After three consecutive seventh-place finishes at the Rio Grande Waste Services Wild West Shootout, Drake Troutman was poised for a breakthrough Saturday evening at Vado Speedway Park.

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Getting adjusted to his new ride with G.R. Smith’s Team 22 Inc., the 19-year-old Hyndman, Pa., driver set fast time, blazed to a heat race victory and started fourth in the main event, quickly settling into the second spot behind polesitter and dominating winner Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill.

The potential for Troutman to establish himself as clearly the night’s second fastest driver behind Pierce, winner of seven of the last nine Super Late Model races on the miniseries at Vado, would’ve been an excellent way to end the night. But things didn’t fall Troutman’s way on the last restart.

Holding the second spot with nine laps to go, Troutman’s brake pedal went to the floor entering turn one on the restart, and suddenly his red No. 22 Longhorn Chassis was swarmed by the competition, costing him three positions by the conclusion of the 40-lapper to put a damper on what was otherwise an impressive performance.

Smith was disappointed that things didn’t fall Troutman’s way in the final laps, and disappointed Don Shaw’s flat tire forced a caution that cost Troutman, but he remained upbeat as the team gels in the first week heading toward an ultra-busy national touring season.

"We got top-five and we had a fast car,” Smith said. “I’m proud of these guys, really proud of Drake, proud of the guys. They've been working hard all week, digging on this thing, getting it better. He’s getting it more and more to his liking and get comfortable with it, so really, really proud of these guys and the effort that they're putting in.”

Losing your brakes is never good, but at Vado it forced Troutman to abandon his preferred high groove as he lost spots to runner-up Brandon Sheppard, third-place finisher Tyler Erb and fourth-finishing Ethan Dotson in the race’s waning laps. Troutman had never been a threat to Pierce, who led by a five-second margin at halfway, but losing his brakes opened the door for the competition.

“On a track like this and you're riding a cushion so close to the wall, you're pretty reliant on your brakes to get the car set on entry,” Troutman said. “I didn't have that, so I kind of had to go in there on the bottom and let it float.”

Upon Troutman’s return to the pits postrace, the team quickly tried to diagnose the brake issues, but the problem wasn’t immediately clear. The crew will examine the issue before Sunday’s $25,000-to-win event, but they may discovered that the brakes simply got too hot.

“On that last restart, I don't know, I was riding them pretty hard and using them up on entry pretty hard,” Troutman said. “Maybe I just got them really hot and the pedal started getting spongy on me. But we lost most of our brakes there on that last caution — and I noticed under caution, thank goodness — and went in there to turn one and she went to the floor.

“So I knew that we were kinda riding along there so I was just happy we could still finish inside the top five. It wasn’t a bad night. We’ve shown some speed and I just gotta get a few bugs worked out, just gotta get a little bit better. We're close, just gotta finish her off here. I don't know, we'll get back to work tomorrow and see what we've got.”

Smith wishes his team had been able to enjoy a more satisfying conclusion.

“We were on a little bit different tire combination from the guys we raced at the end, and I just think that we didn't need that last restart. We had a good margin there, but that's how close this racing is. It’s like shuffling a deck of cards. You get to stack them up and reshuffle them and different strategies worked at different time,” Smith said. “I'm just upset because they deserve, for the effort they put in, they deserve better, they deserve the second place tonight. It just didn't work out. It didn't play out that way.”

Smith, who released Max McLaughlin of Mooresville, N.C., after fielding a car for him on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series last season, has a two-pronged team this season after adding veteran driver Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., as a part-time driver for major events late last season.

While Madden will run select events in 2025, Troutman joined the team with plans to run a complete schedule with the World of Outlaws or the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. That decision comes later.

"I told him I'm excited for him to get out there and I'm 100 percent supportive of what they want to do,” Smith said of Troutman. “They’re they're going to run one of the national tours and they're not going to make their decision up until after the first conflict I would say. I would say Speedweeks, but if it goes into March or April, they're gonna go on running both. I mean they plan on running every race through Speedweeks (and onward). So if it's racing, they plan on being there, so that's the only way they're gonna get to where they want to be and I'm fully, fully supportive and I'm really happy. This is a good bunch of guys right here and they take this seriously.”

Running for his family-owned team last season, Troutman captured Lucas Oil’s Rookie of the Year honors, finishing 11th in series points with four top-five finishes in 42 starts. The team limped to season’s end with worn-out equipment, so Smith’s lifeline was critical for the third-generation driver who’s been among Dirt Late Model racing's most successful teens in recent seasons.

"I got all my same crew guys from last year, so that was really nice,” Troutman said. “That was an easy transition and G.R.’s been awesome to work with and his wife and everything's been going great. I think we'll be in this deal here for a long time to come and, like I said, we're looking forward to it. We're excited for the season.”

The unsanctioned Wild West Shootout gives the team a proving ground for the rest of 2025.

“It's nice coming down here and I mean we get to shake things down and, and we’re five races ahead of everyone else going into the year, which, a lot of people are out testing, but it's nice to come down here and get the race and get the rust knocked off of your driving and shake these cars down real good and kind of learn what they seem to like,” Troutman said. “Hopefully we have a good night tomorrow and you know qualify good again and put ourselves in a good position for tomorrow night.”

The team will make the cross-country trip to Jan. 17’s Lucas Oil Series opener at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., then bounce back and forth between Georgia-Florida Speedweeks events on the Lucas Oil and WoO circuits over the next month. Eventually the team will discuss which way they want to go, but Smith is offering his young driver the choice.

“We're looking at this and building this into something where you know he can build off of,” Smith said. “So if it means you know going to Lucas (Oil) route, that's what we'll do. If it means going the World of Outlaws route, that's what we'll do, too. But at the end of the day, I'm going to leave the final decision in his hands.”