9/10/2015
Cole Wood
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Grabbing a Win at Huset’s!
MWR/Bryan Clauson – Grabbing a Win at Huset’s!
(Bill W) September 10, 2015 – Bryan Clauson and the Matt Wood Racing #17w picked up a hard earned win Sunday night in MSTS competition at the Huset’s Speedway near Brandon, South Dakota. The win followed an up and down weekend with the FVP National Sprint League series at the Jackson Nationals and Huset’s. This weekend finds the NSL at the Nebraska Cup on Friday at Eagle Raceway, and at the Jerry Richert Memorial Saturday at Cedar Lake Speedway near New Richmond, Wisconsin.
In last Friday’s prelim at the Jackson Nationals in Minnesota, Bryan timed in 10th quick after coming out 29th in the order. “The track actually held up pretty well,” he says. “There were some drivers late that went better than us, but it gave us a shot at the redraw. We knew we were in a position in the heat that we had to go after the redraw. We weren’t going to fall into it. We were a little more aggressive and we were able to make the right moves to get to the front (from fourth).”
Starting eighth in the feature, he would checker seventh and lock himself into Saturday’s finale. “We were o.k.,” says Bryan. “We got to fifth there early on. We got bottled up on a restart there kind of in the middle of the race. That let (Danny) Lasoski and (Craig) Dollansky by. Those were positions that were hard to get back. We put ourselves in a bad spot trying to get to fourth and paid the price for it. We felt we had a good car to compete with on Saturday.”
Coming out 24th in the order on Saturday, he would time in eighth quick. “We were a little happier with our qualifying run on Saturday,” says Bryan. “We knew we needed to get as many points as we could, knowing we’d be starting straight up. We did all we could to move up and we were able to go fifth to third in the heat and that put us starting sixth in the feature.”
Bryan ran a strong finale and was challenging in the top five when he ran out of fuel. “It felt like we had a good car,” he says. “We ran with Craig there, and actually ran him down at one point in the race. We were probably running the highest in the corners the whole race and we were the first to run out.”
A fourteenth quick lap in time trials on Sunday at Huset’s put Bryan behind the 8-ball. “I kind of made a bad decision in qualifying and it buried us a little bit,” he says. “We were able to come back and win our heat (from outside row one).”
He would surge from 14th in the feature to finish sixth. “We were good in the feature,” says Bryan. “We were able to get up to sixth there before the track got rubber-down.”
In MSTS 360 action on Monday at Huset’s, Bryan would charge from seventh to third in the heat race. “We were able to get a good start,” he says. “We ran the top and got rolling and picked off three or four of those guys. The track was really good. It was probably as good as we’ve seen it all year at Huset’s.”
He would post third in the feature and work his way to the front. “There were two good lanes to run,” says Bryan. “We actually ran side by side a lot of the race with Dylan Peterson, and then again with Seth Bergman in traffic later on. It was a lot of fun. It was a really good race.”
The win was obviously welcome for the team. “It kind of felt like we’ve been knocking on the door since winning at Knoxville,” says Bryan. “To get over the hump was good. Hopefully, we can go get our first NSL win this weekend.”
Matt Wood Racing would like to thank: Elk Grove Ford, Quick Lane, Fuel Safe, Schoenfeld and Vortex Wings!
To follow the Matt Wood Racing’s progress online, visit www.ColeWoodRacing.com!
Follow Bryan Clauson online at www.BryanClauson.com!
Photo: Bryan in Victory Lane at Huset’s on Monday (Doug Johnson Photo)
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