 Event: Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, Rounds 6 Location: Wild West Motorsports Park — Sparks, Nevada Date: Saturday, July 21, 2018 Weather: Hot, Sunny, Thunderstorms and Rain Finish: R6 qualified 3rd— 4th overall The crew arrived at the Wild West Motorsports Park in Sparks, Nevada on Thursday afternoon under a blazing hot sun, which had pushed the mercury level to 100 degrees. All the teams were settling into their normal routine, laying out the usual nomad camp of off-road racing, and vendors were busy setting up trackside. Several industry mainstays were there to share their expertise with racers and the fans with Trevor's sponsors among them, including The Fab School, Lucas Oil and Mickey Thompson Tires. Friday dawned with a forecast for a full sun, which threatened to send temperatures soaring into the high 90’s. Trevor and Clint did the early track walkover checking for soil consistency and changes— and decided two possibilities for tire cut. They opted to run the first two practices with the meaner of these two treads, which resulted in two 4th place finishes in his first 2 rounds of practice. They converted to a less aggressive tread and made slight adjustments to the sway bar and shocks, for the final practice which improved his position to third. No further adjustments were made in anticipation of Saturday’s qualifier. Saturday- At 11am the crew headed over to the Racers for Christ chapel service to listen to Chappy Steve parlay his wisdom in his typical down-to-earth fashion. It’s what so many of us appreciate about him; his approachable nature and his ability to weave a message in a way which relates to so much of our everyday life as racers. As natural as can be, he somehow manages to softly deliver a powerful resounding and highly relevant concept that pushes us each a little farther each weekend. This weekend he encouraged us to “make an effort and not an excuse” which we took to heart. Trevor was coming off an already exciting week with his official registration for The Fab School, and things were setting up to be a good race day. His times were right there with the top guys and he was happy with the car set-up but, as the day wore on the weather conspired to aggravate track officials, teams and fans alike. After our briefing in the driver’s meeting we prepped for qualifying rounds, Lucas Oil arrived to do a short interview, and qualifying got underway at 1:30. Trevor placed 3rd— just 500th of a second off 2nd, and just under 4/10’s of a second off 1st. Then the thunderstorms arrived —as though on queue-- immediately after Pro Buggy qualifiers, putting all other rounds on hold. The rain continued fairly consistent and heavy for the first hour, and at least once the aluminum grandstands had to be abandoned due to threatening lightening in the area. The rain gradually subsided becoming intermittent and ending by 6:30 or so— just in time for finals. Lucas did a good job with that they had to work with in prepping the track after the storm, but no getting around it, the final conditions were going to be muddy and sloppy —so we switched to a more aggressive tire and waited to run. The track at Wild West Motorsports Park is a longer high speed track than most of the other tracks on the circuit. Having significant elevation on both ends makes it a great viewing platform for the audience and a relatively good crowd had gathered to see the world’s top off-road teams despite the roar of thunder overhead. Officials made some changes to the running orders, and racing got underway at 7PM. In the Pro Buggy Final Trevor started in the third position— inversion was zero putting him inside 2nd row. Right out of the gate in the first turn Trevor was hit by an outside car sending him into the k-rail. It took about 15 seconds to unhitch himself from the railing and turn around, which left him in last place. So with “make an effort and not an excuse” running through his head, Trevor put his head down and went to work trying to catch the field. The halfway caution allowed Trevor to tighten up in the pack. He had made a pass or two before the halfway caution and had a good momentum at the restart. He picked up a couple more positions quickly— now 5th in a 10 car field. One lap later he was tapped again, spun out and was sent directly to the back of the field once again. The incident raised a caution which allowed Trevor to pull in tight to the rest of the field, giving him a bit of reprieve from his misery. After this restart (with three laps to go) 2 cars got together directly in front of Trevor on the downhill of turn four. Trevor narrowly missing getting collected in that incident and officials threw another caution. Trevor advanced one more position to finish in 4th— 4/10’s of a second short of 3rd. He wasn’t able to hit the podium this time but he really showed his strength as a driver in this race —blowing past half of the field in the final laps after twice having been sent to the rear. Challenging situations give us all a chance to show what we are made so we were all grateful for the experience and proud of Trevor’s effort. Huge shout out to Lucas Oil for giving us all a platform to learn and grow, while surrounded by our family and friends. Trevor currently sits 2nd in points— 4 points off the pace for first. Next up is Round 7 & 8 General Tire Utah Off Road Nationals Presented by Optima Batteries August 24th & 25th. Air Dates and Times for Pro Buggy Footage CBS Sun, Sep 2 3:00 PM CBS Sports Network Sun, Sep 2 8:00 PM Sun, Sep 9 8:00 PM Sun, Sep 16 8:00 PM MAVTV Sun, Sep 23 2:00 PM Sun, Sep 30 2:00 PM Sun, Oct 7 2:00 PM We would like to thank the corporate partners who provide their resources and expertise to the team: JDRF, The Fab School, Mickey Thompson Tires, Lucas Oil, FOX Shocks, Funco Motorsports, Fortin Transmission, G & J Craft, Ebbco Motorsports, CBR Radiators, OMF Wheels, Eibach Springs, Action Gas & Welding Supply If you or somebody you know is fighting type 1 diabetes, please reach out to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation www.jdrf.org 800-533-CURE info@jdrf.org If you would like help Trevor with his mission to raise awareness and money to help find a cure, please visit https://bit.ly/2DKVptv. ### About Team Briska Trevor Briska was campaigning his first trucks at the age of 11 and by 15 he’d won the California series for Modified Kart in the prestigious Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series. If there were ever an indicator of ‘up and coming’ status for off-road racing - it is that class. That is the division that has the other drivers watching. In 2017, while his classmates were out getting their learner's permits, Trevor was winning Rookie of the Year, in the highly competitive Pro Buggy class in the Lucas Off Road Series. For more information please contact Clint Briska at clint@sims-trucking.com  |
Trevor Briska
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