Lovell Fights Hard at Bark River

CC | August 22, 2011

Bark River is the longest and fastest track in all of short course. While Crandon might carry more fame, Bark River hosted what is surely the fastest and most dramatic racing of the season. 15 Pro-lights took the track for Rounds 7 & 8 or the 2011 season. Absent from the podium, but not the battle was the #44 AMSOIL Nissan Frontier of Brad Lovell.

“Bark River is my favorite track for a reason, the speed is amazing,” comments driver Brad Lovell, “We are hitting jumps at over 75 mph and drifting through turns where the truck is airborne at the apex. We are clearing 150 ft on the big jump. Everything about Bark River is a fine line.” The view of Bark River from the driver set is much different from that in the bleachers and fans enjoyed door banging action packed racing all weekend long.

Lovell qualified 4^th on Friday in a competitive group of evenly matched trucks and got a good start in Saturday’s race. Unfortunately, slippery track conditions caused Lovell to spin off a step-up jump and let the majority of the field by. Undeterred, Lovell fought his way through the pack before finishing 6^th. “It’s a big disappointment to make an error after my crew and sponsors have done so much to get me a great truck. All I could do was fight through the pack and try and regain position. A few more laps were all we needed.”

Fortunately, the 6^th place finish on Saturday gave Lovell pole position on Sunday. Selection of lanes was critical and while test laps showed the left lane to be the choice, the race would prove the right far better. In the first lap Lovell was jumped by two trucks and ran hard in 3^rd until the mandatory caution. CJ Greaves then cut in front of #44 leaving Lovell in 4^th. Adding insult to injury, Brad was spun out by a fellow competitor within sight of the finish line and ended in 7^th. Brad adds, “While the results were not at all what we wanted the team did a great job and we moved up to 6^th in points. There is no doubt that this is the most high-dollar competitive racing we have done. A lot of things are working great on the truck – the tires, drive train, and power plant. We need to break into the last 5% of performance though. We will tear down the truck and test some new ideas before Crandon.”

Lovell Racing has a short stint in Colorado before heading east for the biggest and brightest off-road event this side of Baja – Fall Crandon. Including makeup races from the spring, the Pro-Lights will race 3 times starting Friday while Pro-2’s & 4’s will race an astounding 4 times during the weekend. Starting Friday Sept 2^nd, the 42^nd running at Crandon will not disappoint.

Lovell Racing wishes to thank all of 2011 sponsors and volunteer crew members including AMSOIL, BFGoodrich Tires, Torchmate CNC Cutting Systems, Nissan, Spidertrax, 4 Wheel Parts, Trail Ready, Fox Racing Shox, Powertank, Aeroquip, Howe, Eibach, Proformance Unlimited, FK Rod Ends, Warn, Dynotech, Motive Gear, and Robinson Construction.