Colangelo Overcomes Brake Issues for Seventh at Smyrna

Against the Eight-Ball, Young Racer Soldiers On for Top-10

Jeremy Colangelo knows every nut and bolt inside of a racecar.  He knows how things work and how to make his #05 racecars go fast.  He also knows that sometimes, no matter how much knowledge you and your race team have and how prepared you are, some things can not go according to plan.

But Colangelo also knows that when mishaps do happen, a good driver and team can not just give up.  That's why rather than hang their heads when brake problems crept up in the March 22nd Brighthouse Challenge Series Super Late Model event at New Smyrna Speedway (FL), Colangelo and the #05 team soldiered on for a seventh-place finish.

Colangelo overcame brake issues for a top-10 in New Smyrna.

"We're not really happy with that finish. We got going pretty good in qualifying, but we didn't go as good as went today in practice. In the last lap of qualifying, I locked up the rear brakes going into turn three. We thought it was because I went in too low and went into the marbles. It ended up biting us here in the race. The front master cylinder ended up going out. About 10 laps into the race, my pedal was going to the floor. I finally told my spotter and he said to 'ride it out.' So, I rode it out.

"After the race, we were trying to analyze it.  My guys are such a great group.  They keep telling me 'at least we're loading it up in one piece and we'll take it from there.'  We've got this caliber of race team and little bugs to be worked out here and there.  As many people know, we lost our crew chief at the beginning of the week, so it's been a trying week. We just proved here that even with issues, we'll prevail.  We didn't win but the car's in one piece."

Colangelo will be back out with high hopes of getting back on track on April 5th in the Goodyear Challenge Series event at Columbia Motorsports Park.