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| Lanier Bites Kittleson in Georgia 250...Still Holds Rookie Points Lead | Saturday, April 26th 2003 - ASA - Braselton, GA Travis Kittleson had high hopes and expectations of gaining on ASA points leader Kevin Cywinski at Lanier National Speedway in Braselton, GA this past weekend. Practice and qualifying went right on schedule towards that goal. The fast 3/8 mile bull ring had caused several cars to spin out during practice. In qualifying, Travis pushed a little too hard on his last lap trying to better his first lap and he spun out coming off of turn two. His first lap was still fast enough to put him in the fourth qualifying position.
Travis had his Bob Steele Chevrolet sponsored Monte Carlo on the outside of row two to start the Georgia 250. After several laps running in the fourth position, the second and third place cars made contact and opened up a hole for Travis to attempt to pass. While on the inside of the third place car, a lap car spun coming off turn two. With the third place car on his outside, Travis hit the brakes and tried to pinch the car low on the apron to avoid the sideways car. He was unable to miss the spun car and smashed hard into the front end doing considerable damage.
The crew worked feverishly to repair the severely damaged car. The entire front end had to be cut off and removed. The radiator had been destroyed, an oil line had been severed and the right front suspension had been severely damaged.
After the repairs had been made, Travis was able to go back onto the track to try and pick up some more desperately needed championship points. The crew must have put the car together correctly, because Travis was running lap times two-tenths of a second faster than the leader. After Travis gained all of the points he could possibly gain, he pulled the car off the track to avoid the possibility of damaging the car further.
The 32nd place finish was not what the team had hoped for, but a respectful 4th place qualifying proved yet again that Travis was able to run well at yet another unfamiliar race track. Travis is still in the top five in overall points and is still leading the Rookie of the Year points battle.
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