Julia Landauer Records Best Finish of K&N Pro Series West at Douglas County Speedway in Oregon
- Sep 7, 2017
Landauer had a rough start to her second season in the K&N Pro Series West. She joined a new team, the Sunrise Ford team owned by Bob Bruncati. But mechanical problems and broken parts led to some disappointing finishes. “It’s been tough but character building,” Landauer said. Despite the rough patches, Landauer is in the top 10 in the K&N Pro Series West standings after 11 races. There are three races remaining on the K&N Pro Series West schedule and Landauer said she has an aggressive strategy for the end of the season. “It’s been rough. I’m really proud of my guys,” said Landauer, who is in seventh place in the K&N Pro Series West standings. “We’re all used to performing at the front and racing well. They got multiple championships. I’ve got multiple championships. I really appreciate the fresh attitude they come with every race and how collaborative everyone is. It’s a really good crew. It’s just one of those years. “This is where you grow as a person. You can’t separate racing from life. Try to take the optimistic approach and salvage everything we can for these last three races.” For the race at Douglas County Speedway, Landauer said her car was strong from the start. It was one of the fastest cars in practice and she qualified sixth. She was less than a tenth of a second off the pole, won by Bill McAnally Racing driver Chris Eggleston. There were only four cautions in the race. The final restart came on lap 71, leaving nearly 80 laps of green flag racing at the end. Those factors helped Landauer finish in the top five. “I think it was a couple things. I think we unloaded really strong,” Landauer said. “I was pushing as hard as I could. We took a little bit of a gamble with setup before qualifying and made a change. It worked really well. It was a good effort. It was a really tight field.”
“I’ve done well on the short tracks,” Landauer said. “We were a little worried going into Evergreen because we knew it was a tough track and we knew the tire drop-off was really aggressive. But we know our short track setup is a little better.” Landauer started the season with a pair of 12th-place finishes, one in the season opener at Tucson Speedway, in Arizona. The other was at Kern County Raceway, in California. Landauer said she and her new team worked well together, but the car was not responding to the team’s setups. “Personality wise, I think I meshed with the team pretty quickly,” Landauer said. “I don’t think it was really so much joining the new team that was much of an issue. I felt the guys welcomed me. I feel there was a lot of mutual respect all the way around. “There are just some things you just can’t control. We were a little baffled, to be honest as to what the slow start was from. Everyone has good years. People keep telling me everyone has really bad years too, maybe this is just our collective not-so-great year. The team is working well together. There is excitement now for these last three races.” Landauer points to the dual races at Irwindale Speedway in California in March as to when things started turning around. The car ran well at Irwindale, she posted a sixth and 10th place finish, but she said she at least had a top-five car for both races. Something mechanical was off and the car lost power over the last 30 laps of both races. “The car was awesome,” Landauer said. “We were running third and fourth for a while. A mechanical malfunction caused it to drop like a stone the last 30 laps or so. That was a mechanical problem that we didn’t discover until we got the car back to the shop.” Her team had more problems at The Orange Show Speedway and Sonoma Raceway in California. The alternator died in the race at The Orange Show and she broke an axle at Sonoma. It resulted in two poor finishes and set her team back in the standings. “This year, we were running consistently like sixth or seventh,” Landauer said about the race in Sonoma. “I was able to nurse it around the track until we got a caution. We came in and they changed the axle in like record time. But by then, I was just racing by myself. Again, it goes back to bad luck.” In addition to the race at Meridian Speedway, the K&N Pro Series West will visit All American Speedway in Roseville and return to Kern County Raceway Park in California to end the season.
Landauer said she enjoys having K&N as a supporter of the series and seeing the K&N staff at all the races. “I think what’s cool about K&N is that they have shown a commitment for so many years now,” Landauer said. “To have that kind of longevity with a series partner is really cool. I like that it’s such a practical company and brand that everyone has the ability to use. That makes it universally attractive.” | |||
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