:::CRA Super Series:::

Special from PASSTIME USA

Mechanical Woes Plague Plante and PASSTIME USA at the Winchester 100
Delta, OH (August 22, 2011) - In racing these days you can buy just about anything you need for your race team, either at a speed shop or from an on-line web site; just get what you need off the shelve and go racing. The one thing you can’t buy is a break, just ask Claude Plante Jr. driver of the PASSTIME USA Chevrolet who couldn’t seem to buy a break Saturday night in the Winchester 100 presented by JEGS.com.

The PASSTIME USA crew spent the last two weeks reworking the Howe Chassis Chevrolet following their seventh place finish at the Rockford Speedway where some contact with another car caused a trailing arm to fail forcing the team to the side lines late in the race. "We tore up a lot of stuff when it broke,"stated Plante Jr. "We worked like crazy the past two weeks get this car back together and ready for Winchester. That’s a track where you can’t afford to have anything go wrong. "We changed our shock package and put a lot of new parts on the car to get ready for Saturday," said team owner Larry Varney.

When the PASSTIME USA Chevrolet hit the track for the first practice session it only took a lap or two for the crew to figure out there was a problem with the engine. Plante brought the car back in to find a cracked spark plug which was the cause of the miss in the engine and at the same time a problem was discovered with the power steering unit.

Unfortunately by the time all the repairs were made practice was over and the Chesterfield Michigan driver had gotten only a few laps of practice on the tricky high backed track.

"We were the fifth car to go out for qualifying and the forth car to go out was on the track and we were still on the scales going through tech. We just made it out in our allotted time but I had no idea how the car was going to handle after we made the changes in the car," said Plante Jr. "We weren’t that far off the top speed but in a close field of cars like we had here on Saturday it was off enough for us to start in the twentieth starting spot.

When the green flag dropped the PASSTIME USA driver raced smart knowing that these high banks of Winchester are known for their share of wrecks and the Saturday didn’t disappoint the fans when it came to crashes. On lap sixty eight the red flag was waved for a crash that saw one car flipping and the other car involved hitting the wall hard. "I tried to race smart and be around for the finish. I was able to work traffic and move up to the seventh spot when the red flag came out for the wreck in turn three. It was close but I drove thought it and didn’t put a scratch on the car. I shut the car off during the red flag and waited for the track crew to get things cleaned up. When we got the word to re-fire our engines the car started then just shut off and would not start," said Plante Jr. After getting a push back to the pits the PASSTIME USA crew worked feverishly and got the car re-fired and back out on the track but now they were twelve laps down. The fourteenth place finished dropped the team to seventh in points just twelve points out of the top five were the team has been for most of the season.

"It just goes to show you that even brand new parts can fail on you. We put the best parts we can buy in this car for Claude and PASSTIME USA so we don’t have this kind of thing happen. I guess sometimes you just can’t get a break, but that’s racing. We will go and test before the next race at Owosso so we don’t have this kind of thing happen again. Claude has won races at Owosso and has a lot of laps under his belt there so we are looking for a strong finish and to get back up into the top five in points again," said Varney.

The next race for the PASSTIME USA Team is September 3^rd at the three eights mile Owosso Speedway. Sponsorship opportunities are available at all levels. Interested parties can contact Trinity Marketing & Development for further details at 704-533-1184.