Back in 1941, Boston Red Sox legend Ted Williams ended the baseball season with a .406 batting average. It has been the only time in Major League Baseball over the past 80 seasons when a player ended the year batting over .400.
Having a high batting average in auto racing is even trickier though than either hitting or not hitting a ball. A full field of competitors needs to be beaten each time out while mechanical problems, wrecks and even simple mistakes need to be avoided. Even when some of the best short track drivers out there only manage to win three or four times a season out of a few dozen starts, it is still considered a successful season.
So posting a winning average over .400 in racing is pretty much unheard of. However, that is exactly what Florida Super Late Model driver Tim Russell is doing this season. On Saturday night, Russell won the Marion Edwards Memorial Super Late Model race at New Smyrna Speedway (FL). It was his ninth victory of the season in 22 starts, which now gives him a .409 average for the year.
Still, Russell is such a dedicated athlete that he believes his record could be even better.
“We’ve had a real good season,” said Russell. “There were a couple that got away from us that I think we could have won.”
While observers are gushing over Russell’s stats for this year, he’s not paying much attention to them yet. Russell is happy that he is on track to meet his goals for the season, but he’s not getting so caught up in the hype of a great season that he lets his guard down.
“We just keep on going and doing what we are doing,” said Russell. “At the end of the year, the numbers will all add up and we can look back at what we did. At the beginning of the year, I set out with the goal of winning 10 races in a year and we’re getting close to that now. Maybe I can even exceed that goal now.”
In fact, Russell would very much like to reach his goal by winning the November 20th Governor’s Cup at New Smyrna. It is the biggest SLM race of the season at the track and promises to attract entries from throughout Florida and as far away as North Carolina. Russell won the race last year and has been working all throughout the 2010 season to be well-prepared for this year’s event.
“We found some stuff at New Smyrna on Saturday that will help us at the Governor’s Cup,” said Russell. “We used those last two New Smyrna races as test sessions basically to prepare for the Governor’s Cup and we hit on a really good set-up this time out. The car was fast all race. It was a 50-lap race, but there were a lot of cautions, which don’t count, so it ended up being close to a 100-lap race for us and the car was just as quick near the end.”
Although Russell likes his chances for the Governor’s Cup already, he and his team are still hard at work to get even better before the race.
“We have a lot of momentum and we’re still working to get better. We’ll test a few more times before that race and try a few more things on the car to see if they work or not.”
For the Governor’s Cup, Russell will have the support of Noritz Tankless Water Heaters, Tempaco, Legend Valves and All Cabling Security and Fire. The support from those marketing partners helps to make a strong raceteam even stronger.
“It helps for sure,” said Russell. “Last year, we had Tempaco and Noritz on for their first Governor’s Cup and we won the race. This year, we are looking forward at trying to get everyone back to victory lane.”
For more information on Tim Russell, contact Mike Twist at Twist@Speed51.com or you can visit his website, timrussellonline.com
