Jason Sides Aiming For Smooth Weekend In Texas With World Of Outlaws
Story By: SHAWN MILLER / SIDES MOTORSPORTS – GIBSONTON, FL – Jason Sides is seeking a smooth weekend as he returns to World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series competition this Friday and Saturday in Texas.
Sides will compete on Friday at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige and on Saturday at LoneStar Speedway in Kilgore for the East Texas LoneStar Shootout.
“Our debut at Cotton Bowl Speedway in 2016 was follow the leader without much passing and when we ran at LoneStar Speedway last year we were caught up in a crash,” he said. “Hopefully we can have a couple of good nights this weekend and get back on the right track.”
Sides was hampered by mechanical issues last weekend during the Ronald Laney Memorial King of the 360s at East Bay Raceway Park.
The tripleheader began on Thursday when Sides placed fifth in a heat race before he won a B Main to transfer into the 17th starting position for the 25-lap A Main.
“We were really good early in the feature,” he said. “We picked up a few spots in the first couple of laps and were battling for a top 10 most of the race.”
Unfortunately, a mechanical problem sent the team pitside with only four laps remaining while running 10th. Sides was credited with a 23rd-place result.
The team changed engines prior to Friday’s show to a 23-year-old engine Sides has relied on sparingly. Sides placed sixth in a heat race, second in a B main and 17th in the main event.
The weekend wrapped up on Saturday with Sides finishing fifth in a heat race to miss locking into the A Main by only one position. However, late in the race the engine developed a problem that was unable to be fixed and Sides was forced to scratch from the remainder of the event.
“We certainly didn’t get the results out of the weekend like we wanted, but it’s always a great weekend to spend down there with Kimball Wetherington and some of the people from Wetherington Tractor Service, Inc., as well as all of our fans and friends in that part of the country,” he said. “Now we’ll shift gears back to World of Outlaws competition in Texas before we head to the West Coast for a few weeks.”
