10-01-2012 – Lee Faulk Racing and it’s youngest driver, Pietro Fittipaldi have been inching closer and closer to that elusive first victory of the season. With one race left on the schedule, everything came together and the team pulled off what may be the biggest win the the history of Lee Faulk Racing.
The Fall Brawl is an annual 200 lap event held at the end of the regular season that sees many big name drivers come to try and capture the trophy. Rain would cancel most of practice on Friday and Saturday of the event this past weekend, forcing teams to go straight to qualifying mode. Fittipaldi would qualify 5th in the 22 car field with a time of 15.407.
This was a decent effort and it would not take long for Pietro to make his move to the front.
“The first 100 laps we were just trying to work our way into position and save our left side tires the best we could knowing we would get two new right sides at the halfway break.” Michael Faulk said of the game plan this past Saturday.
At halfway, Fittipaldi had moved from 5th into the 3rd position. David Garbo Jr. and Austin McDaniel traded the lead back and fourth in the first one hundred laps as well as the first 30 laps of the second segment.
Pietro made his move past McDaniel for second spot with about 75 laps to go in the race. He would then run right on the rear bumper of Garbo Jr. where he would stay until a restart with about 40 laps to go in the race. Pietro restarted on the outside front row and kept his momentum up on the high side to get by Garbo Jr. He then started pulling away from the field opening up a 7 car length lead on second place.
All was going well until a caution flew at the end of the race resulting in a green,white,checkered finish.
Fittipaldi was able to hold of a late race charge and pull away by 4 car lengths on the last lap to win the 2012 annual Fall Brawl 200 lap event.
“This is the biggest race of the year and the biggest win of my career. I cant thank my team, Lee Faulk Racing, and all my sponsors enough for their support. We fought through adversity all season even when the odds were against us and we won when it counted the most.” Fittipaldi stated after the race.
LFR’s limited late model driver Christian Calvo had rearend troubles in the first practice which delegated him to a back up car which was to be driven by Nelson Canache Jr.
Canache was nice enough to give his seat up for his teammate Calvo. Calvo had never turned a lap in the car before quaifying in which he turned a very solid lap of 16.15. Calvo would start 7th for the 50 lap limited feature.
On the initial start, radio communication issues forced Calvo to pit under the first caution.
It took him about 25 laps to feel out the car and get comfortable then he started making a move towards the front. Christian ended up in the 9th position after a long green flag run made it nearly impossible to catch up with the leaders from the rear of the field.
Lee Faulk Racing has one more race this season at Hickory Motor Speedway. This is a 100 lap limited late model special event on October 27. LFR will field a full stable of cars for drivers Nelson Canache Jr, Christian Calvo, and Italian, Davide Amaduzzi in this event.
The next race for Pietro Fittipaldi will be November 3rd at Rockingham Speedway