Urquhart second in heat, sixth in main

Brad Urquhart finished second in his October 15 heat race at Barona Speedway before finishing sixth in that night’s Pure Stocks main event.

“It’s all about finding the right shock-spring combination to keep the car from pushing and bouncing on the turns,” Urquhart said. “In previous races my car has been pushing out badly, especially on turns three and four. So I experimented with lower inside tire pressure to see if that would help.”

The heat race was his first competitive experiment.

“The lower inside tire pressure turned out to be too low for the rough track conditions,” Urquhart said. “I wasn’t able to put any pressure on the leader but finished in second place, which surprised me considering I was battling my suspension handling.”

Urquhart began the heat race on the inside of the second row and was able to make a pass into second place, behind heat race winner Tommy Kerr, after a couple of laps.

“I got into second place and stayed in second the rest of the way,” he said. “That was as good as I could get out of the car with the suspension the way it was.”

Urquhart began the 20-lap main event on the inside of the third row. On turn four of the first lap Kerr’s car got loose in the high groove.

“He actually hit the wall, came off the wall straight down, and T-boned my car,” Urquhart said. “I was able to save it, but the collision moved my car enough sideways toward the infield that I lost four car positions.”

No yellow flag was thrown for that collision - or for anything else during the main event.

“When you run in the Pure Stock division after so many laps you kind of expect a caution flag,” Urquhart said. “It was a very quick race.”

The lack of yellow flags also meant the lack of restarts with cars lined up.

“I made up a couple of positions, but since there were no yellow flags I was encountering lapped cars and every time I guessed which line they were taking they were doing the opposite, which killed my momentum I had trying to catch the frontrunners,” Urquhart said. “It was the first time I’d ever been involved in a race with absolutely no caution flags. This favors the swifter, lighter Camaro-type cars which took the first four positions.”

Camaros provided second place to Jonnie Campos and fourth place to J.R. Trent. Winner Dave White drove a Crown Victoria, Robert Hughes obtained third place in a Caprice, and fifth-place Chuck Warren was in a Nova. Urquhart drives a 1970 Monte Carlo he purchased from Jim Ramsey prior to the start of the 2010 season.

The October 15 race was also the first with Fallbrook Auto Works joining other Urquhart sponsors Eagle Eye Fabrication, Fallbrook Fertilizer Feed and Farm Supply, Hideout Saloon, and Mastertech Automotive.

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