Rette Jones Racing (RJR) driver Dominique Van Wieringen was one driver that didn’t want to see this past Monday’s Visit Hampton Virginia 150 end at Langley (Va.) Speedway.
Making her first start in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East for RJR, Van Wieringen stormed into the spotlight with a fast No. 30 Durobyte Ford and contended for the win before settling for a career-best third.
Van Wieringen often noted as one of the most talented female drivers in North America recovered from an uncharacteristic practice and a 12th place qualifying effort to record her fourth career top-five in K&N and her third top-three finish in the last four races.
Oh, and that another race? It was a solid fifth on the road course of New Jersey Motorsports Park last fall, where the Canadian led a race-high 22 laps.
Quickly, Van Wieringen hustled her car inside the top-10 and over the course of the short 150 laps maximized the most out of her race car, while conserving her tires before making a mad dash to the front in the second-half before running out of time to catch Todd Gilliland and Chase Purdy.
Still, the performance on Monday night was met with hoorays and applauds where the 22-year-old proved that despite the limited track time this season, she still has the finesse and talent to make a well-balanced car work to its limits.
“I’m really appreciative of the opportunity at Langley,” said Van Wieringen. “We had to work on the car from practice to qualifying, but once I got into that routine and settled, we were flying. No doubt, we had one of the fastest cars at Langley, I just think we ran out of laps.
“Still, this was a great boost for me, my family and of course my sponsor Durobyte. Maybe, I’ll get an opportunity to get compete in another race before the end of the year. If not, I think I made the most of the chance given and hope the 2018 season brings more racing for me.”
Van Wieringen was pinch-hitting for RJR regular K&N East Series driver Tyler Dippel who was compete in the General Tire GRABBER 100 at the DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds, where the Wallkill, New York native was eyeing his first career ARCA win in his third start of the season.
Just a few weeks ago, Dippel driving for AM Racing and their development partner Win-Tron Racing in a collaborative effort with Rette Jones Racing contended for the race win at Springfield, but settled for third.
The team once again had a shot to compete and contend for the win, but were an innocent victim in a wreck coming to the checkered flag and had to settle for an 18th place finish.
For team principal Mark Rette, he said he couldn’t ask anymore from his two drivers – both were in the hunt for Victory Lane.
“I’m a proud owner, mentor and coach this week,” offered Rette. “Both Tyler and Dominique did amazing for the Rette Jones Racing banner several hundred miles apart. “It was great to see the team in Langley work so well together – even though they haven’t worked with Dominique all season long.
“I think her performance is a good boost for the K&N team and will carry for Tyler when he returns to the No. 30 TYCAR Trenchless / D and A Concrete Contractor Inc. Ford for the final two races of the year at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Dover at the end of the month.”
For more information on Tyler Dippel, please check out TylerDippel.com, his Facebook page (Tyler Dippel Racing) or on Instagram @tylerdippel.
Dippel tweets too. Follow him @Tyler_Dippel.
Follow Dominique Van Wieringen on Twitter @DominiqueRacing or visit Dominiqueracing.com and like her on Facebook.com.
RJR PR
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