(10/17/18)
With Ocean Speedway’s points season coming to an end, Gallaher racing decided to make the trek down to Bakersfield Speedway’s annual Budweiser Nationals for one last race this season. The team raced with the hobby stock class. The Hobby Stock class was the only division to run both nights, but not have 2 separate shows. This meant if you didn’t make the main through the qualifier on Night 1, it’d be much harder to make it on the 2nd night.
Night 1 would see both Joe and Rob Gallaher in the same 8 car heat, with Joe starting on the pole, while Rob started 5th. Only 3 transferred, so Rob would have to make some moves if he was going to make the main. After a spin on the original start, the race got back underway. On the restart, Joe got out of shape and almost spun, this would cause him to drop all the way to 7th, ending his hopes of making the qualifier.
Joe’s misfortune moved Rob to 4th, hot on the tail of Justin Dunn for 3rd. Those two would race side by side for multiple laps before Rob took the final transfer position with 3 to go. Rob would hold off Dunn’s challenges for the rest of the heat race to transfer into the qualifier. Joe, meanwhile, only managed to make it back to 6th before the end of the heat.
Rob then lined up 5th in the qualifier, but this wouldn’t go nearly as well as the heat race. Rob quickly fell to 6th on thee opening start, and began to try and make the top line around the racetrack work. He was having no luck, as he continued to slip back before a lap 3 yellow came out. Under caution Rob would leave the track, but returned 2 laps down to get some more laps on the track for the next night. When it was all said and done Rob finished 10th, which meant he’d be starting 10th in the main event the next night.
Since Joe did not make the qualifier the previous night, he was forced to run a B Main to try and make the feature. He rolled off 9th, and with 10 cars transferring, he had a great chance to make the main. Unfortunately those dreams were dashed on the opening lap, as he was spun into the infield, making hard contact with a tractor tire to end his night.
It was then finally time for the main event, with Rob rolling off 10th. After getting driven into the infield, but miraculously not wrecking on the 2nd lap, Rob made a few moves over the first few laps to move into 8th, and appeared to have a car that could get to the front. The field quickly spread out, meaning action like his 3 wide battle with Chris Fritz and Cody Johnson for 7th was few and far between.
A lap 13 yellow would bunch the field back up, with Rob restarting 6th. Rob then began to work on Brian Brown for 5th, but wasn’t having any luck. It appeared as though Rob may be stuck in 6th for the rest of the race, but a late yellow for Jacob Jones blowing a motor on the back stretch changed Rob’s fortunes completely. Rob was able to go from 5th to 3rd on that final restart, and would go on to finish there to end the season with a podium finish. It was a great season overall for Gallaher racing, with Robert picking up 5 feature wins, while Joe showed improved speed as the season went along.
Gallaher Racing would like to thank all of their sponsors and supporters, including:
Gallaher Company
1 Hour Drain
Tire Time
Express Car Wash
Yeti Coolers
Coors
Snap On
Built by the Captain
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Daren Ricks
DRC Motorsports Media
DRC Motorsports Media 