Jordon Mallett wrapped up a month-long trip to Florida by earning his first top five of the season last Saturday at Southern Raceway.
The dirt oval hosted a USCS Series doubleheader that began on Friday with Mallett drawing the back row of a heat race.
“I almost think it has to be chalked up as talent to draw on the back row for so many weeks,” he quipped. “That was frustrating. We normally run pretty well there and we thought we dug ourselves out of the hole, but we didn’t have enough points accumulated and started 12th.”
Mallett’s run from eighth to fifth place in the heat race ranked 12 th in overall points, giving him the 12thstarting position in the A Main.
“I was really good on short runs, but I wasn’t as good on the long runs,” he said. “We got up to seventh and could see the guys in the top five, but never could get there. We took those notes and rolled them into Saturday.”
Mallett’s charge from 12th to seventh was tied for the second-most positions gained.
The drawing luck changed early on Saturday when Mallett pulled the pole position for a heat race.
“We had a good draw and started at the front of the heat race and won it,” he said. “That put us in the dash, which is good. Once again the draw didn’t go in our favor though as we pulled the No. 6 and had to start last in the dash. We tried some things with the setup and I didn’t really like them as much.”
Mallett finished where he started – sixth – in the dash to line up on the outside of the third row for the main event.
“We tuned on it for the feature and we were able to get it decent on the short runs, but it really came on in the long runs,” he said. “That’s normally our goal. We made a good stride there and we were able to claw ourselves forward. The longer the race went the better we got. I got into the top five and had a really, really good race car.”
Mallett placed fourth for his first top five of the year.
“It was nice to have a couple of solid results in Milton and end our month in Florida with a top five,” he said. “We’re grateful to get so many laps this early in the season and I think those will pay off in the near future.”
QUICK RESULTS –
Feb. 24 – Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla. – Heat race: 5 (8); Feature: 7 (12).
Feb. 25 – Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla. – Heat race: 1 (1); Dash: 6 (6); Feature: 4 (6).
SEASON STATS –
9 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 4 top 10s, 4 top 15s, 5 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
ILP PR
