NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL- After a disappointing 14th place finish in their 2014 World Series debut, the Brandon Watson Racing team entered Night 5 of the 8-night mini-season intent on a turnaround performance.
Hovering near the top of the speed charts through the afternoon practice sessions, Watson timed in 6th fastest in qualifying with a laptime of 17.797 seconds.
“A 14th place finish wasn’t exactly what we were looking for in terms of a 2014 debut”, explained the 2-time OSCAAR Super Late Model Tour champion. “So we used that for a little extra motivation for Night 5”.
Quick to follow-up on his strong qualifying effort, Watson ran within the top-10 for the entirety of the 35-lap main event, holding off a number of quality opponents through the event’s early green flag run.
“This division is so tough, you can’t take a lap off”, confirmed the Stayner, ON driver. “These drivers are going to make you work for every single spot on every single lap”.
Watson would have his hands full, both with the quality of cars pressuring him for position as well as the handling issues that began to develop in his ride at the latter end of the race.
“Our car tightened up quite a bit after lap-20”, said Watson. “It wasn’t anything we couldn’t deal with, but it certainly made things a little challenging those last 15 laps”.
“Funny enough”, Watson added, “I switched up my line late in the race and the car started to come back to me. If this had been a 50-lap race, we would have been in great shape”
With 2 nights in the books, Watson is still focused on the most important task of the week – a solid run in Saturday’s 100-lap World Series finale.
“All the racing we’ve done this week has helped us learn how this car is going to react to various set-ups”, explained Watson. “We’re looking for a good finish on Saturday, and every lap we turn this week is going to get us closer to our goal”.
Brandon Watson’s World Series effort is sponsored by Royal Distributing, Shear Metal Products, Barrie Frame & Alignment and Knightworks Design.
To learn more about Brandon, visit www.BrandonWatsonRacing.com, and be sure to follow him on Twitter @BrandonWatson15.
By Spencer Lewis
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