Racine's Zumbach adds three ASA races to his calendar

5/28/2010 6:21:15 AM
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By Jason Feldman
The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

Ross Zumbach's return to the ASA Late Model Series didn't follow the script he had in mind.

But in the big picture, things turned out pretty well for the 20-year-old driver from Racine.

Zumbach finished 14th in the Illiana Derby Run for the Roses 100 at Illiana Motor Speedway on May 1. But the race at Schererville, ind., showed TD Racing, owner of his No. 92 Late Model, that Zumbach could handle a car, even one that was banged up for most of the race.

TD has asked Zumbach to get back in the No. 92 for at least the next three races on the ASA Northern Series schedule. That trio of races begins with Sunday's George Appleton Memorial 125 at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill.

"I've never raced at Grundy before," Zumbach said, "but it's pretty flat, a lot like a track we raced at in Florida last year. We hear there's an outside line that's really racey, and that's the kind of track I like."

Zumbach will also drive the No. 92 on June 26 at Plymouth (Ind.) Speedway and on July 17 at the Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis. The latter of those tracks holds special memories for Zumbach. He became one of the youngest winners ever at Milwaukee two years ago when he won his first Mid American Stock Car Series event there.

"That's definitely a race that we said at the beginning of the year, if there's any way possible, we'll be there," he said. "It will be cool to get back there and what I learned in the Mid-Am car should translate well to the ASA Late Model."

Zumbach is taking a more comfortable feeling into this week's race, his second with TD Racing. His crew chief, Howie Lettow, was ill and unable to make the race, so Zumbach shared a crew chief with team co-owner Travis Dassow's No. 89 car.

Early in the race at Illiana, Zumbach said his car bottomed out and before he could do anything about it, he was into the wall. He raced the last 85 laps with broken front suspension parts.

"It wasn't much fun to drive," he said, "but we fought hard to get back on the lead lap by the end of the race."

Despite the mishaps, Zumbach was happy to get some seat time in his favorite racing series for the first time since last fall.

"It was awesome to be back in a car," he said. "I had some rust to take care of, but we made tons of improvement on the car and were right there with the fastest guys. We just got behind the eight-ball with having to share a crew chief. But we had a two-car team and I felt like I was a big part of helping the other car."

While Zumbach is confident he will perform well over the next three races, at the very least, he will get three more chances to show other teams and sponsors what he can do.

"Being on the track is the only way for people to understand what I can do in a car," he said. "That's as big a part of it as anything. I feel like we can produce some really good results for these guys."