Gresham Gets Short Shift Thanks To Pensacola Crash, Mobile Washout
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GRIFFIN, GA (September 27, 2009) – Max Gresham had the kind of weekend most race drivers would care to forget.
Gresham, making his first two Super Late Model starts of the 2009 season at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL Friday and Mobile (AL) International Speedway Saturday, never got past the first lap of Friday’s Blizzard 100 getting swept up in a multi-car crash. The damage to his No. 7-11 Gresham Motorsports racer was severe enough to sideline him at Pensacola and to scratch him from Saturday’s event at Mobile - a moot point when that event got rained out.
“Friday was a pretty tough day for everyone,” said Gresham, who was officially credited with the 28th finishing position in the final rundown at Pensacola. “We started out the day by getting the hauler stuck, so we got to the track late and missed a half hour of practice. Once we did get out and practice, we really weren’t that bad. We ran 17.80’s (seconds per lap) and for the first time out with a Super Late Model this season, we were happy with that.”
Gresham and his Gene Roberts led race team were even more pleased when they picked up their time in qualifying.
“We dropped down to a 17.01 in qualifying, a pretty big jump from where we practiced, but because the field was tight, that still put us 13th at the start,” Gresham stated. “It was an accomplishment just to make the field.”
Gresham had little time to celebrate making the 29-car field when a multi-car wreck on the first circuit ended his day prematurely.
“We took the green and everything felt good coming up off Turn 2,” stated Gresham. “I ran up on the guy in front of me through Turns 3-4 before someone five or six cars in front of me got loose. The guy in front of me also got way loose and in an effort to miss him, I turned left down the banking. The car just got out from under me and I slid into the inside retaining wall pretty hard. The impact tore up the left front suspension pretty bad and we were done for the night. Worst of all, the chassis was damaged badly enough that we were done for the weekend too. We wouldn’t have been able to race Saturday at Mobile, so I guess it was a good thing that race got rained out.”
While the sudden end to his weekend was disappointing, Gresham – an 11th-grade student at Woodward Academy in College Park, GA – was still upbeat about his first Super Late Model experience of the season.
“Honestly, I was pleased how things went overall at Pensacola,” Gresham commented. “We were fast and I was happy with the performance of the team. I couldn’t ask for more from those guys. I was just bummed that we only got to run one lap. There was just nothing we could do about that.”
Next up for Gresham and his No. 7-11 Gresham Motorsports Park/World Crown 300 entry will be another Super Late Model event, this one at Montgomery (AL) Speedway on Saturday, October 3.
For information about sponsorship of or partnering with Max Gresham, please contact Tony Gresham at tgresham@greshaminc.com.