Bryan Silas Enjoys Double Dose Of Top-10 Finishes

Topics:  Bryan Silas, Rattlesnake 150

Chris Knight
Fast Track Racing
April 19, 2010

JUSTIN, Texas (April 19, 2010) - - Bryan Silas didn’t have a stellar car for the Rattlesnake 150 at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) but the Stuart, Florida native wasn’t going to let an ill-handling racecar stop him from earning his second top-10 ARCA finish of the season Friday night.

Silas and the Fast Track Racing (FTR) team headed back to TMS hoping to rejuvenate their speedway success with crew chief Cal Boprey, but it was evident after practice that the team had some work to do.

In the lone practice session of the weekend, Silas posted the 17th fastest run overall with a time of 29.982 seconds at 180.108 miles per hour. Clearly Silas wasn’t thrilled with the overall effort – but confident that the problems could be corrected. “We had some throttle linkage issues,” he said. “It just didn’t seem like we were getting the power we needed, which played havoc with the handling of the car. We’ll inspect everything before qualifying and hope we can find a solution.”

Upon further review, the team did indeed find an issue with the throttle linkage. The correct repairs were made with the reassurance from the team to their driver that the No. 11 Rockingham Speedway-Palm Beach Grading Ford Fusion would be better.

Unfortunately, the team would be unable to gather a good reading of the car’s stability as Mother Nature wiped out Menards pole qualifying presented by Ansell Thursday afternoon setting the field by 2009 ARCA car owner points placing Silas seventh on the starting grid.

“To be honest, we really don’t know what we have,” offered Silas. “We made the repair to the throttle but we’re not sure if it will affect the general handling of the car. If it’s not to our liking, we’ll use the race to adjust the car and hope for the best.”

From the drop of the green flag, Silas’s car went in the wrong direction before holding steady in the 12th position. The 22-year old driver informed his team that his car was a handful but coaching from Boprey and owner, spotter Andy Hillenburg reassured their driver that they would make an adjustment during the first routine pit stop. A lap 13 melee involving the drivers fifth-eighth in the field allowed Silas to move back into the top-10.

When the caution waived on lap 39, Silas had slid back to the 14th position which offered the opportunity to duck down pit road where Boprey called for four tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment.

When green flag racing resumed, Silas quickly marched his from 21st restarting position and had landed in the 15th position when the caution waived at the half-way mark on lap 50. During the race’s final half, Silas continued holding steady in the top-15 before a late caution sent several competitors ahead of him to pit road moving the No. 11 into the 11th position.

Inside the final 10 laps, Silas had moved into the eighth position which is where he would cross the line after a green-white-checkered finish.

“We had to fight to finish eighth,” said Silas after the race. “We never gave up though. Cal did a good job making the calls and the car’s performance was the best at the end of the race when it mattered. We’ll take this finish in stride and hope for another good run at Talladega.”

Silas’s eighth place run allowed him to maintain fifth in the ARCA Racing Series championship standings tied with fellow competitor Tom Hessert III, 165 points behind points leader Steve Arpin.

From Texas, Silas boarded a plane and headed to New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway to compete in the USARacing Pro Cup Series Crane Cams 250 for Mark Gibson Racing (MGR). After qualifying 12th, Silas would be forced to start the event from the rear of the field after the team decided to change the gear to give Silas additional horsepower. The change paid off as he kept his nose clean in the No. 59 Rockingham Speedway-Palm Beach Grading Chevrolet to finish a solid ninth, claiming his second career top-10 effort in the USARacing Pro Cup Series. The next race for the duo will be at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 1.

Next up for the ARCA Racing Series presented by RE/MAX and Menards is a stop in Alabama at the Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway for the running of the Talladega ARCA 250. The 94-lap / 250 mile event is set for Friday, April 23 at 4:00 p.m. CST., with live coverage on SPEED.

For more on Bryan Silas please visit, BryanSilasRacing.com.
Visit Fast Track Racing on the web at, FastTrackRacing.com.

###