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Paulie Harraka Notches Sixth Win at All American Speedway |
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 |
After flying back to All American Speedway (Roseville, CA) on Saturday evening after the Miller Motorsports Park (Salt Lake City, UT) NASCAR Camping World Series Event, Paulie Harraka's Ruth's Chris Toyota Camry picked up its sixth win of the season.
The team's flight from Salt Lake City to Sacramento got them to All American Speedway just in time for the final round of practice. Ryan Precher and the crew did a fantastic job of having the car completely ready for Paulie to jump into. The team used the final round of practice to scuff their qualifying tires and get an idea of how their car was. The team ended up second on the speed charts for the practice round and prepared for qualifying. Unfortunately, they were the first car to qualify in the Late Model division, which is a slight disadvantage as the track generally gets faster as the sun sets. Paulie ended up qualifying fifth overall, which the team was all extremely happy with.
Although he thought that he had a very good racecar, Paulie felt as though they still needed a little more "rotation," meaning that the car had a slight understeer in the center of the corner. The crew opted for some spring and corner weight changes, all of which were small changes, in preparation for the race.
When the green flag dropped, Harraka went to work. He moved into the top 5 when he passed teammate Katie Hagar on lap 7. The top three were engaged in a heated battle, so Paulie sat about one car length back from that group, allowing them to fight each other hard and waiting for his opportunity. He moved into the third position on lap twenty and second on lap 25. At that point, the leader, John Moore, had a 1.5 second lead. The racecar was getting better and better as the race went on and Paulie worked hard to catch Moore without hurting his tires. By lap 34, Harraka caught Moore. Paulie noticed that he was tight (understeering) in the middle of turns one and two, so he set himself up in turn one for a turn two pass. By lap 38, Harraka worked my way around Moore and proceeded to open up a 1.2 second lead by the race's end.
To bring home their sixth win of 2008 is absolutely awesome! The entire Ruth's Chris Toyota Bill McAnally Racing team worked extremely hard. None of this would have been possible without some of the awesome partners that Paulie has like Aim, Raybestos Brakes, Inventory Sales, and Briggs and Stratton. Harraka's next event is this Saturday, August 9 at All American Speedway.
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