Mandy Chick battled her way to a sixth-place finish last Saturday during a JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour event at Jennerstown Speedway.
"Jennerstown was a new track for me and for a lot of guys on the tour, but luckily my chassis builder gave me a great setup and we had an awesome notebook to go off of because a fellow VanDoorn driver races there often, so we kind of knew what we were looking at going into the weekend," Chick said.
Chick unloaded for practice on Friday and immediately found speed, being within the top five quickest competitors around asphalt oval. On Saturday Chick qualified 16th for the 100-lap feature.
"All of the VanDoorn cars unloaded fantastic and we knew we had a good car for the feature," she said. "We gave up a little in qualifying and ended up 16th, but with the speed we were carrying through practice we knew we could make up ground within 100 laps."
Chick quickly moved through the field and broke into the top 10 within the first 10 laps. Within 20 laps she was battling for sixth and knocking on the door of the top five.
"We had a perfect car for short runs," she said. "It was the longer runs where we had a little bit of an issue and fell off on the competitive aspect."
Chick was as high as fourth in the field on a short run, but ultimately settled for a sixth-place finish after a long green-flag run. After advancing 10 positions, Chick also earned the Hoosier Hard Charger Award.
"Overall it was a good race for us," she said. "The long runs without cautions and tire wear because of a weight inequity are what hurt us the most. In fact, a lot of the competitors with built motors weren't able to be as competitive as they would have liked to be. CRA has implemented a weight break rule for competitors that run a 604 crate motor instead of a built motor. We had been required to be 150 pounds heavier than the Stock 604 crate. They released a tech bulletin with a change for Nashville, which ends up being a 125-pound weight difference. Progress, but it does not eliminate enough of the inequality of competition within the series. We're working with CRA to do everything that we can to address the clear advantage the 604 crate has with that big of a weight break. My team is volunteering anyway we can, even if it means pulling and dynoing our motors, to work directly with the series to find a solution. RJ and Eddie are listening to us and at the end of the day we just want to be able to competitively battle for a points championship."
Chick's next JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour race will be at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tenn., on July 17-18. She currently sits second in the series championship standings.
"I'm excited to finally race in Nashville," she said. "I've been there for plenty of races; just haven't raced. I have a good idea of what we're looking at. VanDoorn Racing Development cars also have raced there and have been competitive so we should have a good notebook and setup going into the weekend."
QUICK RESULTS -
July 4 - Jennerstown Speedway in Jennerstown, Pa. - Qualifying: 16; Feature: 6 (16).
SEASON STATS -
3 races, 0 wins, 0 top five, 3 top 10s, 3 top 15s, 3 top 20s
UP NEXT -
July 18 at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tenn., with the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour
