PLOVER, WI – Gabe Sommers Racing made their now annual trip to Kinston, Alabama this past weekend to take part in the prestigious Hardee’s Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway. Weather, changing track conditions, and an extended race weekend offered unique challenges and adversity to overcome for the No. 15 Ford Mustang.
Unloading on Friday morning, Gabe and the crew set to work fine tuning and preparing their Fury Racecars chassis for a new racetrack and constantly changing weather conditions. Rolling off for Practice One, Gabe would spend some time re-familiarizing himself with the track and its hidden pockets of grip after being absent from the speedway for the past year. GSR would wind up tenth quick while finding their sea legs, and ready to make some changes to improve on the feel for their driver. Only one more practice session was scheduled for the day, and Sommers made the most of it, turning a total of 35 laps before settling for a sixth place effort of the twenty cars that took time.
Saturday would see a threatening forecast of high winds and heavy rain derail the efforts to get the race in at its normally scheduled time, but one practice session would still be available to teams before they went ahead with a qualifying session planned out to beat the inclement weather. During Saturday practice, Gabe would once again churn out more than his fair share of laps on track, making 46 circuits before calling it quits, earning a fifth place spot on the leaderboard for his efforts. A quick turnaround and a trip through pre-qualifying technical inspection then set the stage for time trials, with all teams understanding that raw speed was paramount with a lack of an invert for the 250 lap feature event. Sommers understood the assignment, laying down an absolutely mega lap of 15.544, good enough to lock down a third place starting spot for Sunday’s Rattler 250.
Sunday provided clear skies and plenty of sun for the UARA National Tour, with a total of 21 cars ready to take the green flag for the 49th Annual Hardee’s Rattler 250. The green flag dropped and GSR surged forward, immediately slotting into the second running position as the field jockeyed into a single file snake. For fifty laps, Gabe would hold down the spot, before slowly dropping to eighth place as he began to conserve his equipment for the grueling marathon ahead. At halfway, the Travis Sauter led crew made a few changes at the request of their driver, looking to improve on the balance and speed of the No. 15 Ford Mustang. The result was a little more speed squeezed out of the car, with Gabe finding himself all the way up to sixth place in a rather uneventful race, but a late caution would change all of that. A missed shift by a driver jumbled the field down the frontstretch, causing Sommers to be turned sideways in the middle of turns one and two. Losing a lot of ground on the field, The No. 15 would be shuffled back to tenth place with only fifteen laps to go. Through sheer determination, Gabe was able to drive back to the tail of the field and make up one spot before the checkered flag.
Although not the finish GSR was hoping for, the team still felt like they had accomplished something special at the end of the day. Running out front for a good portion of a marquee race always feels good, and loading the car into the hauler in one piece is always a treat. Gabe and the crew will look forward to picking up their season in the Midwest very soon, stay tuned for where they will end up next!