OPP, AL- Super Late Model veteran Donnie Wilson opened up his 2015 campaign with a 12th place finish in the Southern Super Series-sanctioned ‘Rattler 250’ at South Alabama Speedway.
Wilson, a former Southern Super Series winner, rolled off 18th on the grid and worked quickly to move into the top-10 whilst dodging a number of early-race incidents.
“We didn’t get the qualifying lap that we were looking for, and I think that put us behind the eight ball a little,” offered Wilson post-race.
“I felt pretty good about our car after practice on Friday, but when it came time to qualify, I think we left a lot on the table,” continued Wilson. “And some of that carried over to Sunday’s race”
The Oklahoma City, OK native ran within the top-10 through the midway portion of the event, though late-race contact led to an eventual 12th place result.
“At the end of the day, I’m proud of my guys because they never gave up on me,” said Wilson. “To come out of today with a top-15 finish is still a positive”
“We were fighting a tight racecar all afternoon. I was just riding in 7th place with about 20-laps to go and we got caught up in a chain reaction deal that hurt the front end and shoved us back a couple spots”
“[South Alabama] is a tough spot to pass at, so we were anticipating a bit of a rough race, but nothing like this,” explained Wilson. “Guys were just racing way too hard, way too early and we tore up a lot of good cars as a result. I’m happy we’re loading our car up in one piece, because there’s a lot of teams around here that don’t have that right now”
The Wilson’s Ford Parts/OKC Autoworks-backed team will take a few weeks off to regroup, and will return to action in Round 2 of the Southern Super Series at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee on April 11th.
Fans can stay up to date with Donnie and the rest of the team all season long by visiting the official Donnie Wilson Racing page on Facebook.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
Discussion about this post