Cole Anderson Eager For Pro Late Model Return At New Smyrna

After a long hiatus from pro late model racing, Minnesota native Cole Anderson will be returning to where his season’s success began on Saturday night. Driving the No. 97 Timberwolf Plastics Toyota, Cole will once again tackle the New Smyrna Speedway, the same facility where he captured the World Series of Asphalt championship in February.

 

The last time Anderson raced this particular car was in March, where he started on the outside pole at Five Flags Speedway and challenged for the lead multiple times before a late-race incident eliminated him from contention. Likewise, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series veteran and former series champion Mike Skinner raced the same car to the lead at Bristol in May before an incident with a slower car also eliminated him from that event, a crash which required extensive repairs on the car.

 

“We haven’t done anything with this car since Mike crashed it at Bristol,” Cole explained about his No. 97 Toyota’s chassis. “Since we have a good baseline at New Smyrna and know what works there, this is basically a trial run before we head back to Pensacola next week. That race has a lot on the line since we’re chasing a starting spot in the year-end Snowflake 100, so we want to make sure it’s right before we go.”

 

While New Smyrna and Pensacola are both half-mile ovals, the two layouts could not be more different. New Smyrna’s high banked, paperclip-style shape is a far cry from the more round, sweeping corners of Pensacola’s Five Flags Speedway. But for the ATF & Gunslinger team, it’s not a matter of dialing the car in for next week as much as they are shaking it down to ensure its behavior is predictable and exactly what they expect. 

 

“We’ve always had a really good baseline for New Smyrna, so that always helps,” said Anderson. “We’ve had a lot of success there, so we really like racing there. Last time we ran at Pensacola, we had a really good car. We just want to take both of these weeks and build off of them as we work toward the Snowflake in December. For us, that’s what these two weeks are all about.”

 

In an effort to ensure the car is as close to the form it had in earlier races this season, the No. 97 team has painstakingly examined and assessed every component of the car Cole will be racing this weekend. Though racing comes with no guarantees against random part failures or bad luck, the team is confident they have done everything possible to put Cole and the No. 97 Toyota in a place to compete for the win on Saturday night. 

 

The team has scheduled a test session on Friday prior to on-track action at New Smyrna, giving them extra time to learn any new quirks of their racecar and its behavior. Following the Friday test, on-track action will begin at 5pm on Saturday with divisional practice prior to time trials and pole qualifying which is scheduled to start the official racing program just after 7:30pm ET.

 

For more information and the latest updates about Cole Anderson visit his website at ColeAndersonRacing.com. He can also be found on social media such as Facebook (@ColeAndersonRacing), Twitter (@Cole_Anderson97) and Instagram (@Cole_Anderson97).

 

Cole Anderson PR