at first,” Martin said.

Urquhart and Hill moved into third on the tenth lap of the 12-lap race after passing two cars battling in a corner. “Just barely got around them,” Urquhart said.

The Thunderbird remained in third through the checkered flag. “The #2 car was catching us on the back straightaway, but we got to the finish line first,” Hill said.

The #69 car of Tyson Talkington and Dillon Lewis won the race, but Hill was encouraged with the Thunderbird’s pace compared to the #69 car’s pace. “We were keeping up with the 69 car,” Hill said.

“I was able to keep up with them on the straightaway at least,” Urquhart said.

“It was just a real good run,” Urquhart said. “It was a fun race.”

Urquhart controls the steering wheel and brake pedal in the two-driver car while Hill operates the gas pedal. “Dave’s done a masterful job. I couldn’t have done a better job on the gas,” Urquhart said.

Urquhart and Hill had never previously finished a main event in the top five. “It was just a lot of hard work. A lot of hard work getting that car ready,” Hill said.

“It’s quite a relief, really,” Urquhart said of the team’s first top five finish. “It’s been a long time coming.”