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CRAIG VOSBERGEN – USA 2016 TOUR – SOUTHERN NATIONALS SERIES

We have now just finished our third full Ray Cook Southern Nationals Series and had time to take a breath after a hectic 3 weeks of racing and the long flight back to Australia.

This years tour was certainly an emotional rollercoaster for the TVR team with some extreme highs with Craig winning his first USA Feature event at Crossville TN, getting two other podium finishes and the lows of hurting an engine and missing a series event.

The Tennessee RV, Maxima Racing Oils, Genesis Shocks, FK Rod Ends #8 was awesome the whole tour from the first time we rolled it out of the trailer at Smoky Mountain Speedway for the Lucas Oil Series Race which we qualified for to the series finale at Tazewell Speedway.

The TVR Crew of Brent, Woody & Michael worked tirelessly for the 4 weeks to ensure everything went as smoothly as possible and with some of the feature races not finishing until 3am they were pushed to the limits several times but always had the #8 in race trim when the green flagged dropped the next day.

This years tour results far exceeded our previous achievements and all of this wouldn’t be possible without some great people that allow us to field a competitive race team from 20,000 miles away:
Tom, Shanon & Amanda Buckingham – for housing the TVR Race Team all year round and preparing a great Racecar.
Roger Sellers @ Tennessee RV – for his great support and always being there to help us out when needed.
Randy Weaver @ Outlaw Race Parts – for his guidance, advice and having confidence in us to get the job done.

TVR has a group of loyal product sponsors that have backed us from the beginning and we are glad we can now reward them with some of the exposure they deserve.
FK Rod Ends, Genesis Shocks, R2C, Hoosier Racing Tire, Jay Dickens Race Engines, ASI Racewear, Performance Bodies, Fragola Performance Systems, VP Race Fuels, Butlerbuilt, Hypercoil, WILES Driveshafts, Hooker Harness, WRISCO, Simpson Race Products, Good Lift Race Lifts & Modern Images.

SOUTHERN NATIONALS SERIES RESULTS

16th July - Wythe Raceway VA – This was the first of a few late nights due to rain finishing at 3am.
Craig was running in the top 10 in P8 and moving forward when he cut a right rear tyre down mid race and then having to re-start ROF, he worked his way back up to 11th by the chequer.

17th July – Bulls Gap Speedway TN – Cancelled

19th July – 411 Motor Speedway TN – Craig just missed the direct transfer to A main after qualifying. Starting the heat race in P1 he finished in 2nd.
Started P13 in feature and once he found the highline, worked his way to a 6th place finish by end of the 35 laps.

21st July – Tri-County Race Track NC – This was another rained affected event, track was super heavy and fast in qualifying and Craig was pushing hard when the nose of the #8 ploughed into the cushion and ruined any chance of a good lap. This was Craig’s worst series starting position of P20 and on a difficult passing track finished P15.

22nd July – Swainsboro Raceway GA – More rain and a 330am finish meant another tough night.
Craig started P13 in the 53 lap feature and worked his forward to 3rd place late in the race but couldn’t hold on and brought he #8 home in 5th place on a fast and rough track.

23rd July – Screven Speedway GA – Unfortunately we had to miss this race due to engine problems discovered at 530am in the morning following maintenance after Swainsboro race.We packed up headed back to Morristown TN (8hrs) for an engine change.

24th July – Rome Speedway GA – We arrived in the pits 15 minutes prior to hotlaps following our engine change.
Craig put down an awesome qualifying lap just missing direct transfer to A main by 2/1000th of a second.
Started pole in his heat and lead all 10 laps.
Started P11 in final and worked his way into top ten when he cut the right rear tyre down. The TVR crew changed tyre and Craig started ROF at the restart and drove back to a 12th place finish.
A disappointing result as we went with a harder tire than most and felt a top 5 would have been in our grasp here.

26th July – Boyds Speedway GA – After a well earned day off the TVR team were focused on a good result at Boyds.
Craig punched out an awesome qualifying lap being 2nd fastest in his group and a direct transfer to A main starting P3.
In the 35 lap A main Craig stuck to the low groove and came home in 3rd place making the podium for the first time in the USA which was a great result for the team.

28th July – Crossville Speedway GA – Another wet day meant a late start and muddy conditions in the pit area.
However the track survived the damp conditions and proved to be racy all night.
Craig went out on a track he had never been to before and set quick time in his group in an awesome qualifying lap.
This earnt him his first pole position for a final in the USA, he went on to lead all 35 laps enduring 11 cautions to earn his first eve USA FEATURE WIN !!! Huge result for the team and a moment that wont be forgotten anytime soon.

29th July – Smoky Mountain TN – More rain this time the rain won and the event was cancelled.

30th July – Tazewell Speedway TN – After a slight rain delay qualifying got underway and Craig once again churned out an awesome qualifying lap on the high banked 3/8 mile track…fast qualifier in Group B.
We started pole in heat race #3 and got the win which earned Craig an outside front row starting spot alongside Scott Bloomquist for the 53 lap final.

Craig drove a great race an held onto 2nd place behind Bloomquist to finish off the series with 3 podiums in 3 nights including his maiden USA Feature wi.

 

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