Mandy Chick captured a hard-fought second-place finish in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour championship battle last weekend at Winchester Speedway.
Chick kicked off the title weekend with intentions of a full day of racing on Friday. However, weather only allowed a 30-minute practice session. Qualifying and the 100-lap feature was rescheduled for Saturday.
"With the change in schedule and limited practice time we had, we had to quickly diagnose the car and figure out what we needed for qualifying and the feature," she said. "We weren't exactly where we wanted to be, but we knew where we needed to be and worked to get to that point."
Chick qualified 17th quickest on Saturday. After being collected in a racing incident on the opening lap, Chick made a pit stop. With the help of her team, and some good friends from KBR Development, VanDoorn Racing Development and TK Racing, Chick was able to recover from restarting 24th and she raced her way to a seventh-place finish in the feature. The hard work and multiple pit stops to repair crash damage, while also adjusting the car to make it better, earned Team Chick the PitBoxes.com Pit Crew of the Race Award. Because of her "never give up" attitude, Chick completed the season second in the championship standings.
"I wanted to win," she said. "But I'm so incredibly proud of the hard work from my team all season. I can't possibly express how much I appreciate the effort and dedication these guys have put into the team. It hasn't gone unnoticed and it wasn't just me finishing second in the championship; it was us. We've had trials and triumphs and it's been such a big learning season for us. We finished fourth in the championship last year and second this year. We're moving forward and in the right direction.
"We're still hungry for that championship though. We fell short to Dan Leeck, who is a two-time champion and a great late model driver. To be able to hold our own and race against the caliber of drivers like Leeck and Mason Keller is something in itself and I think we have another shot at the title in us next year."
QUICK RESULTS -
Oct. 12 - Winchester Speedway in Winchester, Ind. - Qualifying: 17; Feature: 7 (17).
SEASON STATS -
10 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 7 top 10s, 8 top 15s, 9 top 20s
-Inside Line Promotions-
