With the start of the season at Greenville-Pickens Speedway only days away,
Eddie MacDonald and the Grimm Racing Team are ready to improve on last
year’s second place finish in the championship chase. The team has been busy
at work preparing the cars for the challenging ten race schedule and hopes
to jump out of the gate with a big win.
“With the short schedule we cannot afford to have any bad finishes and we
are excited to start in Greenville-Pickens,” said the eleven year veteran.
“We usually do well on tracks that are flat in the turns, so we are looking
forward to a solid run there. We finished third there last season so we will
be looking at our notes and hopefully make a couple of changes to be in a
position at the end to fight for the win.”
MacDonald believes the team’s success is largely based on the fact the crew
has been together for four years and will enter this season unchanged. “One
goal is to keep improving and getting off to a good start is necessary. With
all the crew returning we have an excellent chance of doing just that.
Everyone knows their job and take great pride in doing it well. I couldn’t
ask for a better bunch of guys. Rollie sets the schedule and everyone does
their thing.”
Last season MacDonald posted ten top ten finishes with one win at New
Hampshire Motor Speedway and knows the team cannot afford a letdown saying,
“We ran well last year with top ten runs. We had one out of the top ten but
with only a ten race schedule we cannot even have one bad run. There is a
lot of talent running this year with a lot of money behind them so we will
have to race in the top five each race if we are going to have a chance at
the championship. Every point will be important. Last year it came down to
the final race and we had a shot but it didn’t happen. We can look back at
three races during the season that really cost us. We can’t let that happen
this year.”
MacDonald is also thankful for the continued support of team owner Rob Grimm
saying, “None of this would be possible without Rob and his family. He has
given us everything we need to be successful. Rob continues to upgrade our
equipment every year. He doesn’t say a lot and that is his management style.
He expects us to do well and understands when things don’t go so well. It
has really been a great partnership with him so it would be really great to
win a championship for him. Winning our three races at Loudon was huge for
him but I think a championship would really top the list.”
On Saturday, March 27th when the green flag waves to begin the season,
MacDonald knows a good start is important saying, “We have to qualify up
front and stay there. It is a difficult track to pass on, so having a good
handling car is very important. As I said it is a good track for us but you
have to be able to hug the bottom. The car has to be set up so you can turn
in the center and drive off the corner. We have the same car we finished
third with last year and feel it is capable of getting the win. Everyone has
worked hard all winter and after our eighth place finish at the Showdown in
January, the team is ready to get the real season going. It should be a lot
of fun.”