INNISFIL, ON- In what may go down as one of the more exhausting afternoons of Willy Howells’ young career, the Oshawa, ON up-and-comer turned in a top-20 finish at Sunset Speedway’s first ever Spring Derby 35.
“I can’t thank my crew enough just for getting me on the track this afternoon”, said Howells. “If I were here by myself, I probably would’ve given up about a dozen times already. Whatever could go wrong, did go wrong today”
The team opened up their race day chasing an electrical issue that kept them from practice as well as their qualifying heat race, which forced Howells to have to transfer into the 35-lap A Main via the dreaded Last Chance Qualifier.
“This was my first time competing at Sunset”, explained Howells. “I’ve never turned a lap here before. So missing out on practice dealt a huge blow to our afternoon. It felt good to finally diagnose the issue and transfer into the event from the B Main, but starting that deep in a field this talented put us behind the eightball early”
After starting towards the tail of the field, Howells eventually settled into a groove and ran competitive lap times through the second half of the race, managing a 20th place finish as the field took the checkered flag.
“Despite our issues, there were some positives about today”, said Howells. “We were able to play with a new setup that we’ve never tried before, we padded our notebook a bit. Our main goal this year is to win the Mini Stock Nationals at Kawartha, and the first event is on June 1st. So every bit of practice counts”
“Sunset isn’t an easy place to figure out, but we’ll be back. This season is all about testing ourselves, and this track is one of the best places to do that”.
Sponsorship for Howells courtesy of Taunton Tire, Sanford Auto, Durham Autoworks, Roughley Insurance, Oshawa Community Credit Union, DiBello Towing, Auto Accessory World, Team Blue and Hobby Revolution.
Fans can follow Willy on Twitter @19WillyHowells as he begins preparations for the Mini Stock Nationals on June 1st.
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
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