Photo Courtesy Of  Rick Schwallie

“I think we had a very productive week!” stated an enthused Moran immediately following Saturday night’s finale at East Bay. “Things are looking up and I even believe it’s all turned around (laughs)!”

During the six night stint, Moran started the week off on Monday with the Renegade series by qualifying 14th out of 87 cars entered. Finishing second in the second heat, Moran started 12th in the main event and finished 20th. Night two found Moran in Xtreme action where he again qualified 14th out of 86 cars, finished second in the fourth heat and crossed the checkers in seventh after starting tenth.

On night three the QPI Tools sponsored team qualified 12th out of 87 cars with the Renegade series, finished second in the sixth heat but bad luck struck when, after starting 13th in the feature, Moran was involved in a lap four accident which forced him to retire for the evening.

Night number four found Moran back with the Xtreme series where he set fast time for the night in qualifying over a stout 80 car field. Moran’s fast time put him on the pole for the second heat where he finished second. During feature race action, which was filmed by the SPEED Channel cameras, Moran started in the seventh position and by lap 13 had taken the lead which he maintained until lap 32 when Jimmy Mars went low on the race track and was able to take the lead. Moran brought his QPI Tools ‘Dirt Ripper’ #99 home to a solid third place finish.

During the Renegade series finale on Friday night Moran qualified 31st out of 70 cars and finished sixth in the first heat. Regulated to the third B Main, Moran finished ninth and took a provisional to make the starting grid where he took the green flag from his 28th position. While running 11th in the feature he was spun out, pitted for new tires and came back through the field to place 14th.

For the sixth and final night of the ‘Winternationals’, sanctioned by Xtreme, Moran came out like gangbusters, qualifying sixth fastest out of the 70 car field and winning not only the sixth heat but also taking top honors in the dash, which placed him on the pole position for the feature. During feature action Moran’s strong run was interrupted several times to make pit stops for new tires with Moran eventually coming across the checkers in 12th place.

Despite no wins during the six-night marathon, Moran is pleased with his performance and is obviously confident and reinvigorated for the 2003 season after making an almost-complete overhaul of his racing operation.

After a somewhat dismal 2002 season, Moran restructured his racing program by selecting Mastersbilt Race Cars as his chassis of choice and bringing Brad Malcuit, famed racer, engine builder and owner of Malcuit Racing Engines, on board as not only his engine supplier but as his new crew chief. In addition, Moran returned to Carrera Shocks with Carrera’s Mike Farr lending a hand in an advisory role.

“Brad is so helpful it’s unbelievable,” commented Moran. “The guys all work real well with him and he and I communicated very good this week and made good decisions. We made a couple bad ones, but it’s a learning process.”

Photo Courtesy Of  Rick Schwallie