Tim Russell News

Tim Russell was supposed to get his 2008 racing season started in January during Speedfest 2008 at USA International Speedway in Lakeland. He finished fifth in his qualifying race here, but when the feature event got postponed a day, Russell had wedding plans and couldn’t make it to he track.

So in reality, Russell’s 2008 season is getting started now as the 42nd Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing, also known as “Florida Speedweeks” is getting underway at New Smyrna Speedway.

Russell is definitely making up for lost time too. During the first three nights of the event, he has finished first once and second twice. He currently leads the Super Late Model point standings by a 12-point margin over Jeff Choquette.

“We were good at Lakeland. Unfortunately, it got rained out and I got married the next day. I’m just glad to be here at Speedweeks. This is a good way to start things. We have Mike Garvey down here helping us. He’s a huge help.”

On Friday night, during the first race of the nine day event, Russell won the pole and the race in his #36 Rinnai Super Late Model.

“We had a good car in practice,” said Russell, after his victory. “Landis put up a pretty big number in qualifying, but we were able to get him. We had a good car in the race. The lapped traffic was horrible. I about wrecked two or three times around them. It was terrible.”

Over the next two nights, Russell finished second to Choquette. On Sunday, lapped traffic got in the way of the leaders and Choquette even got spun out. Race officials placed him back into the lead though and Russell wasn’t quite able to get by him before the race was over.

"All week in the driver's meeting they said if there is a caution both cars involved goes to the rear," said Russell. "But, no big deal. We will move on. We got another second and the car was good. I just hope when I am in the lead and I get taken out by a lapped car, I get put back in the lead."

After being rained out on Tuesday night, the Super Late Models will return to action on Wednesday night, February 13th at New Smyrna. There are four more nights of racing for the division before the conclusion of Speedweeks.