Gaulding Joins Precision; Gdovic Running IMSA
Gdovic in Xfinity field at Texas
Gray Gaulding parted ways with NTS Motorsports last month. Gaulding and his sponsor Krispy Kreme Doughnuts joined Red Horse Racing for a partial Camping World Truck Series schedule. The NASCAR Next driver is completing the balance of his NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule for Precision Performance Motorsports.
“They called us and indicated that they were going to be leaving NTS,” Precision Performance Motorsports owner Richard Gdovic said. “They were looking for a home for Gray where he could progress and have a good shot at the championship. Get some more training under his belt with a team like ours.”
Richard Gdovic has fielded a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East team since 2011 for his son Brandon Gdovic. Brandon will be running in the IMSA Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo this season. Brandon’s goals are to get wins and another championship for Mitchum Motorsports of Virginia Beach. Mitchum Motorsports won the championship last year by one point. He will be competing at Circuit of the Americas, Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Watkins Glen, and Virginia International Raceway.
Brandon did not pursue road racing until he drove in K&N East at VIR and fell in love with it. Discussions to race sports cars became serious over last winter. “It’s a whole different world,” Brandon Gdovic said. “It was just something that I just enjoyed from the first moment I turned right.”
Brandon Gdovic and Gaulding were teammates for the Hampton Heat 200 at Langley (VA) Speedway last year. Brandon is looking forward to going to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East races to help out Gaulding. He would like to enter both road course races at VIR and Watkins Glen International, and Langley. Brandon won the 2014 Legends Car championship at Langley for Precision in a backup car that cost $600 dollars a week.
The Gdovics have always had a good relationship with the Gauldings. Brandon is looking forward to having him on the team. Brandon feels it will bring a lot of attention back to the team. Last year the team did not do a full season in the K&N Series and they weren’t planning to this year.
“Me and Gray have had sort of friendship throughout the K&N season just knowing each other,” Brandon Gdovic said. “We’ve always gotten along real well. We’ve raced each other real well.”
“It kind of puts our team back on the radar, back on the map,” Brandon Gdovic said. “It’s always a good thing to have somebody perform behind the wheel to and have as much recognition as good of a name as Gray does in your car. I think it will be a good thing for him and a good thing for our team.”
The team has converted four cars to the new Gen. 6 body. Some of their nine cars are being sold. Beyond the cost to rebody the cars, teams will save money repairing the cars.
“It’s going to be easy to repair them in-house as oppose to sending them down to Charlotte to have them done to how the steel bodies done down there,” Richard Gdovic said. “In the long run it’s the right move and standardized everything. We’re happy it’s going in that direction.”
Precision is one of the teams that uses spec engines. Gdovic bought four of the first spec engines from Yates in 2011. In 2013, the team was running second in points and had a problem with the spec engines which they had 3 DNFs. Brandon finished 10th in points.
“We did work with Yates,” Richard Gdovic said. “They did a great job resolving all those issues. We haven’t had any since. Overall we have one of the best engine programs in the K&N and as far as reliability.”
Gdovic bought one of Burt Myer’s Modifieds over the winter. The team ordered a brand new spec engine, and rebuilt one of the K&N spec engines as a backup. Overall, Gdovic is very happy with the spec engines and would not go to a built one. Brandon is also hoping to race a Modified.
Whenever a driver joins Precision Performance Motorsports for Driver Development, Richard Gdovic will tell you that it is more of a comprehensive training program.
“We’re not about to throw your son or daughter in the car or any other individual adult into a car and not training you,” Richard Gdovic said. “Everything from physical fitness to your mental state going into the car, we’re monitoring a lot of other factors. We’re not putting you in the car and saying okay go at it.”
Richard Gdovic has encouraged Gray and his father for Gray to run the NASCAR Whelen Modified and in the IMCA Modified. Richard is hoping it will happen at some point this season. With the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend in July. It is possible that Precision Performance Motorsports could bring the Modified up to the Magic Mile and put somebody in the car that weekend.
The goal for Precision Performance Motorsports with Gray is to win the NASCAR K&N Pro Series championship this season. Gaulding finished second in Saturday night’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race at Greenville.
“I think he is capable from a driver’s standpoint and we feel we can surround him with the right team and put him in the right equipment that he can win the championship,” Richard Gdovic said. “We pride ourselves in having good equipment. We rarely have parts failures. It’s highly unusual for our team in any one of our late model, Modified, K&N. We have very few parts failures because of our maintenance program.”
Brandon finished 26th Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway in his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut for Viva Motorsports.
“We are all excited for Brandon’s opportunity,” Richard Gdovic said. “It’s a good time in his career progression to get some seat time in the series. We would like to thank Jamie Dick and Viva Motorsports for giving Brandon a shot.”
Sources: Matthew Wiernasz/YankeeRacer.com