Source: Steve Pados
Date: 10/26/2007

VADER, Washington -- Eighteen year old Midget driving star Brea Lopez will cap off her Washington Midget Racing Association season this coming weekend as she takes part in the annual awards banquet for the sixty one year old open wheeel organization. The banquet will be held at the Fabulous Fifties Hall located at 455 St. Helens in Tacoma. Chip Hannauer, one of the true legends in Unlimited Hydroplane racing will be the featured speaker for the evening and his topic of conversation will be "Lessons from the Fast Lane".

For Lopez, the 2007 racing season has been a successful one. The team had been forced to re-group last December when enroute to Florida for the PRI Show, their entire rig was stolen from the Hotel in Kansas City where the Lopez Team was spending the night. The team was forced to return home and later were notified the rig had been located in a storage center outside the city. While the rig was intact with the race car, all of the tools and spare parts were stolen and the rig suffered extensive damage. Some much needed assistance from the racing community was given to the team to begin the restoration project of the missing tools and inventory.

The Brea Lopez Motorsports Team, headed up by racing legend and Brea's grandfather Dan Press, was ready for the start of the season. The team traveled out of state early to get a jumpstart on the new season and the team found success in running with the Bay Cities Racing Association group.(BCRA) The team's focus was the WMRA and seeking the opportunity to go after the 2007 series title. The Lopez team would return to the BCRA later in the season and capture a win at Eureka.

The Brea Lopez Motorsports Team utilized their Beast Chassis/Esslinger Powered Midget car throughout the season on their way to a solid third place in the title picture. By mid-season the Lopez team were running as high as second place in the point standings. A poor outing in the season ender saw Lopez lose second place in the final standings to Ken Ferris by a mere two points as Ferris won the final event of the season and a forty point swing in the points would prove to be the margin Ferris would need to climb to the ruinnerup status. With a very competitive field doing battle in each outing, the season proved to be challenging yet rewarding to all of the teams running under the WMRA banner.

Evan Margeson on the basis of his nine wins in the series is the new Champion, replacing Spence Gatrell who ran but a limited schedule in 2007. Ken Ferris was second in the points but more than 200 points behind the winning Margeson. Brea Lopez was a close third to Ferris and Brad Curtis and Tony Seidelman would round out the top five. Dallas Melby won the seson opener and finished a close sixth.

In speaking with Brea Lopez at home she stated, "This has been a great season for us. Even though we fell short of our goal to win the title, we were competitive each night out and felt we made some great strides in becoming more consistent and more patient, although a bit more patience will be one of our goals in the future. We leaped six spots in the standings from a year ago and feel the knowledge gained this year will help us a ton in the future". Lopez later added, "Without the help of my Grandparents and the strong supporting cast of sponsors, no one would even know who I am. I want to thank everyone who helped our efforts this year and hope we can continue into the future with their support."

Brea Lopez Motorsports will venture out on the road in November to compete at "Turkey Night in Irwindale" with also the possibility of finally making it to Florida to do some racing as well. Lopez is also looking into the possibilities of attending a race school in the near future as she seeks to expand her racing endeavors.

Brea Lopez would like to thank all of her sponsors and supporters for their efforts in helping the team out this year. Steve Forler Trucking, Redline Oil, Ridgecrest Homes, Hooker Harness, Bell Helmets, Finish Line Racing Equipment, Gary Magnuson Trucking, Olympic Trailers, Pro Shocks, LHP Motorsports, Steve Lewis, Keizer Wheels, Loma Hair Products, Ringers Gloves, John Hunter, Dave Reed, Charlie Patterson, and GA Motosrsports Media have all played a major role in the success of the team this year.

For more information regarding Brea Lopez, log on to her website at: brealopez.com

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