2008 Snowball Derby
Saturday, December 6th marked the end of the Late Model season for the Gresham Motorsports team. It also marked the team’s first appearance in Pensacola for the Snow Ball Derby.
The 7-11 Pro Late Model of Max Gresham set a tone for the weekend by consistently ranking in the top ten for all of the practice sessions leading up to qualifying. Proving that the team meant business, Max went out 29th to qualify, and posted the second fastest qualifying time at that point. With several veterans like Augie Grill, Keeton Hanks, and others still to qualify, Max knew only time would tell how good the effort was. After 63 cars had made their time trial runs, Max had qualified 8th and would be starting outside of row four.
Nearly as fast as the green flag dropped, the carnage started. The 100 lap event took nearly 2 1/2 hours to complete, and had several red flags for serious wrecks. Max managed to find the slightest of holes to drive through and around the wrecks. Running 5th at lap 49, the team elected to pit for right side tires. Rejoining the field in 20th, Max continued to avoid spinning racers, and advanced through the field back to the 5th spot. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much left for the lap 93 restart, and Max was forced to yield positions to two faster cars.
Commenting on his 7th place finish, "I am not real sure how we got through some of that stuff, it seemed like cars were out of control everywhere. Luckily, we avoided them, and I was able to give the team a good finish. Those guys have really worked hard these last couple of weeks."
The team has one more race for 2008 year as Charlie Gresham takes his Bandolero to the Road Course at Atlanta Motor Speedway against a very competitive Young Guns class.