 
|
|
|
|
|
Ballou
heads to Sin City
by Gary Thomas
|
March 5, 2007... The
"Rocklin Rocket" Robert Ballou heads to Las
Vegas, NV this weekend to do battle with the stars of
the USAC/CRA Series in a pair of races at the ultra fast
Las Vegas Motor Speedway ½ mile dirt oval. This weekend
will be the first time that the wingless 410 USAC/CRA
Series has ever raced in the state of Nevada and will
kick off the start of Robert’s first full season
driving a wingless sprinter.
For the 2007 season Ballou Motorsports has teamed with
MPHG Promotions, and has veteran tuner Jimmy Jones as
the crew chief on the No. 81 sprinter to run the full
USAC National Sprint Car Series schedule. It’ll be a
big change for Robert who spent most of last season
running on the tight and sticky bullrings in Northern
California; but having Jones at his side will help him
immensely in adapting to the new tracks. The USAC
National tour is made up of both dirt and pavement races
and the team will be running Maxim Chassis when
competing on dirt and will utilize Beast Chassis when
tackling pavement.
We would like to give a big thanks to all our sponsors
for the ‘07 season, which includes: Gardemeyer Finish
Carpentry, THR & Son's, Gliko Hardware and
Construction, Swimming Pool Perfections, Schlage, Circle
Racing Wheels, Pro Shocks, Bell, Design 500, Maxim, Don
Ott Racing Engines, Rod End Supply, JB Racing
Components, BSA and A.R.T. Speed Equipment.
Robert kicked off the season a couple weekends back at
the Tulare Thunderbowl Raceway competing with the World
of Outlaws Sprint Series. On Friday night he qualified
14th in a talent packed field of 42 sprint
cars, finished second in his heat race and scored 20th
in the feature. Saturday night saw Robert qualify 23rd
quick, but with the Outlaws only inverting 16 in the
heats now, it put Robert behind the inversion and behind
the top qualifiers. He gave it a hard run but came home
sixth, which put him in the B-main where he would charge
forward early and dice it up around the transfer spot
for much of the race, before coming home sixth and
putting an end to the night two spots shy of
transferring out.
Ballou Motorsports is coming off of a great year that
saw four wins, including a victory with the O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits at I-80 Speedway in Nebraska, which was
only Robert’s fourth start in a wingless sprint car.
Robert also finished fourth in the competitive Golden
State Challenge King of California 410 winged sprint car
series point standings. The 17 year old won two races
with GSC last season and in January he was named Golden
State Challenge Series Rookie of the Year for 2006.
Robert’s other win came at the Silver Dollar Speedway
in Chico where he led all 25 laps to claim victory in a
special Tuesday night 4th of July show.
The event this weekend in Las Vegas will begin on
Thursday night and finish up on Friday. A different
qualifying format was announced recently for the event,
which will include six cars being on the clock at the
same time for four laps. Both night’s will be capped
off with 30 lap features.
The ‘07 season will be a great experience for Robert
and he’ll give it his all, as he always does. To keep
up with Robert Ballou visit http://www.balloumotorsports.com
|
|
|
