Bouncing back from a tough first night of the Turnpike Challenge in Oklahoma City, OK that saw him fail to make the feature event, Tanner Carrick came back poised on Saturday night and recorded an 11th place finish to close out a hard fought weekend.
“It definitely did not go like I had hoped, but I am glad we were able to race into the feature on Saturday night,” Tanner Carrick said.
Following Thursday practice, Carrick lined the CVC/TRD/Spike Chassis backed No. 71k entry up in fourth row of his heat race, needing a good run to accrue passing points.
Able to work his way up to a sixth place finish on an extremely locked down racing surface, the 2017 USAC National Midget Series Rookie of the Year would find himself buried in a semi as he took the green flag from the 13th starting position.
On a racy I44 Speedway, the Lincoln, CA driver got his elbows up as he looked to make a run to keep his night going. With his elbows up, Carrick would fight into a transfer spot, but hard nosed racing would see him lose some momentum in the closing laps and get shuffled back to end his night with a sixth place finish in the semi.
Quickly flushing a tough night out of his memory bank, Carrick came back to work on Saturday night and saw his night start off by lining up on the outside front row of his heat race.
I-44 was way more passing friendly on this night and despite winning his heat race, points would put the 16-year-old pilot in the fifth row for the feature event.
Aboard a potent Keith Kunz Motorsports prepared entry, Carrick would fight forward in the race’s opening stages as he would get up as high as the fifth spot on the racy track.
Battling back and forth, traffic would force him to check up and he would lose several spots. Picking his momentum back up, Carrick would go on to close his weekend out with an 11th place finish.
“Our results really don’t show how good we were,” Carrick said. “A couple of little things cost us some positions, but I thought we had a good car. I’m not pumped with my results, but am looking forward to getting back to it in a couple of weeks. I want to thank all the KKM guys for all of their hard work.”
Tanner Carrick and the Keith Kunz Motorsports team would like to thank CVC, TRD, Spike Chassis, Cemex, Arai, and Shell Shock for their support.
2018 BY THE NUMBERS- Starts-3, Wins-0, Top 5’s-0, Top 10’s-0
ON TAP: Carrick will shift gears this weekend as he will return to California to pilot the Tanner Carrick Racing Sprint Car on Friday night in Chico, CA and on Saturday night in Placerville, CA.
PC- Teejay Crawford