Story By: EMILY WINSLOW / ASHLEY CAPPETTA RACING – ABBOTTSTOWN, PA – Ashley Cappetta and her team made their third start of the season at Lincoln Speedway on a long and rainy night. After a lengthy rain delay Lincoln got the show in for the race teams and the fans.
Ashley Cappetta and the Gettysburg Trading Post, Mike’s Towing and Recovery, Yesteryear Antique Center, Stoner’s Auction, O’Brien’s Fuel and Service, Iron Horse Trains, Republican Club of Hanover No. 89 were back in action on Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway.
The night started off with a pill draw of 50, which was higher than last week and lined Cappetta up seventh in her heat race. Ashley started seventh and finished seventh in her heat, “We missed the set up in the heat race a little bit. I felt like I was rolling the right rear and the car was hard to handle from the middle of the heat through the end.” Prior to the racing action, there was a lengthy rain delay on Saturday night which meant the track had a lot of moisture, “At the beginning of the heat the track was still wet and I ran out of tear-offs. Driving into turn 3 there was so much mud on my visor I couldn’t see.”
Ashley lined up fifth for the B-main and would move up to finish fourth putting her in the feature line-up. Cappetta started the 25-lap feature 24th and drove up to finish 15th, “It was tough to start in the back, especially when the track was as fast as it was, but we stayed out of trouble which is 100% a priority for the team.” Saturday’s finish was the best for Cappetta so far this season and it just happened to be the first race of the 2023 MacMor Summer Series for the 358 sprint car division, “Overall it felt good to pass cars and come home in one piece. If it would have stayed green for longer, we would have finished better.”
Saturday night was the first time Cappetta ran the new Hoosier tire compound and after one night Ashley had positive take-aways, “The new tires seemed to work out for me. We didn’t need to make any major changes to the car set up.” One of the features of the new tire is that they can be flipped and potentially reused more than the previous compound, “I did like that the combination of the track conditions and new tire compound allowed us to use the same set of tires all night and they’re still good for another race yet.”
The second race of the MacMor Summer Series is the Dirty 30 at BAPS Motor Speedway on Saturday and Ashley will be there to compete in the #89. The race boasts a hefty purse paying $3,000 to win and $500 to start the 30-lap feature. Originally looking forward to a weekend off to regroup from her busy race and work schedules, Cappetta and the team made the decision to support the race at BAPS and stay true to her season-long goal of getting out of her comfort zone.