General Tire 125 - Race Review

Moorseville, NC, May 2, 2022 – For the second race in a row, a mechanical gremlin halted an otherwise decent day for Stephanie and her Fast Track Racing Team at the General Tire 125.

Highlighting our Partners

Being a stone’s throw away from her home track, her longtime Sponsors Jason & Kevin Makarewicz made the Trek to watch their driver on track!

In addition to them, Council Cup made a return to the quarter panel for their regional sponsorship.

General Tire 125 Review

Being the Second of Two tracks on the ARCA Menard’s East Schedule she had not been to, Stephanie Geared up for her first trip to the ‘Monster Mile’.

Heading into the week, she sought out the advise of her team on how to approach the track and what to expect from the race. “Think Bristol, but bigger and faster” said Andy Hillenburg.

Title Sponsor and official tire supplier of ARCA, General Tire, brought a new compound for the Right Side, adding a new wrinkle to the team strategy.

This week, the order of business was a combination practice/qualifying session to shakedown and set a fast time. This allows the series to save on time.

In her session, she made one run of 10 laps, improving every circuit. With the rule that you have to start on your practice tires, Moyer elected to forgo any further practice after placing P12.

“I felt comfortable, and I really didn’t want to lose that set of tires and fall back during the race.”

She began the race from the outside of row 6, and quickly got past her teammate before the Fast Track team began to experience a series of Mechanical woes.

On lap 5, Ed Pompa’s #11 began to lose power, ceding the 11th spot in the process and having to retire on lap 7.

Her other two teammates, Tim Monroe (#10) and Tommy Vigh Jr. (#12) both suffered power issues in their cars as well. Tim retired lap 8 and Tommy made it to lap 29 before a powertrain vibration sidelined him.

Stephanie Suffered an issue of her own on lap 20, with the car cutting off power entirely off turn 4 while running 11th and climbing. “I don’t have Power” said Moyer over the Radio.

Unfortunately, to stay out of the way of oncoming traffic, she had to scrub so much speed off she rolled to a stop just outside pit entrance, bringing out the day’s first caution.

With the help of a wrecker, she was pushed back to her box, where the crew assessed under the hood. After cycling the ignition, the power came back.

After the green flag flew, Stephanie Continued her Run, trying to salvage what she could from a rough start to the race. Despite this, she picked up a vibration in the Left Front.

The First Race break occurred Lap 40, and the team serviced her Evergreen Raceway Toyota, topping off the Fuel and inspecting the tires, finding damage to the Left Front Tire.

Following the tire change and conclusion of the Race break, Stephanie restarted in 12th, and ran into yet another problem. This time, the transmission popped out of 3rd gear.

“If it could have happened, it did” laughed John Szulczewski, her spotter. “We’ll get better after this, though we could use a little luck”.

With the popping out of gear issue not getting better, and the vibration from before coming back, the team called it a day after 38 laps.

“We have some work to do, but I know we will have these issues fixed next week” said John.

What’s Next?

The Next Race on the schedule will be a quick turn around, with the Music City 200 from the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, May 7th, 2022.

Before that, the full race from Dover will be airing on USA Network, May 6th, 2022 (1PM ET)

Sponsors: Busch #accelerateher, Evergreen Raceway Park, #Poweredbyfans, Highland Social Club, Fast Track High Performance Driving School, American Legion Post #473