Mark Reed will be making his third Winston West Series start on the ½ mile oval track at Irwindale Speedway this Saturday night in the Food 4 Less 250. Reed competed in the Home Depot 250 last August and the Home Depot 300 last November. “Hopefully our luck will be a little better than it was in the first two races”, said Reed. He qualified 2nd and finished 9th in August and qualified 19th and finished 22nd in November. “We had a really good handling car in August”, explains Reed. “Our biggest problem that night was that there were no caution flags during the last 100 laps of the race. We ran out of gas with 15 laps to go trying to catch a caution”. Most of the other lead pack cars suffered the same problem, including eventual series champion Brendan Gaughan. Reed experienced mechanical problems in November, which relegated him to a 22nd place finish many laps down to the leaders. A defective alternator drained the battery forcing the team to change the battery in the Food 4 Less Pontiac Grand Prix under green flag conditions. “The last race of 2000 was a good learning experience for the team”, says Reed. “We learned how to overcome adversity and that lesson has already paid off for us several times this season”.
The Food 4 Less Motorsports team tested the Winston West Series car at Irwindale Speedway twice in the last 30 days. “We did a tire test for Hoosier a few weeks ago and we tested again last Friday prior to leaving for the Southwest Series race in Las Vegas”, Reed said. “We gained some knowledge during the tire test, but we still had a few things my crew chief (Jerry Pitts) wanted to try. The last test went very well and we’re optimistic about our chances in the race”.
Mark Reed and his team will be competing in their 4th race in four weeks. The race this Saturday will mark the half way point in a marathon of races for the Food 4 Less team when they will compete in 7 races during an eight week span of time. “The main thing this weekend is for us to stay out of trouble”, says Reed. “We plan to run the same car next weekend at Laguna Seca. I want to do everything I can to keep the guys in the shop from working additional hours”.
Food 4 Less will be the title sponsor of the Winston West Series race this Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway. Food 4 Less is the “Official Grocery Store” of the track and will also be the title sponsor of several more special events at the track this year including the Featherlite Southwest Series race on June 9th.
For more information regarding Mark Reed and Food 4 Less, check their web sites at www.markreed.com and www.food4less1.com.
