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| 04-25-2005 | Previous edition: 04-22-2005 |
        
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Printer-friendly version Best of Four: Senior wins third Grand Prix in four years
Senior Writer Last year, senior Timothy O’Brien looked from the pits as the final laps of the Purdue Grand Prix roared past him, light rain falling on his broken No. 3 car. This year, O’Brien, from the School of Mechanical Engineering Technology, jumped out of the No.3 car in victory lane as a three-time victor, winning the 48th Purdue Grand Prix. O’Brien, who races for Wiley Hall’s Excalibur 1 racing team, immediately hugged his crew chief, Joel Van Der Schie, a senior in the School of Mechanical Engineering Technology, amongst the snowflakes falling on the late April Saturday. "It’s pretty awesome," O’Brien said. "Our goal was to come back and win this race." Van Der Schie and the rest of the Excalibur 1 crew also remember last year — how close they were to winning and how disappointing the loss was. The crew all wore gray T-shirts as motivation with the large bold title — "Unfinished Business." "We would have won (this race) four times instead of three," Van Der Schie said. "We had to come back and prove we had what it takes to win this race." The Excalibur 1 team did have its hardships this year. O’Brien, who is an engineer for NASCAR Busch Series driver Reed Sorenson, missed the first day of qualifications while working for Sorenson in Fort Worth, Texas. O’Brien qualified in row 13 after missing day one, leaving some people to doubt O’Brien’s chances of winning a third Grand Prix. "I was told I couldn’t win from 25th position," O’Brien said. "It just made me more determined." With O’Brien in 25th, last year’s winner, Clayton Smith, a junior in the School of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, took the pole position and controlled the early part of the race despite an early wreck on lap 5. "The tires were pointing in two different directions," Smith said. "(The car) was still pretty strong but driving it was wearing me out." O’Brien, meanwhile, was knifing his way through the field and in the top five by lap 40. "We just had to work through a lot of traffic," Van Der Schie said. "We had the openings and Tim did a great job." Smith lost the lead on lap 103, being passed by the No. 77 cart, driven by Dan Parras, a junior in the School of Construction Engineering and Management. Smith quickly reclaimed the lead on lap 106, but then was involved in a crash that knocked him and Team Smith out of the race. "I made a right hand turn and someone was in the middle of the track," Smith said. "Right before I hit them, someone behind me blasted me in the right rear tire and busted the axle. "Once I saw the axle, I knew we were done for the day." With Smith out, Parras of Cary Racing 1 took the lead at lap 107. Parras began to increase his lead over O’Brien, but Parras spun off the track after an accident on lap 154. O’Brien was able to avoid the crash and take the lead, pulling away from second place finisher Parras. "When the No. 2 cart spun out, I knew it was down to No. 77 and myself," O’Brien said. "It would have been a whale of a race at the end, but people got inpatient and spun out. "I just took advantage of it." O’Brien, who won in 2002 and 2003, is the second three-time winner of the Grand Prix. Ian Smith won three consecutive races from 1993-1995 and is Clayton’s brother. "To be able to run almost every lap here in four years is an awesome deal," O’Brien said. "It puts us up somewhere in Purdue history." Of the three races won, O’Brien said his final one is really special. "To be able to leave here on a high note is pretty awesome," O’Brien said. "We finished what we did last year." Other top five finishers were Patrick Moore of McAleer-Lundin Racing, a senior in the School of Mechanical Engineering Technology, who finished in third place. Nik Rooney of Theta Xi, a junior in the School of Management, finished fourth and Matt Dennig, a senior in the School of Mechanical Engineering Technology, racing for Shreve and Earhart Halls placed fifth. Printer-friendly version |
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