Dover's All Fun for Gaughan

Driver: Brendan Gaughan
Owner: Michael Gaughan
Event: AAA Insurance
Dover International Speedway
Race: Friday, June 2 – 4:45 pm (ET)
Qualifying: Friday, June 2 – 10:15 am (ET)
1.0 -mile oval, 200 miles/200 laps

Notes of Interest:

Beginning this week at Dover, DE Brendan Gaughan will host autograph sessions at Robby Gordon’s souvenir trailer. Gaughan will sign during most “companion” event weekends (Cup / Trucks) for the balance of the 2006 season. Gaughan and the Orleans Racing team will also have a limited amount of merchandise available on Robby’s rig, beginning with the Michigan event.

Speaking on the new venue where he can meet with his fans Gaughan said, “Robby and I have been friends for years and years and after talking about it Robby thought it was a great idea that we set up shop on his rig. We’re both from the west coast and it seemed a natural way to go.

“I want to thank Robby for helping me and my fans by giving us a known location for each companion event where we can sign a few autographs. My fans should know however that the press will be on to support Robby and his operation, so everyone should be ready for that!”

Gaughan’s first session on Robby’s rig will be June 2nd, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.

Military Appreciation Program (MAP):

This week the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) will ride on the No. 77 Orleans Racing Dodge.

Air Force Special Operations Command, was established May 22, 1990, with headquarters at Hurlburt Field, Fla. AFSOC is a major command and the Air Force component of U.S. Special Operations Command, a unified command located at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.

AFSOC Mission:

AFSOC is America's specialized air power. It provides Air Force special operations forces for worldwide deployment and assignment to regional unified commands. AFSOC's core tasks have been grouped into four mission areas: forward presence and engagement, information operations precision employment and strike, and special operations forces mobility.

AFSOC is responsible to USSOCOM for the readiness of Air Force special operations forces for worldwide deployment. The command's SOF are composed of highly trained, rapidly deployable airmen who are equipped with highly specialized aircraft. These forces provide global ability to conduct special operations missions ranging from precision application of firepower, to infiltration, exfiltration, resupply and refueling of SOF operational elements.

AFSOC's unique capabilities include airborne radio and television broadcast for psychological operations, as well as combat aviation advisors to provide other governments military expertise for their internal development. The command's special tactics squadrons combine combat control, combat weather and pararescuemen to ensure air power is integrated and operable with special operations and conventional forces.

The command is responsible for inland search and rescue in the 48 contiguous states. Combat Search and Rescue units also provide worldwide peacetime and CSAR operations in support of humanitarian and U.S. national security interests.

More on the AFSOC can be found at: http://www2.afsoc.af.mil/

The piece: Gaughan will drive Orleans Racing’s T12

Gaughan on Dover: “I love Dover. It is just like St. Louis – a driver’s race track. At St. Louis we had one of those days that was a battle and a war and we ended up finishing 14th as the best Dodge but we ran out of laps. We were battling for it.

“I still remember my first time there and I was asking Robert Pressley how to get around the place. I was almost purple from holding my breath for three laps on my mock qualifying run. It’s racing on steroids. It’s the coolest track. There isn’t a more fun place to race. When people ask me what my favorite track is of course I say Texas or Vegas because those are my two favorites but if they’re asking where I like to drive the most, it’s Dover without a question.

“Last year in Rambo’s first two races we had a great run at Mansfield and had a team mistake. Then we went to Dover and with five or ten laps to go Dennis Setzer and I wrecked while we were running in the top 10. It was just a racing mistake. Dennis doesn’t make racing mistakes like that and neither do I. We both just got into each other and wrecked. So we had two great runs to start the Rambo era. It’s been one year now and we’re going to see if we can’t have another great run at Dover.

“It’s a track I love. We’ve got a great truck that’s done and sitting in the trailer already. The Orleans Racing team is ahead of the game and we’re ready to go.

“Dover and Bristol are the only two places you actually feel speed. When you drive off into Turn 1 there’s what we call a jump. If you look at it you wouldn’t see but an inch of difference but that inch in a Craftsman Truck is big. You drive into Turn 1 and you hit that jump and it’s almost like the truck is just in the air. I remember Pressley told me, ‘Lift a quarter throttle when it’s in the air. When it lands go back to full throttle.’ You feel like you’re on a roller coaster.

“Any other place you don’t have the sensation of speed. At Dover you drive down that hill and you feel like you’re in the air and when it lands you go full throttle. Your head gets thrown into the head brace on the right and you’re holding on thinking how are the Goodyear tires holding? It’s just wild.

“Dover takes a big physical toll on the driver because of the g forces in the corner and because of the fact that you try to hold our breath and kind of grunt your way through a corner. Dover is a place where the heat stays right there near the concrete. I was blistered one year from the back of my knee to my butt and my skin was all bubbled up because it was so hot there. So it is definitely a racetrack that is very taxing on the human body.”

Listen in on the #77: The team’s primary radio frequency is 451.3371.