Two top 10 finishes highlight Indy week for Chad Boat

The week leading up to the Indianapolis 500 is a busy time for USAC race teams, as Chad and the Billy Boat Motorsports team had three races in four nights.  Chad finished the week with three strong performances, as he brought the pavement sprint car home in 6th at Anderson, battled a tough Terre Haute track to 8th in the dirt sprint car, and persevered in the pavement midget to a 14th place finish in the annual “Night Before the 500 midget event.

The first event of the week was the “Glen Neibel Classic”, a 100 lap sprint car race on the paved ¼ mile high banks of the Anderson Speedway.  It would mark Chad’s first ever race in the pavement sprint car.  Chad did a great job in qualifying, as he ended in the 6th position and would start the feature event from the pole position.
The team had been battling an engine miss during practice, and thought they had it fixed for the feature.  But at the drop of the green flag it was apparent they had not, and Chad dropped to third on the first lap.  He was able to hold his own during the 100 lapper, running in 4th at lap 75 when he got caught in the middle of a 8-car pile-up,  suffering a flat right front tire.  The team changed the tire under the red flag and Chad recovered to a 6th place finish.

The next event was the fast half-mile at Terre Haute Speedway.  Chad qualified in the 15th position and finished the heat in 5th, narrowly missing the transfer. He came back to finish 4th in the semi, and started the feature in the 13th position.  He made steady progress in the feature, racing high and right against the wall fighting his way to and 8th place finish.

The annual “Night Before the 500” midget race at O’reilly Raceway Park had 56 cars sign in for the event, and Chad and the team struggled in practice to find the balance of the car.  Qualifying proved to be very close,  as positions 3 through 30 were separated by only 2 tenths of a second.  Chad qualified in the 21st position, struggling with a loose race car. Changes made to the car for the heat race did not help, and Chad would have to run the last chance race, which he finished 2nd, transferring to the 50 lap feature..
At the drop of the green Chad made a great start and had moved up 6 positions to 18th in only 2 laps.  While attempting a 3-wide pass after a restart on lap three Chad got squeezed down low, spinning the car into the infield.  He restarted in the 24th position but had flat spotted the tires, and struggled with the handling of the car the rest of the race.  He persevered to the finish, staying out of trouble and coming home in the 14th position.

“I think we had a pretty good run this week,” Chad said after the weekend.  “I would have liked to run better at ORP, but we will take what we learned and apply it for next time.”