PEVELY, Mo. — Kyle Schuett is eager to get into a regular racing routine following an extended offseason.
“We’ve had a long time away from the track,” said Schuett, who finished third in the Built Ford Tough MOWA Sprint Car Series championship standings last year and was the series’ rookie of the year. “We’ve rebuilt everything, freshened our motors and had both cars on the chassis dyno. We didn’t feel like we needed to change much because we have really good equipment. We just need to keep learning.
“We practiced a couple times at different tracks with our cars. The practices went well. We learned quite a bit”
Schuett shook off some rust following a nearly eight-month hiatus from competition in late May at a doubleheader with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55.
“It’s all about qualifying with the Outlaws and that didn’t go well either night for us,” said Schuett, who was forced to run a non-qualifier race each night in his first appearance in a sprint car at the track. “We missed a gear on Friday and the track slowed by a second and a half by the time our turn came on Saturday. Circumstances weren’t in our favor, but we need to be better, too.
“It was a learning experience for sure. It was so fast and tight. You’re on the gas the entire night. It was quite a bit different than any other track I’ve raced. It caught us a bit off guard. During our practices we worked a bit on detuning the motors for racing on slick tracks. Unfortunately, we couldn’t use that knowledge at Pevely because it was so wide open.”
Schuett’s racing schedule will be a bit different than originally anticipated due to the schedule changes at tracks because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“We’re planning to race with the Outlaws at Beaver Dam this weekend, then at Wilmot with the IRA Series the following week,” he said. “Then we’ll probably skip a week before racing with the IRA again at Sun Prairie, then maybe another week off before we can hopefully get back to normal. There’s not much racing going on here now in Illinois, but we’re hoping that changes in another month.”