The Wimmer Motorsports team and Jesse Love found success last week at New Smyrna Speedway. In his first trip to the Florida racetrack and first Speedweeks, the California driver put together a solid week, picked up his first Super Late Model win, and finished third in overall points.
“I was extremely impressed with Jesse,” said Wimmer Motorsports Owner and Crew Chief Chris Wimmer. “From the first time he got behind the wheel, he just got it. He gave great feedback all week and was always looking to improve. For him to come to a new track and perform the way he did was special.”
“Speedweeks was one of the most fun weeks of my life,” said Love. “We were fast the whole time and the atmosphere itself was awesome. Winning, also, makes it that much better. Working with Chris and his team was really special, everything they did was flawless and in the right direction. I have a ton of faith and trust in Chris and the team which really made our success come quick. Chris and I were on the same page the whole time and we both knew what we needed in the car to win races.”
The name of the game all week for the Wimmer Motorsports team was consistency. In the seven nights of racing, Love not only found Victory Lane, but earned six top-five finishes and never finished outside of the top-eight.
“Being able to run in the top four for six of the seven races really showed our consistency every night no matter the hand we were dealt,” said Love. “Overall it was the team I had behind me that made that possible. They gave me the best car every night and we were always pushing to be better and faster which went a really long way. Overall, I am pretty pleased with the finishes we had this week. Obviously I wanted to win every night, but with the invert it was nearly impossible. But we still showed how good we were even with the inverts.”
“The car was good all week and Jesse did a heck of a job,” said Wimmer. “With those shorter 35-lap races and the inverts, it can be hard to come home with good finishes, but Jesse found a way to get it done. He raced towards the front all week and was in contention almost every night.”
The strong week also came against some stout Super Late Model competition. With just a handful of Super Late Model races under his belt before the trip to Florida, Love made a name for himself among some of the best.”
“When you have guys like Ty Majeski and Bubba Pollard there, that’s a tough show,” said Wimmer. “Derek Griffith has been very strong there over the past few years and Brad May is as good as they come at New Smyrna. To be competitive with those guys in your first trip to the track says a lot of Jesse and his talent.”
“The success and the speed coming as fast as it did this week came as a surprise to me,” added Love. “Obviously I knew Chris had insanely fast race cars but I also knew going up against guys like Bubba Pollard, Stephen Nasse, and Ty Majeski, I also knew that would be a learning curve in and of itself. So being able to race against guys like that and win was really cool.
“I learned so much this week. Whether it’s just getting a lot more comfortable in stock cars and racing hard or working with new teams, I learned more this week about stock car racing then I could have ever thought of. Working with Chris I was able to learn a ton about the race cars. He was able to answer every question I asked and I learned a ton from him this week. I’m going to be able to take the things I learned with me for the rest of my career.”
Photo Credit: Jason Reasin Photography