April 3rd, 2010

13 year old,  Andrew Murray set USAC history this day by becoming the youngest driver  in Full Focus history. USAC gave Andrew an excemption to run this class, the first in its history, and Andrew showed that that decision was  justified.

In the first  practice session, Andrew was the quickest car on the track . It was an  impressive run, going on the outside of several cars in both turns 1 and 3. Because of Andrews rookie status he had to have a yellow flag  hanging from the back of the car and start in last place every session.  In the heat race Andrew worked his way up to third before dropping back  to 4th. We had missed the car setup and he had very little side-bite and the car would drift wide on the exit of 2 and 4. This allowed the car  behind him in the closing laps to get under him and take 3rd place.

Before the main  event they ripped and watered the track. We thought that the track would have a lot of grip, however be the time we rolled out, the dirt was  getting dry again., and very rough in turns 1 and 2. Andrew moved up  quickly to 4th despite not having the best handling car. About 1/2 way  through the race Wally Pankratz, the oldest driver in the race at 64, a 7 time national champion, got underneath Andrew and push him back to 5th. Andrew fought back and attempted several times to take the position  back but just could not get it done as once again the car would slide  high on the exit of 4. Later we found that the left rear bar adjuster  had stripped out allowing the car to drop 3/4” taking away side-bite  once again. The leader back lapped several cars with Andrew staying with the pack. He finished the race in 5th position.

For the youngest  driver in USAC history, Andrew put on a tremendous show and we are all  looking forward to the next race that will be May 22nd, at Ventura.