By: Northern Provincial Pipelines Late Model Series
October 30 2016
BC'S Midgley Grabs 13th In Arizona
Tucson, Arizona - Darrell Midgley had the second fastest car on the track Saturday night in the 100 lap Super Late Model Feature at Tucson Speedway. Unfortunately for the Sidney, British Columbia driver those fast laps came early in the race. Thanks to severe tire wear, his lap times were off nearly two seconds by the end of the race.
When the checkered flag flew, Midgley finished 13th. "We were running third early in the race," exclaims the driver of the Northern Provincial Pipelines/Alien Chassis #81 Dodge, "the yellow flag came out on lap 27. When we went back to green it kind of went backwards from there." With Team NPP's primary car blowing an engine at last weekend's race in Las Vegas, Midgley was running the back-up car in Tucson, Arizona.
"This is the first time we've ever run this car. I can tell you we are really happy with it." Midgley qualified 6th out of 20 cars earlier in the evening. "We know that tire wear is a problem here. Back in February we burned the right front (tire) off at the Chilly Willy race."
Set-up adjustments were made by the team so as not to have a repeat scenario.
"It was the right rear tire we burned off this time." At the halfway point of the Feature, Midgley was running 7th. "We've got the speed but now we've got to make it last for the entire race and be there at the end." With twenty-five laps to go Midgley was running 12th and holding off a hard charging Joe Paladenic. On lap 90, Midgley relinquished 12th to the Sierra Vista, Arizona driver.
"We just burned off the right rear tire. It's very frustrating. But we are getting there." Midgley wasn't the only driver to have tire wear issues. The driver of fastest car on the track suffered a similar fate. Don Zoll Jr. from Surprise, Arizona ended up 16th. The winner of Saturday nights 100 Lap Feature was Davenport, Iowa's Ron Norman. Next race action for Darrell Midgley and Team NPP is the end of November.
"We've got about a month till our next race so we are going to go to work on the primary car." The Turkey Shoot 125 runs Saturday, November 26th also at Tucson Speedway.