Wassom wins at Junction Motor Speedway
McCool Junction- Junction Motor Speedway in McCool Junction held races for the second time this year on Saturday, July 18. Luke Wassom of Broken Bow was the big winner in the Imperial Manufacturing Hobby Stock feature on the night.
He started in the tenth position in the race, after finishing in fifth place in his heat earlier in the night. An aggressive approach allowed him to make up the ground and catch up to the lead pack.
With three laps left he found himself in a battle for first place and was clipped by the lap car. The hit knocked his bumper loose and he drug it all the way across the finish line and to the winner circle.
“We were coming around into lap traffic and we were dead even with the leader,” Wassom said. The leader was on the outside and when that lap car saw him he turned and went down on the track and hit me.”
He beat out nineteen other drivers to take home the victory.
“It’s always an incredible feeling to win these races,” Wassom said. “It just gets tougher every year to win.”
Other area drivers in the Hobby Stock feature were Al Myers of Broken Bow. He ended up finishing seventh place overall after starting in eleventh.
This has been a slow year for Wassom, who has only raced seven times so far. He has made it count though, winning four times.
Racing has been something that the entire Wassom family has enjoyed for many years. Every weekend the entire family packs up to go and watch Luke race.
His best finish was in 2018 when he had 20 wins and finished fourth in the national points.
He credits a lot of his success to his brother, who he calls his eyes in the stands. They are not able to communicate
with headsets but have learned how to communicate with hand signals over the years.
“He watches track conditions and keeps me up to date so we can make changes to the car to adapt to the track conditions,” Wassom said. “He also gives me signals under cautions to let me know where on the track I need to be racing at or what I need to change about my driving.”
What he believes sets his car and his team apart is the fact that they completely put it together from scratch. Many drivers in today’s day and age just buy a car.
“The thing that sets us apart from many other teams is we build our chassis from scratch and all the components that make up the race car (shocks, transmission, rear end, and ext),” Wassom said. “Many racers in today’s world buy a car from a builder.”
Even after so many years of racing, Wassom still finds enjoyment in every victory that he has. Most of all, he is very appreciative of is his team and the support that he gets from the community.
“I am very proud of what we have accomplished with our great team and all the fans that come out to cheer for us,” Wassom said.