Pittsburgher Weekend
Imperial, PA …The 2008 season is quickly coming to and end, and the end od the year specials are all that is left to race. Dunn-Olivieri Racing traveled to Dirt’s Monster Half Mile (Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, PPMS) to take part in the UEMS 25 lap special.
The weekend began with qualifying heat races on Friday. A field of 33 cars were registered with three 10 lap heat races run to set Saturday’s 25 lap feature. Luck has not been on the teams side when puling the pill for the heat races, Friday would be no exception with Russ having to start 10th in his heat race. Track position is very important at PPMS and with the re-draw the top four cars in each heat, Russ would have to work hard to gain the redraw .Using the high side of the track, Russ was slowly able to work his way up to 5th,just missing the redraw giving him a 14th place start in the feature.
A starting field of 33 cars took to the track and from early in the race it was clear this was not going to be the night the team had hoped for..Four caution in the first ten laps slowed the race, and so Russ staying in the sane place as he started. A long green flag run saw the entire filed of cars staying in their position with little or no passing and as the checkers were waving Russ came home a disappointing 165t. The only positive was the team was able to move into a 5th place tie in the UMLS E-Mod Series point standings with one race left October 4th at Mercer Raceway Park. Dunn has always run strong at Mercer, with a 2nd place finish in the season opening race to go along with (2) feature wins at the track.
