Engine Woes Keep Jo from Winchester Success
Johanna Bides Her Time Early at Winchester Speedway (IN), Before Engine Trouble Creeps Up
doing it early in Sunday’s race. Long qualified 14th, but it wasn’t qualifying where the big money paid. Instead, Long put her focus on the 400-lap race and was playing out her strategy when a motor issue sidelined the young racer from the event just 34 laps into it.
“I thought I qualified better than 14th, but we were excited about the race,” said Long. “But early on, the engine started to feel weird. Then, after one of the restarts, the engine just went bad. The caution came back out and the crew was thinking it was just a tire, but it was more than that.
“I was just focused on going 400 laps. There’s a lot that goes on in a long race like that. I just wanted to keep the car out of trouble and on the lead lap at the beginning, but the engine didn’t last for us.”
Long and her team are already hard at work making the necessary repairs to her #10 car for some more big races to come this Fall and Winter. Next up for Long is the Blizzard Series Super Late Model finale at Mobile (AL) on Saturday, October 24th, with the All-American 400 in Nashville on November 1st, the North-South Shootout at Concord Speedway (NC) on November 8th and the Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway (FL) on December 6th.
Johanna Long looked at her first foray into the short track battle known as the Winchester 400 at Indiana's Winchester Speedway knowing that a strong run was going to be hard-earned. It’s not that Long nor her Panhandle Motorsports team were not up to the challenge, rather 400 laps around a high-banked, ultra-fast quarter-mile track can take its toll on even the most seasoned and decorated racers.
But, Long knew exactly what she had to do and was well on her way to
Jo had a strong run in the works in Winchester.
