A Second Place Finish at Brighton Speedway Highlights Belyea’s Weekend
Craig Revelle – Finish Line Web Design
September 7, 2010
As with many weekends this year for Greg Belyea, Jeff Mutton and the Excel Tower Service team, they traveled to Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park in Lafargeville, New York on Friday night, and then stayed closer to home on Saturday night with a regular show at the Brighton Speedway.
On Friday night, the team arrived in Lafargeville, New York, and went to work on their cars, getting ready for the final night of points at Chapman’s Can Am Motorsports Park. Despite missing a few events at Can Am, Belyea still entered the night sixth place in overall track points. Starting 10th in his qualifying heat, Belyea moved up quickly moving up to seventh by the end of lap one. Just two laps later he had advanced to sixth and that is where he finished. Jeff Mutton started the race from eighth and he advanced to seventh place at the end of the qualifying heat. Rain was forecasted for Friday night, and it held off until just before the Late Model feature. As Belyea and Mutton sat lined up in the staging area, the call came over the radio that the rest of the night’s program had been postponed. The race will be made up on September 17th as the first race of the evening before the scheduled program.
On Saturday night at Brighton, both Belyea and Mutton were anxious to put on a show for the home track fans. The night started off great for Mutton, as he picked up the win in the first qualifying race. Belyea started from the back of his heat and moved up to second before the checkered flag. For the 25 lap feature, Mutton started from sixth, and Belyea lined up in 12th place. Both Excel Tower Service drivers looked strong early, as Mutton advanced to fourth before 10 lap had been completed. Mutton was having his best run of the season by far, and Belyea was having an impressive run as well, climbing through the pack as well. On lap 17, two cars got tangled on the frontstretch and Mutton ended up in the wall where it rolled and came to rest with the front end still up on the wall. Mutton was ok, but there was some heavy damage on his Excel Tower Service Late Model. On the restart, Belyea lined up in third place, and took over second just three laps later. For the final five circuits around Brighton Speedway, Belyea battled for the top spot, but settled for a second place finish.
“Both Jeff and I had great runs tonight. It is really dissapointing that it ended up the way it did for him. The car is heavily damaged, but the driver is ok, and that is the most important thing”, says Belyea in reference to Mutton’s lap 17 crash. “We had a great car, and we had a good battle for the win at the end of the race, we are looking forward to coming back to Brighton next Saturday night”.
Just the one race at Brighton will fill the schedule for Belyea this weekend. Both Belyea and Mutton will be back at Can Am the following weekend, September 17th with the make up feature from last Friday night as well as a regular show. On September 25th, The Late Models have been added to the Applefest Weekend to make up for the Summer Sizzler rainout back in July.
For more information on Greg Belyea, Jeff Mutton and the Excel Tower Service racing team, please visit our new website, www.exceltowerracing.com
