WEST RICHLAND, Washington. - Unable to make the trip to Tri-City Raceway, I called Gene Woods the day following the race, for the post-race interview, catching him about 50 miles West of Tri-City, driving his personal Dodge, full of team-mates, to Seattle for the race next weekend at Evergreen Speedway:
Andy: ”I saw the results on the Winston West website. (qualified 15th, finished 15th) What happened?”
Gene: “We broke a locker in the rear-end. Had one-wheel drive. (laughing in background) Every time I got on the throttle the car would go sideways. We figured we’d just hang-out and get some points.”… “When the locker breaks, one of the rear wheels loses power, so you’re only being driven by one wheel, instead of two. Give it any gas at all and you’re going sideways. We’ve never had a locker break before, we were super-loose in qualifying.”
Andy: ”Well, you finished, running, only six laps down, that’s pretty good with one-wheel drive. When did you break the locker?”
Gene: “We heard a noise, two laps from the end of the last practice session. I could feel a vibration in the rear-end. We had suspicions, but by fifteen laps into the race we knew what it was. We ran the whole race with the broken locker. I stayed on the inside and just kept giving hand signals to go around the outside.”
Andy: “Much to do to get ready for Evergreen?”
Gene: “No, we’ll have the other rear-end installed in no time and there’s very little bodywork needed. We’re back in tenth place and I’m anxious to get to Evergreen and improve on that.”
The next race is in Monroe Washington, just north of Seattle, Saturday, June 28th. The Coors Light 200 Presented by NAPA will be held on the 5/8-mile oval of Evergreen Speedway.
Woods Racing wishes to thank: Auto Trader Magazines, CNWB.com, Dodge Motorsports, C & L’s, Evernham Performance Parts, Fuel Safe Racing Cells, Stewart Warner, Bell Helmets, Turbonetics, Ironclad, DJ Safety, DCM, Optima, VHT, Eibach Springs and Cala Industries. Visit the teams’ website: http://www.genewoods.com
