March 11, 2007

Matthews, NC

Season Kicks Off With Successful Test at Orange County

Josh Butler, and the Butler Motorsports Team, got the 2007 racing season started on Sunday with an Allison Legacy test at Orange County Speedway. The team tested in preparation for this weekends season opener, a 50 lap points race at the Orange County facility in Rougemont, NC.

With Josh starting his second year in the Allison Legacy Series and his second year working with Crew Chief, Blake Harris everyone was excited to get back to the track after the winter break. After a several lap warm up session, and some quick adjustments, Josh looked to be close to last years form turning some impressive laps around the 3/8 mile oval. The communication between Blake and Josh continues to get better and better as they discussed a final set of changes and then put the #11 Monte Carlo back on the track for one last run. That 10 lap run brought the fastest laps of the day and Blake quickly decided that he had seen enough for the day and the car was loaded up to head for home.

Chris Butler on Sunday’s test: “I thought that things went well on Sunday…it was a little bit of a slow start but that’s because I talked Blake into starting the car a little bit tighter leaving the garage. From there, Josh wanted Blake to loosen it up a bunch before he finally got it to a point where he was happy. Its fun to sit back and watch those two (Blake and Josh) work together, they continue to communicate better and better all the time. We’ll see how this Saturday turns out, but I know that we all have high hopes and high expectations. We’re all committed to contending for the championship this year and I truly feel that Josh and Blake have the ability to make it happen.”

Orange County Speedway’s pit gates open this Saturday at 9:30am with practice running from 10:30am to Noon, qualifying getting underway at 12:30pm and the first race taking the track at 2:00pm. Check back next Monday for results!