Bristol, Tennessee (3/25/2020) Many racers wouldn’t travel roughly 5,000 miles round trip to make their first start at a race track, but with a once in a lifetime event like the Bristol Dirt Nationals, San Martin, California’s JC Elrod just couldn’t resist.
Elrod, a consistent runner on the West Coast, decided to make the jump from Hobby Stocks where he found so much success to IMCA Modified class in mid-2019, where he continues to grow and find speed.
From the moment the team arrived, Elrod showed plenty of speed aboard his 2019 Evo by Twyzted.
The IMCA Modifieds would hit the track on night 1 with Elrod rolling off 4th in his heat. After falling to 5th on the initial start, Elrod would take two spots in two laps as he moved into 3rd. Elrod would hold off a hard charging Josh Eberhardt over the final 8 laps to finish 3rd in a stacked heat, besting the likes of Clay Money and AJ Ward in the 10 lap contest.
With rain moving in, Monday’s feature would get moved to Tuesday evening, where Elrod would start 11th in the 30 car field. Thanks to a strong start, Elrod would slip past 2 cars to claim 9th. Elrod would briefly fall back a spot after sliding high on lap 3, but would regain the spot a lap later.
A few laps later, Elrod would fall back again as top side really wasn’t worked in yet, and it would cost him 2 spots. Elrod would have a bit of a scare with 5 to go, as he and another competitor got together coming out of Turn 2, fortunately Elrod would continue on. Elrod would climb as high as 8th in the waning laps, and ultimately go on to finish 9th.
Keeping with the theme for the week of moving forward, Elrod did just that in Wednesday’s heat race, going from 8th to 6th on the opening lap before going on to take 5th.
Elrod would roll off a bit further back in Wednesday’s feature as he started 15th. Once again Elrod was strong on the start,moving from 15th to 13th on Lap 1. Elrod would continue on ranging anywhere from 11th to 14th before his motor expired with just 3 laps remaining.
Fortunately for Elrod, his week wouldn’t end there, as Jim Pettit II had supplied Elrod with a backup motor for the week, allowing Elrod to start his Last Chance Qualifier.
Just like he had been all week, Elrod was on the move in his LCQ,as he was up to 5th 2 laps in. A lap later, any hope Elrod had of making the big show would disappear as Elrod hit a big rut in turn 1 and slid up the track, dropping him to 10th, where he’d ride around the remaining 9 laps.
When asked about his thoughts on the weekend, JC said: “The crew and I headed 2500 miles to Bristol not knowing what to expect. Throughout the week I continued to move forward in every heat and feature. Losing the motor on Wednesday night hurt us in passing points but we were still in the top 30. I can’t thank Jim Pettit enough for sending me with a spare motor that allowed me to have fun in the LCQ and finish the week out strong. I also want to thank My dad and Don Powers for driving the rig out and for being the best damn crew I could ask for. These guys rolled straight from California for 42 hours, when they arrived on Sunday at the track we immediately unloaded the car and went right into practice. These guys busted their butts to make this happen. Finally I want to thank Clay Daly of Twyzted Motorsports for taking time out of his busy schedule to make sure we were dialed in this week. Customer support is huge in this industry and Clay’s is second to none.”
JC Elrod would like to thank all of his sponsors and supporters, including:
WRB Construction
Security Shoring and Steel Plates
AD Robison Plastering
Lavender Yoga
Silicon Valley Tile and Stone
Results:
Day 1 Heat Race: 3rd
Day 2 Preliminary Feature: 9th
Day 3 Heat Race: 5th
Day 3 Preliminary Feature: 18th
Day 5 LCQ: 10th
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