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April 12th |
BURNS
TAKES SECOND IN RAIN-SHORTENED, CAUTION-FILLED AAA LATE MODEL MAIN |
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Irwindale, Ca. Todd Burns settled
for a second place finish in Saturday night's rain-shortened,
accident-marred AAA 50-lap main, which concluded on lap 34.
In a pre-race ceremony, Ed Lopes of Villa Roma Sausage
Company, the primary sponsor on the #4, presented a check to
the families of our fallen military heroes from the Southern
California area. On hand was the family of USMC PFC Francisco
Martinez Flores, from Duarte, who lost his life on March 25th
when his tank plunged off a bridge during a severe sandstorm
and landed in the Euphrates River. Mr. Lopes presented a
portion of the donation to the family, which was also joined
by a color guard for the emotion-filled presentation. |
After the presentation, the #4 took to the
track for the 6-lap, 6-car
dash. Burns, who qualified fifth, finished in the third
position. The team made a few changes to the car for the main
event. The 33-car field rolled onto the track, with the #4
starting from the third row, inside. Burns followed the
leaders for a few laps then started to make his way to the
front. A caution flew for a slow car on the track. On the
restart at lap 23, the field took the green with the pace
setter stopping suddenly on the front straight piling up the
cars behind for a red flag. Burns took evasive action, but
was slightly caught up in the mix of things. He sustained
minor front-end damage but was able to continue. When the
race restarted, Burns was in second with Mike Price leading
the pack. Burns and Price battled for a few laps until the
caution eventually came out for rain on lap 34 in the
accident-filled race.
In the on-track interview, Burns stated, "I want to thank Villa
Roma and all of my sponsors on this #4. It's an honor to be
affiliated with a company like Villa Roma and I also want to
thank the troops for fighting for our freedom so we can come
out here and do things like this. I think we had something
for Mike if it would have stayed green, but we'll take this."
In the post-race tech area Todd continued, "The damage to our
car luckily is all cosmetic. It was a crazy night of racing
and we were fortunate to stay out of serious trouble. I want
to thank Gary Collins for building a great chassis and for
working with us, Ron's Rear Ends, Maropulos Racing Engines,
and of course all my guys."
Burns Motorsports will return to Irwindale Speedway this coming
Saturday night, April 19th. |
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