Colangelo Starting to Shake Bad Luck Gorilla With Top-Five
Orlando Sunbelt Race Goes Jeremy's Way Despite Late Engine Hiccups
Once the bad-luck gorilla completely gets off of Jeremy Colangelo’s back, don’t be surprised to see the Mark Martin Performance / RE/MAX #05 ride in victory lane at tracks across Florida quite soon.
In several recent races, Colangelo has had one of the best cars on the track, but slight bits of bad luck have crept up and kept the #05 from even better results. Even still, Colangelo has managed to still keep his head up and his finishes as strong as possible. As he heads into his next Super Late Model event on April 19th at New Smyrna Speedway, Colangelo is ready to shake the bad luck and get back to his regular winning ways.
“I’m looking forward to going to New Smyrna for the Bright House Challenge Series race,” said Colangelo. “Last time we ran there, we had some brake troubles, but we had a really good car. This time, as long as we’ve got all the bugs worked out, we’re going to go after a win.”
In his most recent SLM event, the April 4th Sunbelt Series race at Orlando SpeedWorld, Colangelo had another stout outing. Even though engine gremlins kept him from a podium finish, he was still able to soldier on to a solid fifth-place finish.
“During the week, we went over there (to Orlando) to practice, so we knew right off the bat that when we unloaded, we’d be pretty good. Sure enough, we were pretty fast and right up there with the guys that
run Super Late Models there regularly. We scuffed our tires during the heat of the day, but we still put the old tires back on for the rest of the afternoon. We didn’t have to do a lot to make the car much better.
“But I kind of let my guys down in qualifying. I went out there and ran an 80-something. When we scuffed earlier, we ran quite a bit faster, so I knew the car was capable of better. We ended up just outside the draw. They inverted the top-five and we started seventh.”
Colangelo then overcame a souring motor to score his first top-five finish of the 2008 Super Late Model season.
“I spun the tires pretty bad on the initial start, but we started picking up some spots. We were running halfway around halfway and we were working on the guys in fourth and third, but I couldn’t get enough bite off the corner to get by them. At the end of the race, we figured out that the motor was firing on only seven cylinders.
“We took the engine down to Steve and the guys Progressive down in Miami and they’re going to go through it and I know they’ll have it back up and running even better than ever. We had a good setup under the car this time, so I know we’ll be good when we go back there.”
Colangelo was set to travel to Columbia Motorsports Park in Lake City, FL on Saturday night, April 5th, but that event was rained out.
Be sure to check out Colangelo’s Mark Martin Performance / RE/MAX #05 on April 19th at New Smyrna Speedway for the Bright House Challenge Series SLM event.
