Tim Russell Opens Up Championship Chase With Win In Florida

The numbers don’t lie, and only one number mattered to Tim Russell this weekend and that was number one. Russell entered this year with aspirations of claiming the SUNBELT Super Late Model Series Championship in his No. 36 Rinnai Dodge. He got off to a pretty impressive start after he claimed the SUNBELT opener event at Citrus County Speedway (FL) on Saturday night, and it all went down with one lap to go.

“It’s pretty exciting to start this off with a win,” said Russell. “We qualified in the fifth position, but after the draw we started in the third position. That place is a one-lane racetrack. It is really hard to pass there. I think me and (Jeff) Scofield had the best two cars out there. We proved it all weekend long in practice and throughout the race it was always me or him that was the fastest car out there.”

Scofield led a majority of the race, but Russell wasn’t going to let that stop him from getting out front. He put himself in the prime position to be able to take the lead if the opportunity arose, and that opportunity did come his way.

“For a while we just rode around and saved our stuff. It was the first time that I had ever seen that track, so I was just biding my time, trying different lines and trying to make my car a little bit better as I learned the track.

“With 15 laps to go, we cranked up the pressure on Scofield and started looking toward the lead. I guess that he broke something with two laps to go. He slid up towards the wall going into turn one, and I was right there to take the perfect opportunity for the win. And we cruised to the checkers after that.”

This trip to Citrus County was the Florida native’s first trip, and Russell found out that a little bit of beginner’s luck never really hurt anybody.

“It was definitely cool being able to win there my first time at the track. I was settling in to finish second. The only way to pass someone there is basically to move them out of the way. I figured if I moved him out of the way then we both would have crashed in the next corner, because he would have moved me back. It isn’t worth going back to the rear to move someone out of the way.

“We just took what we got and turned up the pressure with 15 to go, and we were in the right place at the right time. If I hadn’t gotten right up on the wheel and on his back bumper, he probably still would have won even if he had broke, because we wouldn’t have been able to capitalize on his bad luck, but it worked out in our favor.”

This win just surpassed what Russell had done in only the first two weeks of the season. Since his racing season began on Saturday, February 10th, he has already made nine starts, has eight top-tens, four top-fives, and brought home one win. Pretty impressive for only two weeks in.

“I am really excited about what the 2007 season can bring,” added Russell. “I feel like we are a top-three car every race that we go to. I think that we can try and mirror our 2005 season. It is kind of how we started it off as well, just a couple of top-five finishes right off the bat, and then we just started piling up the wins. The whole Rinnai team is going to be working really hard to try and have that same success again this year.”

Russell’s next chance for victory will be on Saturday, March 10th, in the All American Challenge Series Super Late Model event at DeSoto Super Speedway (FL).

If you would like more information on Tim Russell and his future racing plans, contact Amy Hayes at (704) 455-2051 and check out TimRussellonline.com for all the latest Tim Russell racing news.