If there is one truism in the Northern California sprint car scene, it’s never count Sacramento’s Herman Klein out of any race. “The Plumber”, as he’s affectionately known, has seen his share of the rear ends (no plumber joke intended) of racecars this short season due to bad luck, and to his credit, he’s passed about all of them. He did the same at Petaluma Speedway this last Saturday night with a never give up charge from the back of the field after fate intervened.
Driving the Josh Bates owned, Jeremy Tiner wrenched SportClips #42x, Klein suffered a broken rear caliper in hotlaps, losing his brakes and necessitating a thrash to get him out for qualifying. Klein made the most of his one lap versus the clock after missing his qualifying spot, splitting the field and timing in 9th of the 18 360s in attendance, earning the outside front row starting spot in his heat race.
In his heat race, Klein would finish where he started and start 9th in the A Main event, where Klein and the SportClips crew would get their money’s worth this night.
Starting 9th at a track where he’s always been fast, Klein started picking off cars from the time the green dropped until a red flag came out after Klein had made his way to 5th. Fate intervened again as a bleeder in Klein’s left rear which regulates tire pressure came off at some point during the red and while waiting for the field to restart, the left rear went flat. Klein headed to the pits and the SportClips crew whipped into a frenzy to make it back out before the race went green. Klein made it with zero time to spare, although he was now at the tail of the field .
When green flew restarting the proceedings, so did Klein, playing catch up from the back, threading through traffic as the laps wore on. Three cars passed became five, then became eight as the laps dwindled. Flashing under the checkers, Klein found himself 3rd and on the podium. On paper, Klein went from 9th to 3rd, but Klein had to pass about 15 cars to do it. At the end of the night, Klein earned the night’s hard charger bonus for his efforts and every bit of the 3rd place paycheck for Round 1 of the PitStopUSA Sprint Car Series.
Klein will look to improve his position by two spots next Saturday night at Petaluma Speedway for Round 2 of the PitStopUSA Sprint Car Series.
You can find SportClips on Facebook at Facebook.com/SportClipsHaircuts or find them on the web at www.SportClips.com. SportClips Haircuts for Men. It’s Good to be a Guy!
-RJM PROMOTIONS
- Ron Lingron on Apr 15, 2014
- Article Date: 4/15/2014 by RJM Promotions