K&N Pro Series Driver Nicole Behar Focuses on Finish Line in Last Three Races of the Season
- Sep 28, 2017
The next race on the K&N Pro Series West schedule is Meridian Speedway in Idaho. She finished third at Meridian last year and she said she thinks it is a track she can win at. “We had a good run at Meridian last year,” Behar said. “Hopefully we can do that again this year and come home with a win. Every driver wants to win. I really want to. We’re just trying to go in and win one of these last three.” Behar has put together a successful season so far. She is ninth in the K&N Pro Series West standings after 11 races. She has two top-five finishes. For a small, family-run team, there have been some high points. She started the season with five top-10 finishes in a row and her team was building confidence. “We’ve had some really good races,” Behar said. “We have some good races coming up. But we’ve had some down races. Not necessarily the best of luck. We’ve blown a motor. Sonoma, we knew we probably weren’t going to be the best there because we didn’t have a road course car. We bought one a couple weeks beforehand and just tried to get it the best we could.” The 19-year-old Behar started the season with a 10th-place finish in the season opener at Tucson Speedway in Arizona. She posted her first top-five finish with a fourth-place at the first race at Irwindale Speedway. “The first couple of races we went down there with all of our cars, be as prepared as we can, put our mindset to do really good in those races,” Behar said. “Those are the ones you want to focus on to start off good.”
“That’s a place where you’re either going to finish or you’re going to crash,” Behar said. “I was just hanging out, letting the leaders hit on each other, bang it out. Unfortunately the cars in front of me got tangled. I was almost around it and the 19 car (Derek Kraus) clipped me in the rear and put me in the wall. “I think we were running like fourth at the time. I think we really had a car to win. Sometimes those things happen and you have to move forward. It really sucks, but you keep going.” She blew a motor in the race at Colorado National Speedway and finished 17th again. Her team didn’t have a road course for the race at Sonoma Raceway in California, the only road course race on the K&N Pro Series West schedule. Her team bought one a week before the Sonoma race. She came in 27th in race at Iowa Speedway, a race that pits the teams and drivers from the K&N Pro Series West and East. “We’ve had some really good races. But we’ve alo had a few bad ones,” Behar said. “With everyone being so close in points, when you have a bad race, you drop pretty fast. Our first goal isn’t to go in and focus on points, it’s just to do the best we can. Where you end up in points, that kind of happens. When you put your mindset to the points, you don’t do really good anyway.”
Being on a small team, Behar said she needs all the help she can get, Having K&N as a sponsor and supporter of the Pro Series West gives her the help she needs. “They’re always willing to help you, help with filters,” Behar said. “Every little bit helps, especially with a small team it adds up. Without K&N there wouldn’t be a series. Without them, the West Series probably wouldn’t be here. Us drivers wouldn’t be able to race the tracks, race the cars that we do. That means a lot.” | |||
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