 |
|
|
 |
Joey Westhoff Teams With CAN DO Motorsports to Capture Podium Finish at 2007 SCORE Season Opener January 21, 2007 – Joey Westhoff teamed with CAN DO Motorsports for the entire 2007 SCORE Desert Series. Joey is set to split driving time with car owner, Chris Bowman, for the entire SCORE Desert Series while he will continue to race his newly built 1-2/1600 in the 2007 MORE series.
The first stop for CAN DO Motorsports was the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge. The 13th annual SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge brought nearly 250 racers from the United States, Japan, Mexico and Canada to the resort town of Laughlin, Nevada for the season opener. Located only 90 miles south of Las Vegas, the 13th annual Laughlin Desert Challenge was held at the Laughlin Events Park on the shores of the Colorado River this past weekend. The race is split into 17 different classes, each competing on the 6 mile course both Saturday and Sunday. Joey Westhoff and co-driver Johnny Brockway set out Friday afternoon in the #501 CAN DO Motorsports class 5 unlimited for their first look at the course. At race mile 3 Joey and Johnny were heading down a long straightaway raging at 70 mph when the center of the driver side BTR wheel broke out sending them end over end 6 times. Joey commented, " The car made a hard sudden left sending us through a soft burm and then the violent roll that filled the car with gallons of dirt. Our crew worked hard all afternoon to try and fix the car in order for us to get another lap of prerunning. Thanks to our crew, the California Skier crew, Parkhouse Motorsports and Roy from ProAm we got the car back together thinking we could make it out for one more lap. Unfortunately we were nine minutes too late and would have to go into Saturday's race only seeing half the course."
Despite the cold, CAN DO Motorsports headed out to the track at 5:30 in the morning to get ready for their 7:00am starting time. They had the advantage on Saturday of being the first car off the line and the first race of the day hoping to get clean air and keep it that way. Joey started side by side next to 2006 SCORE Class 5 Champion, George Seeley determined to get out in front from the very beginning. At the sight of the green flag Joey took off and never looked back. Raging through the five six mile laps Joey and Johnny took off and pulled away from the rest of the field, finishing 2 minutes and 22 seconds in front of George Seeley to capture first place in the first half of the Laughlin Desert Challenge.
With a 2 minute and 22 second lead for Sunday's race Chris Bowman had to run a steady pace in order to finish on out on top. Chris pulled away from George Seeley at the start line and raged forward the entire lap coming into the infield in the lead. At the start of his second lap the motor popped really loud and they lost all horsepower so Chris pulled off the course to try and figure things out. Johnny got out and looked at the motor but couldn't find anything wrong so he got back on the course and tried to make it to the hot pits. With 4 laps to go Chris made a decision that if the motor wasn't smoking he was going to go for it and at least try to finish on the podium. Unfortunately the pop of the motor had something to do with one of the cylinders blowing pressure out the side of the cylinder instead of through the valves, causing major loss in horsepower. Chris and Johnny made their way through the checkered flags 4th in class for the day, putting the #501 CAN DO Motorsports on the podium and taking home second place in the first SCORE race of the year.
Thanks goes out to all of CAN DO Motorsports crew members and everyone who helped put the car back together on Friday. We would also like to thank all of CAN DO Motorsports' sponsors, Walker Brothers Machinery Moving Inc., Mickey Thompson, Kartek/ ProAm, Fat, Lucas Oil, Parker Pumper, Signpros, K&N Filters, The Fab School, Lightforce, and Piloti. Be sure to check out our full photo gallery from this weekends racing action coming soon.
|
22 |
|