BNS Series Rookie John Salemi has a solid run at Loudon
Loudon, NH (July 16th, 2005)
Qualifying for the New England 125 was rained out and the field was setup by current points. The teams were also given a brief practice session after the track was dried on Thursday evening. "We made a couple of adjustments in the final practice session, but it turns out that we went a little too far and ended up being tight for Friday’s race. We still have a lot to learn with our setups, but we are making a lot of progress."
Salemi took the green flag from 19th position on Friday and was immediately tight from the start. "It pushed up the track in the middle of the turns throughout the race. I just did my best to stay out of trouble and get through the 125 laps." Salemi did just that, and was running in 10th place during the first cycle of pit stops. "We just stayed out in order to make it into our fuel window, we only wanted to stop once."
John brought the car to the attention of the crew on lap 84 for a full tank of fuel and right side tires. "My crew chief Gary Faw called for a minor wedge adjustment to try to free me up a little, but we just didn’t go far enough with it."
On the restart, it was still tough for John to hold the car on the bottom of the track. ‘We had people diving into the turns below us the entire race. Given the handling situation that we had, I pretty happy with our finish. This is still a learning curve for our entire team. We improved one position from last September’s Loudon race, so we can build on that"
Even more importantly, Salemi was able to gain a lot of ground in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year Standings. "Most of the other full-time rookie teams had trouble over the course of the race, so from that standpoint it was an excellent day of us. It’s a long way from being over, but today’s race definitely helped in the rookie points.
The NASCAR Busch North Series returns to action this weekend in Waterford, CT for the Town Fair Tire 150 on Saturday night. Sponsorship opportunities are still available on the #63 Pontiac Grand Prix. For more information please visit the team website @ http://www.johnsalemiracing.com or email marketing@johnsalemiracing.com
NASCAR Busch North Series Rookie of the Year Contender John Salemi drove an ill-handling #63 Delcorp Grand Prix to a 22nd place finish in the New England 125 at the New Hampshire International Speedway on Friday afternoon. After starting the race mid-pack, Salemi fought a tight race car for most of the day and brought home the car in a respectable 22nd position.
"We were actually extremely loose all day on Thursday during the practice runs. In the opening laps of practice, I quickly figured out that we needed to make a gear change. We lost some valuable practice time making the change, and then the weather moved in."
