Pro Racing Specialties development driver, Race Liberante (15) made his first start of the season in the ASA Truck series on Saturday May 22nd at the Toyota Speedway of Irwindale. An impressive run earlier in the season in the Orange Show Speedway, Tour Truck class, had the PRS team feeling quietly confident heading to Irwindale.
"We have a saying on the team for moments like Saturday night “won’t do that again”…. We’ll learn our lessons from this fuel issue and be ready for the next ASA Truck series event."— Brian Liberante – Team Owner
During both of Saturday afternoons practice sessions Liberante worked on driving the low line around the half mile oval.
“You can really make the truck stick on the bottom for the first few laps on cold tires so I really wanted to get the truck dialed in for running low at the start of the race”, Race Liberante.
A 15 truck field was the highest of the season for the ASA Truck series. At the end of the final practice session Liberante was 7th on the time charts. Putting on fresh tires for qualifying saw Liberante qualify 4th.
Due to numerous red flags during the nights various other races, the ASA Truck class did not take to the track for their 75 lap main event until 10pm. By that time track conditions had changed considerably from six hours earlier and the sunny warm temperatures of qualifying. Coming to the green flag in 5th place, due to the inversion, Liberante immediately drove down to the inside groove making it three wide before turn 1 and continuing three wide for the first two laps, eventually pulling up in front of the field coming out of turn 4 to take the lead. This audacious move by the young teenager earned him praise up and down pit row and earned crew chief Nick Jennings praise from his peers for his set-up.
The ASA Truck series owners voted Liberante’s three wide move “Move of the Race” earning him a contingency sponsors prize.
For the next 58 green flag laps Liberante would lead the field. An occasional challenge from the second place truck only brought out more determination from the PRS driver. On lap 58 back markers battling three wide in front of Liberante allowed the 2nd place truck to close the gap and Liberante, much to his spotter’s frustration, was forced to use up his tires trying to go high and low in an attempt to pass the back markers. Shortly after Liberante cleared the lap traffic a crash brought out the first yellow of the night on lap 60.
On the re-start Liberante selected the inside row, unfortunately having used up his tires passing the back markers, Liberante was not able to hold off the charge of the outside row and had to settle into 2nd place for the next 13 laps. On lap 73 Race dropped to 3rd place. Coming to the white flag at the end of lap 74 Liberante slowed suddenly and pulled to the inside lane finally coming to a stop in turn 4. A fuel pick up problem was a disappointing way to end the race in 8th place.
At the end of the night a disappointed driver consoled his crew, Brian Liberante, Nick Jennings, Al Simpson & Lil’ AL Simpson, like a professional and thanked them for their hard work.
Race Liberante and the #6 PRS S10 Chevy had the fastest lap of the race at 20.057 seconds, led the most laps with 58 and was awarded Move of the Race.
“Within the space of one week we’ve really shown our versatility as a team from dominating in Rotax karts to leading the most laps in ASA Trucks. We have a saying on the team for moments like Saturday night “won’t do that again”…. We’ll learn our lessons from this fuel issue and be ready for the next ASA Truck series event”, Brian Liberante – Team Owner.
In September 2010 PRS will be holding a 3 day driver “Star Search” at the historic Willow Springs Raceway facility in Rosamond, CA. PRS will be identifying tomorrows’ racing stars and adding to its 2011 development team driver line up. We are accepting resumes now. Interested drivers 13 years of age or older and their parents can contact PRS for more information on how to apply by sending an eMail to ProRacingSpecialties@yahoo.com.
About Pro Racing Specialties
Pro Racing Specialties (PRS) is a Full Service Race team specializing in driver development, arrive & drive, trackside support, and marketing services for teams and drivers. PRS is housed in a custom built, state of the art facility in Quartz Hill , CA . Under the leadership of Brian Liberante, PRS has won multiple motorsports national and regional championships over the past 25 years. Indy 500 winner Buddy Rice and 3 time ASA Speed Truck champion Darren Young are two of the teams most well known alumni.
PRS Sponsors: K&N Filters, Advanced RaceWear, Crow Enterprises, Alpine Stars
Visit: www.ProRacingSpecialties.com
2010 PRS Development Drivers
Race Liberante (15) www.RaceLiberante.com
Lil’ AL Simpson (13) www.LilAL31.com
