Gervais Caps Season With Strong Milk Bowl Run
Becker Posts Best Career Finish In Season-Ending Event
SOUTH PARIS, Maine – As a rookie in the Late Model division at Thunder Road International Speedbowl, Brett Gervais learned all there was to learn about the ups and downs that come with racing one of the northeast’s most demanding tracks.
For Gervais, though, there was light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a Top-10 finish in the 51st annual People’s United Bank Milk Bowl on Sunday, October 6. Gervais finished inside the Top-12 in each of the three segments to place eighth overall in his first Milk Bowl start.
“That’s the fastest car we’ve had all year there,” said Gervais, who’s father, Reno Gervais, was a regular in the division for years. “It obviously makes it a lot easier for you when the car’s going good like that. I was very impressed with how it went, and we finished in front of guys that have been racing in the Milk Bowl for quite a while.
“I was definitely happy with the crew giving me a piece that could do that.”
Gervais’ wasn’t the only Crazy Horse Racing chassis to impress in the annual season finale at the quirky quarter-mile in Barre, Vt. Veteran Richard Green Racing driver Joey Becker finished 14th overall in the Milk Bowl for his best career finish in the event.
Becker never finished outside the top half of the 30-car field in any of the segments.
Gervais, of Island Pond, Vt., finished 18th in the final Late Model standings at Thunder Road, but he said the team got much better in the final weeks of the season.
“We definitely built toward (the Milk Bowl). We worked so hard all season, and sometimes it got frustrating. You’ll go there and it can be great one night, and you’ll go again and it’s like a totally different car.
“We kept getting better though, and sometimes getting better means going to the track and being worse than you were the last time – but going away knowing why you were worse. Sometimes you have to take a couple steps back in order to take those steps forward.”
Gervais plans to return to Thunder Road for the full season in 2014, with an eye on making more of an impact in the championship picture. Ideally, he’d like to win races and finish as high as the Top-3 or Top-5 in the final standings.
“I love going to Thunder Road,” Gervais said. “I know my dad’s been going there forever, and I wanted to feel what he felt out there. The struggle and how hard it is – it’s what makes it all worth it in the end. That’s what Thunder Road is to me. When you finally get there and everything’s in place and you run well, you just can’t beat that feeling.”
He credits Crazy Horse Racing owner Mitch Green with being a voice that his team could count on, but Gervais also said that some of what he learned from Green is that you can’t always have somebody else try to solve problems for you.
Sometimes you’ve got to work out some of the bugs on your own.
“Mitch can only be there so much – but any time we had a question, he helped us get to a solution,” Gervais said. “It’s almost like you have to get to a point where you are in a position to take advantage of the knowledge those guys have.”
By the time 2013 ended at Thunder Road, Gervais was in just such a position.
Sources: Travis Barrett/Crazy Horse Racing PR