From WhoWon.com

The NASCAR Busch East Series will make its only visit of the 2006 season to Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night, June 16 for the 16th Annual TSI Harley Davidson 150. Series veterans Mike Olsen and Brian Hoar were both at the Connecticut half-mile recently testing their cars, and both are looking forward to racing at Stafford.

“I love the track, it’s a beautiful facility, and we really want to get a win here, if nothing else, a top-5 finish,” said Olsen, who is the 2001 Busch East Series Champion. “I’ve had some good runs here, and I’ve had some bad luck here, it can go either way. It’s a great track, it’s good racing, you can run the outside if you have to. Hopefully the tires we have this season will allow you to do that. They did change the tire a little for this year, and that’s why we’re here testing, to see what we have and try to adjust to the new tire. We have high hopes for this race, we’re lucky to have a track and facility like Stafford on our schedule. Hopefully we can keep coming back here, we used to come here a couple times a year, now it’s down to once a year, which is the same with all the tracks in this area.”

“We’re here just to shake down our two cars,” said Hoar. “We have two cars that are prepared pretty equally, but when you get them on the track, you never know if they’re going to react the same. We’ve had these two cars in our stable since the beginning, and we’ve made a lot of changes over the last two years. We’re just looking to get a basic setup for when we come back here in a couple weeks. We’ll see which car I like better, and if one car performs better than the other. We’re looking for a win and I feel like we have the stuff to win here. This is one of the best tracks we race at.

The asphalt is smooth, the straightaways are long and fast, the lighting system is outstandings, and when you combine all those factors with the rest of the environment at Stafford, it makes for an awesome place for us to race at. We’ve mostly been a top-5 or a top-10 car every time we’ve come here, and we finished second the last time we were here, so we’re definitely looking to improve that by one more position this year.”

The past several seasons of Busch East racing at Stafford have seen the race winners come from the first several rows, which puts a premium on teams qualifying well. In the 12 Busch East races run at Stafford since the 2001 season, the winning driver has not started lower than 8th, with 9 of those race winners coming from the first three starting positions. Both drivers say that while qualifying well is a key to winning at Stafford, drivers can race from the back to get to the front in 150 laps and that track experience can make all the difference.

“Track position is pretty key here, you can come from the back here, but coming from the back increases your chances of getting caught up in something, which has happened to me in the past here, not having a good qualifying effort and getting caught up in something that’s not of your making,” said Olsen. “It’s definitely a lot easier to do it from the pole than to do it from 20th, but you can recover here. It’s a racy racetrack so you can make up ground if you have to. The track definitely has some quirks to it that you need to know, and the guys who have run more laps here know those ins and outs better. Since the first time I’ve come here, the track has been repaved and there’s been a ton of improvements to the track, but it still has the same type of characteristics that it’s always had, and it’s definitely an advantage to have had laps and know the ins and the outs here, it can be a tricky track for sure. You look at a guy like Teddy [Christopher], he’s got tons of laps here, and he knows how to set you up and he knows how to get you, and all that definitely plays a factor, especially with our cars, which are pretty evenly matched. The handling does seem to change a little. When we ran two races here, we’d run in the spring and then come back in the fall, and it was a totally different setup.

Even in the fall, the setup would differ day to day. It definitely takes a lot of fine tuning on the car, you have to have a well handling car here to pick up the throttle real good. With the long straightaways here, it’s important to be able to get back on the throttle as quickly as you can in the turns”

“The modified guys are always fast here,” said Hoar. “I’ve learned something every time I’ve been here from the modified guys. I followed Ted Christopher around here for a lot of the race last year, and he schooled me on several occasions. He’s a great racer, and he knows this place like the back of his hand. I would say that there will be between 5 and 10 guys that can win here. It’s a tough place to run side by side. Sometimes a guy will try to fill a hole that isn’t there or a guy might not give you enough room, so racing here is conducive to contact entering the corners. I’ve had to learn that the hard way, one race I took someone out, and during another race, I took myself out. That apron doesn’t quite work like the banking.

Watching a guy like Teddy [Christopher], I’ve never seen anyone use so much apron here getting into the corner and getting off the corner. He was using it to pass guys, and I said ‘Wow’, I gave the apron a little more credit than I’d ever given it before. I thought if he can do it, I can do it, but it got a little scary. If you watch a guy like Jerry Marquis, he might not be in the best of equipment and he might not qualify well, but he always runs to the front as the race unfolds.”

With only 11 races on the Busch East schedule this year, both drivers say that finishing well in every race is the key ingredient to being a championship contender this year.

“You might be able to get away with one bad race, but that’s going to be it, said Olsen.” “The year we won the championship, there was 21 races on the schedule and you could have a bad race or two and still be able to make that up later in the year. With only 11 races, if you have more than one bad race, or even if you have one bad race, if someone can put together a top-5 run every week, they’re going to be pretty tough to beat if they don’t have a bad week. You can have four wins and two dnf’s and you can still be behind someone who’s been consistent, so it’s going to be tough with the short schedule. I feel like we’re a strong team and we definitely have a strong shot at the championship.”

“I’m just looking for seat time right now, and it’s a big help to our team to be able to come down here and get back into the swing of things,” said Hoar. “Everyone else is busy working on their cars and thinking about setups, so with the 11 race schedule, we have to come right out of the box running strong here at Stafford. When we had a 15 or 20 race schedule, you could afford a bad race or two, but with 11 races, I don’t think you can afford to have a bad race if you’re going to win the championship.”

Both Olsen and Hoar have career best finishes of second at Stafford, and they will both attempt to go one position better and be the first to take the checkered flag when the Busch East cars come to Stafford for the 16th annual TSI Harley Davidson on June 16th. Tickets are on sale now at the Speedway Box Office and are priced at $30.00 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating is priced at $32.00 for all ages. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.

For more information, or to order tickets to the 16th annual TSI Harley Davidson 150, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.