Brendan Gaughan Pre-Race Report - Milwaukee

Driver: Brendan Gaughan
Owner: Michael Gaughan
Milwaukee 200
The Milwaukee Mile
Race: Friday, June 23 – 8:15 pm (CDT)
Qualifying: Friday, June 23 – 5:30 pm (CDT)
1.0 -mile oval, 200 miles/ 200 laps
 
Notes of Interest:

Following the Milwaukee NCTS event Brendan Gaughan along crew chief Tony “Rambo” Liberati will head to Crandon, WI for the Brush Run off-road races. Gaughan is a bit of a legend in the Crandon area due to his past runs at Crandon Intl Off-road Raceway in his off-road racer. This is the second consecutive year that Gaughan will stop at his old stomping grounds before resuming his busy Craftsman Truck commitments.

More on the Crandon events can be found at: http://www.crandonoffroad.com/

Military Appreciation Program (MAP):

PARARESCUEMEN
 
Mission

Air Force Special Operations Command's pararescuemen, also known as PJs, are the only Department of Defense specialty specifically trained and equipped to conduct conventional or unconventional rescue operations. PJs are the ideal force for assisted survivor recovery.

A pararescueman's primary function is as a personnel recovery specialist, with emergency medical capabilities in humanitarian and combat environments.They deploy in any available manner, to include air-land-sea tactics, into restricted environments to authenticate, extract, treat, stabilize and evacuate injured personnel, while acting in an enemy-evading, recovery role. PJs participate in search and rescue, combat search and rescue, recovery support for NASA and conduct other operations as appropriate.

Pararescuemen are among the most highly trained emergency trauma specialists in the U.S. military. They must maintain an Emergency Medical Technician Paramedic qualification throughout their careers. With this medical and rescue expertise, along with their deployment capabilities, pararescuemen are able to perform life-saving missions in the world's most remote areas.

Their motto "That Others May Live" reaffirms the pararescueman's commitment to saving lives and self-sacrifice. Without pararescuemen, thousands of service members and civilians would have been unnecessarily lost in past conflicts and natural disasters.
 
The piece: Gaughan will drive Orleans Racing’s T12 Dodge Ram.
 
The Stats:

The Milwaukee Mile
Date	Start	Finish	LC/TL	Status	Winnings
29-Jun-02	10	4	203/203	Running	$15,125
28-Jun-03	2	1	200/200	Running	$48,560
24-Jun-05	4	5	199/200	Running	$14,625

Gaughan on Milwaukee: “We’ve run well in Milwaukee the last couple years. In 2003 we won and in 2005 we went there and that was actually the start of a good string of races for us. This year wouldn’t be a bad time to do that gain. We’re a better team this year than we were last year. Milwaukee is a very flat track. I swear if you put water on the racetrack it’s going to go to the wall instead of going to the infield. That’s my style racetrack.

“Tom Buzze and Rambo know where the weaknesses are on the Dodges and this isn’t one of them. We feel like we can go there and be an A-list team and try to compete. We’re going to go there and try to win. I’m normally pretty good at the tracks like this that are super flat and really tough to get around. We’ll put a good setup under the truck and give it our best shot.

“Wisconsin is my old stomping ground. I’ve got a lot of friends and fans there in Wisconsin. So we’re going to have a big group in the pits with us and we’re going to see if we can’t do them right.

“It’s mighty nice of Milwaukee, another one of those little fairground race tracks, that doesn’t have a Nextel Cup date and doesn’t have a ton of money, to find a way to bring in the temporary lights and make it nice for the fans and nice for the crews and the drivers. We race at night under the lights and it’s a nice, exciting show. There’s another track in the Midwest that could take a lesson from that.”

GAUGHAN ON HIS PIT CREW “The Flying Aces”: “Of all the problems that the Orleans Team has been having the over-the-wall crew certainly isn’t one of them. They are coming up with great pit stops. Danny Goad, who replaced our long-time employee Harley Rauch on the rear, became a tire changer and has done just a great job. I was watching the tape from Michigan and a guy on another team dropped a lug nut and they had a 24-second stop. Even if Danny drops a lug nut he can still pull off a 16-second stop. He really has stepped up to the plate.

“Lance Wilson, our truck chief, moved to the front when Harley Rauch departed the team and has taken to it really quick. He’s the team leader out there. Last week at Michigan Bill C. (Caldwell), our 63 year old fuel man -- who I think I’m killing because he’s trying to work out with 20 year olds – was told we needed seven gallons of fuel and he dumped 7.02 gallons of fuel. So for an old guy he still can get it done.

“The guys have really, really put a lot of hard work in and with all the things happening at least those guys are staying positive. We finally had a chance to prove it and gain spots on a pit stop and we did. On the money stop that mattered at Michigan they did a good job getting us in and out even with a couple adjustments, nobody panicked. They got it done each time in great time. There were no injuries, no problems, no mistakes. It’s a nice thing to see those boys really kick some butt because that hard work they put into a 6:00 am workout pays off for them.

“We’ve never given our pit stop coach the best athletes but he ends up making it work. Look at Harley Rauch who was one of the best tire changers around. He goes about 275 lbs and we turned him into one of the best tire changers out there. We’ve always been able to take guys that haven’t done it and made chicken salad out of not chicken salad. We have a really good, solid pit stop program. Brett Bergerron, our pit stop coach, does a great job with it. Tony Liberati lets him do his job. We just let them do their job and the boys really, really work hard, really take it serious and really do a great job for us.”
 
Meet the Crew:

Name	Hometown	Shop Duty	Race Day Duty
Tony Liberati	Bellaire, OH	Crew Chief	Crew Chief
Lance Wilson	Bakersfield, CA	Truck Chief	Front Tire Changer
Danny Goad	Martinsville, VA	Mechanic / Tuner	Rear Tire Changer
Clint Jennings	Logan, OH	Engineer	Rear Tire Hanger
Jacen Johns	Springfield, MO	Mechanic	Front Tire Hanger
Calvin Gravely	Martinsville, VA	Tire Spec / Fabricator	Jack Man
Bill Caldwell	Culver City, CA	DOT	Fuel Man
Steve Fiedler	Yankton, SD	Truck Driver	Catch Can

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