On any given night, a racecar driver is bound to find some back luck on the track. Tim Russell can sympathize with that fact after the Orange Blossom 100 at the Orlando SpeedWorld (FL). The hometown driver found trouble not once, but twice, in the same race. To make matters worse, both incidents, happened when he was going for the lead. In the end, Russell had to settle for an eighth-place finish.
“The officials kind of decided the race for us,” said Russell. “We had a really good car, we qualified second and missed the pole by a thousandth of a second. We started fourth and we got to second on the first lap of the race. About lap seven, I was battling for the lead with Sam Watts and I got underneath him and he came down across my nose and they sent us to the back for the contact.”
Russell then put on a clinic as he rocketed from the back of the pack to the front only to have it happen again.
“We went back to 17th and we ran all the way back to second in a 60-lap green flag run. We had a little contact with leader Wayne Anderson after a restart, I went to cross him over and we made contact and we both spun. I went to the back again and came back to finish eighth. I have to thank my guys for giving me such a good car. It’s disappointing, but we’ll get them next time.”
Russell looks to hit the ground running this weekend as the Bright House Challenge Series kicks off at New Smyrna Speedway (FL) on Saturday, March 28th. Russell, a two-time Bright House Series champion, will be looking to start the points battle off right with a win.
