First Time Is the Second Sunbelt Charm for Tim Russell

Young Driver Wins First Time Out at Bronson Motor Speedway

Sometimes drivers can be a little nervous when they go to a track to compete for the first time.  Luckily, Tim Russell isn’t one of those drivers.  It didn’t matter that his first lap at Bronson Motor Speedway on Saturday was the first lap of competition that he had ever seen at the track.  He drove like a track regular, and drove his No. 36 Rinnai Dodge all the way home to victory lane.

“It’s nice to come here for the first time and come away with a win,” said Russell. “That’s twice this season that we’ve done that – here and Inverness (Citrus County Speedway).  I’m really excited about the rest of the year.

Russell’s No. 36 was fast, but so was the competition.  He was able to qualify his No. 36 in the third spot despite some technical difficulties that occurred during qualifying.

“We had a good car all weekend.  We were really fast [Friday] night in practice.  We decided not to practice at all [on Saturday].  We went out late for a scuff session, just to put a few laps on our tires and got set up for the race.

“Qualifying was kind of a messed up deal for us.  We ended up third, but I think we were better than that.  The clock didn’t trip the first two times we went by, and the next time the clock didn’t trip either.  Luckily, they had it backed up on a stopwatch, so we ended up third.  The pole sitter drew a five, and we started the race third.”

“I saved about half of my stuff for the first half of the race.  I wanted to save the rear tires on the car; I wanted to keep the front end on it and make sure we had all the fenders on.  After the halfway point, I started just feeding it more, feeding it more and giving it what it could take.  I started moving my line around, trying to just coast through the corners faster.  We ended up picking up speed, were able to get by the guys in front and we came away with a good win.”

Going into the event, Russell was already the Sunbelt Super Late Model Series points leader, and the win increased his points lead.  And as most champions know, it’s never too early to start thinking about the points battle.

“I’m just glad to have a good team behind me and thank everyone at Rinnai for supporting us.  We’ll move on to the next race and focus on getting the next win at New Smyrna.  As long as you keep winning, the Championships will come.”

The next event for Tim Russell will be this Saturday, April 21st, when the Brighthouse Challenge Series heads to New Smyrna Speedway.

If you would like more information on Tim Russell and his future racing plans, contact Amy Hayes at (704) 788-2134 and check out TimRussellonline.com for all the latest Tim Russell racing news.