Robby Woods Earns Another LOORRS Podium Finish at Speedworld
- Jul 12, 2011
As a result of the team's meticulous preparation and Wood's natural skills, the Pahrump, Nevada resident qualified second in Pro-2 for Round 3, positioning him on the second row at the start in his No. 99 truck Saturday's race was a wild one, which saw the veteran Woods having to focus as much on avoiding lap traffic and rookie drivers, as chasing down the leaders. Half way through the race a wheel came off the truck in front of Woods, leaving him no place to go but over it. Woods raced into the pits for a quick tire change, but unfortunately officials found the tire change a bit too quick for their liking, as they penalized him 30 seconds for speeding on pit road. This put Woods a full lap down on the leaders, but still managed to collect enough points to keep him in the running for the overall Pro-2 Championships. "They've now established 30 mph as the mandated pit speed, so there won't be any more confusion there," said Woods when asked about the penalty.
Racing being racing, Woods knows that what separates champions from the rest is how they digest adversity and continue to move forward. So, while his crew worked diligently on repairing the damage to his truck, Woods took time to steady himself and prepare for Round 4 on Sunday. After more bad news came in qualifying on Sunday, when the transmission let go, Woods still put together a tremendous effort by qualifying sixth. And again, his talented crew had the transmission replaced before the green flag dropped in the feature race. After pushing too hard on Saturday and being penalized for it, Woods took a less aggressive approach in Round 4, allowing the competition to succumb to the brutal terrain at Speedworld. Lap after lap, Woods continued to move forward, battling with Jeremy McGrath and Bryce Menzies throughout the second half of the race. The terrific non-stop racing action brought the sold out crowd to their feet, and when the checkers waved, Woods finished less than five seconds behind the winner. This put Woods in third place, on the podium with Rob MacCachren and Jeremy McGrath, distinguished company to say the least. "Going toe-to-toe battle with Mc (McGrath) and Bryce made it an awesome race," Woods told K&N Race News. "During the middle of the race I watched Mc, and saw a few places he was missing the marks, and I felt I could capitalize on his mistakes. But I was on probation from the series director for driving overly aggressive the previous race and couldn't find a gap where contact would be avoided. I had to hang back and settle for third. As for Bryce, he made a great late race charge. We also guessed wrong on the tire and went with a soft aggressive compound, and by the end of the race I didn't have anything left and had to drive defensively to maintain my position." Woods is a throwback to the earliest days of auto racing, when racers were self funded and built their own vehicles, and he therefore takes due pride in having been born into a "blue collar working family" that also knows their way around a track. Woods' dad raced ARCA and Winston Cup back in the day, so he was exposed to two keys things early in life - a passion for racing, and an iron willed work ethic. Says Woods, "Our team is an efficient family that works extremely hard to be competitive on a moderate budget. We take pride in running with the million dollar a year teams, on less than half of that. And competing at the front of the field every weekend. We've come a long way in three short years, from building a truck to race the premiere class, and running at the back of the pack, to multiple podiums nearly every weekend! I take great pride in my family and friends being such a huge part of my racing efforts. I've known every person in my pit for over ten year, racing is our family affair. It's what we do monthly to get together and spend quality time." "Our team has had an up and down year so far, we've had three podiums and a handful of not so stellar finishes. I'm confident that we've finally figured out consistency and we will be running better both days now. Typically we've had one good day and one bad one. I have given minimizing mistakes and being smarter a lot of thought lately. Our goals for the rest of the year are to finish on the podium every race, we're always fast enough to do it, so minimizing mistakes is key. Our goal is to win at least two rounds, and to break into the top-five in points and to finish there." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
