Blaney Overcomes Incident Early and Loss of Power Steering for 3rd in CRA at GMP

After starting 18th, Ryan Blaney Wheeled his way to 3rd in Easy Racers 100

To say that Ryan Blaney overcame a few obstacles to secure a podium finish in Saturday night’s CRA Super Series Southern Six Pack Easy Racers 100 at Gresham Motorsports Park would be an understatement. 

Blaney started deep in the field in the 18th position, made contact early in the event and then lost power steering at one of the fastest half-mile tracks in the South and still managed to make his way back up to the third spot when the checkers flew.

“We got in a little wreck around lap three,” said Blaney.  “And that caved the nose in a little bit.  I think after that we lost power steering.  It was a handful all night.  The car was loose, and having no power steering with a loose racecar just makes it worse.  But we can’t be too mad coming home with a third. 

“The car was fast and we could run with the leaders.  We got to seventh and Augie (Grill) wrecked and a couple others did too.  We got to restart fourth late in the race and we snuck by (Daniel) Hemric there at the end, so it’s not too bad of a run.”

Sept 19, 2011

In a race that saw three restarts with just three laps to go, Blaney had many opportunities to strategize his moves in the closing laps.

“We had a couple restarts there at the end where we were fourth,” explained Blaney.  “I got to the outside of TJ (Reaid) on the first restart, then he kind of came up on us.  I was telling the guys that if he could’ve stayed on the inside of (Bubba) Pollard in one and two, I thought I could jump to the outside.  But, it never really works out the way you think it’s going to.  It was really a fun race here tonight though, and I can’t wait to come back.”

Blaney’s next Super Late Model show will be the CRA Super Series event at Lucas Oil Raceway (IN) on Sunday, October 2nd.

Ryan Blaney battled hard for podium finish at Gresham Motorsports Park.  (Late Model Digest Photo)