Grant & Zach will leave Charlotte today for Tuesday’s test session at Talladega SuperSpeedway. With just a few weeks remaining before the April 16th Texas Speedway race, followed one week later by the Talladega race, Grant must put the speedway car in race trim for the big race at the world’s fastest speedway. The speedway car was last run at Daytona and all pre-race work must be accomplished this week, before Grant turns his attention to the intermediate track car which will be run at Texas. 

Grant has been shuttling race cars between the shop and the Roush Yates chassis dyno, as engine builder Nick Ramey has been tuning the Talladega and Texas motors for the high speed tracks in Texas & Alabama. “It has been a long time since we have been on the big tracks and I am looking forward to the next few weeks which will be hectic but exciting.” 

Tuesday’s test session will be accessible through the internet where lap times will be displayed live. Visitors who wish to get “up close and personal” in the garage area during testing will be welcome during the only time when fans can, for free, walk through the ARCA garage and witness race car preparation and testing. To view the live lap timing, visit www.Arcaracing.com .

Touring the country for 2 weeks in an 18 wheeler is a young person’s job.  That  trip which began in Charlotte will end when Grant & Zach return to North Carolina later this week. While the Opp Rattler 250 did not go as planned, yesterday’s ARCA open test at Texas Speedway was a success. Grant turned only 39 laps on the fast 1 1/2 mile speedway, but he quickly dialed in the BeasleyAllen.com car and made both mock qualifying and race runs.
 
For most of the day, Grant was 3rd of 21 competitors on the speed charts, before finishing 7th when the test ended last evening. The reason that he slipped in the standings is that several cars made late, mock qualifying runs with new tires after the track cooled late in the day. Grant believes that if he had put on another set of sticker tires just before the end of practice, he would have been in the top 2 or 3 places. While a lot of the highly financed teams do some crazy things to “win” practice, Grant knows that no trophy or check is given for being first in testing.  When the ARCA racers return to the Dallas/Ft. Worth Facility for the April 16th race, weather and track conditions will likely be different from now. However, Grant and the crew believe they have a good baseline setup to use when they unload for the nationally televised race.
 

Grant & Zach, when they return to North Carolina, have many items on the checklist to accomplish. The first order of business will be to prepare the speedway car for testing at Talladega week after next. Another car is being built and the intermediate car tested at Texas must be measured, weighed and receive maintenance, so it will be ready for the Texas Speedway race.
 
A listing of times for yesterday’s ARCA test can be found at www.arcaracing.com.

Grant & Zach rolled into the Dallas/Ft. Worth area Monday night, Tom Bear flew in from Charlotte and Howard Bixman arrived from Michigan for today’s ARCA test at Texas Speedway. Grant will drive on the high speed track for the first time today, which is the only practice the team will have before the April 16th race there.

The crew will be hustling all day, trying as many set up options as they can, while Grant learns the fastest way around the big track.

Today’s ARCA test session will include electronic timing with live access through www.Arcaracing.com . You can log into the website to follow the lap times of the 20+ racers who are practicing all day at Texas Speedway.

Grant qualified the BeasleyAllen.com Super Late Model 3rd of 21 racers Friday night, posting a lap only 2/100 of a second behind pole winner Augie Grill. That great qualifying run did not translate into a top race finish Sunday, as Grant had to settle for a 9th place finish in the 250 lap race won by Jeff Fultz who started on the outside pole. 

In a race which saw many of the favorites fall by the wayside, Grill, Eddie Mercer and Brian Ickler (driving a Kyle Busch owned and prepared car) all suffered mechanical failures, causing them to park before the race was completed. 

After the green flag was dropped, Grant went backwards through the field, eventually falling 2 laps down before the 1st caution flag flew at lap 79. “We blistered the right rear tire and I could barely drive the car until we finally caught a yellow flag where we changed that one tire.” When Grant re-entered the race in the last position, he quickly advanced through the field, passing every car except the 1st & 2nd place racers. He was chasing those leaders down when another caution was called at lap 125. If that caution had not occurred, he would surely have recovered one lap, and would have received the “lucky dog” position which would have put him at the tail end of the lead lap. However, the lap 125 caution came at a bad time for the BeasleyAllen.com team. 

The rest of the race saw Grant advance, but not able to get back on the lead lap. An incident going into turn 3, late in the race, ended up with Grant wrecking with the #71 of Johnny Brazier. That wreck caused only cosmetic damage to the BeasleyAllen.com car, but knocked the #71 out of the race. Grant did not win the “most popular driver” award at Opp Sunday. 

Later this week, photos from Sunday’s race will be included in newsletters. For Grant & Zach, a good night’s sleep Sunday will be followed by a day long trip to Dallas Monday, for Tuesday’s ARCA testing at Texas Speedway. Live timing of practice will be available at www.acaracing.com .

Grant, Zach & the Bragg Racing crew traveled to South Alabama Speedway at Opp Thursday. They will spend the weekend testing, qualifying and racing on the 3/8 mile “bull ring” asphalt oval track. Grant will shake down, then practice and adjust the BeasleyAllen.com Super Late Model race car which has not been run since December’s Snowball Derby when Grant finished 6th in an ill handling car. Grant and the Bragg crew have worked hard setting up the car during the past week. The Super Late Model teams, which have traveled from throughout the southeast, will spend Friday testing and tuning their cars, in preparation for Saturday evening qualifying.

Much attention has been paid to the “Big Three” competitors who are racing in the 37th Annual Ratterl race. Augie Grill from Birmingham, Georgia’s Bubba Pollard and 18 year old Johanna Long from Pensacola combined for 24 late model wins last year. They are the favorites to win Sunday’s 250 lap race. Grant, Jeff Fultz, Eddie Mercer and others will try to finish the grueling race in 1st place, where a lot of luck is needed to avoid the crashes which always occur at Opp. 

In addition to the Rattler 250 which begins Sunday at 2 pm, there will be a full weekend of racing by various classes of race cars. For a complete schedule of the entire race weekend, as well as a detailed timeline for Sunday’s events, visit www.SouthAlabamaSpeedway.com. For up to date details, and to listen live on internet radio to the Rattler race, visit www.Speed51.com.