Special from Mingus Motorsports

 

Mingus Overcomes Adversity to Make Snowball field

 

By Terrell Davis
Mason Mingus continues to defy the odds.  The young driver from Brentwood, TN wrestled adversity to the matt when he qualified for the prestigious Snowball Derby, the nation’s premier Super Late Model event, after a last minute motor change in his brand new racecar. Add a spin in practice and having to overcome a qualifying penalty and Mingus said he is very happy to have even made the Snowball derby field in his  Kentucky/Tennessee Dial 811 Before You Dig sponsored Super Late Model.

“I am extremely happy to be in the field for the 43rd Snowball Derby,” Mingus said, shortly after learning that his qualifying time of 16.717 seconds placed him solidly in the field. “We dropped a cylinder in our new engine yesterday and had to pull the motor out of our backup car, so we were really short on practice. Then we had a problem with tech and received a penalty that allowed us only one lap instead of two to qualify, so, of course, we are happy that we made the field on our speed and don’t have to race our way into the Snowball.”
Mingus, who celebrated his 16th birthday in November, has overcome the odds already this season when he won the Ken Ten Late Model Series Championship after missing the series’ first race of the year. He also picked up a victory at Salem Speedway after his crew overcame some mechanical issues on his racecar shortly before the start of the race. A late season surge in good finishes in the CRA Super Late Model Series helped him and his team decide to try and make the Snowball Derby field.

Mingus said he felt that if he had not been given the one-lap qualifying penalty he could have knocked another tenth or more from his qualifying time.  “I feel like I could have turned a 16.58 or 59,” he said from pit road shortly after qualifying wrapped up with NACAR driver Cale Gale grabbing the pole with a record run. “We were in a group of drivers that all qualified within 13-thousands of a second, so if I’d had the extra lap I could have possibly picked up another tenth or two and probably improved my starting position by 10 or so positions. But, when it all said and done, we are racing in the Snowball Derby and to just make the race gives me and my team a great deal of satisfaction. Everything else is just icing on the cake.”  The Snowball Derby takes the green flag on Sunday and can be heard live on Speed51.com