(Photo by Malcolm White Photography)
Inside Line Promotions – ELMA, Wash. (April 26, 2015) – Two was the common number for Henry Van Dam on Saturday at Grays Harbor Raceway.
Van Dam qualified second quickest, finished second in a heat race and ended second in the main event at the 3/8-mile oval, where he garnered his first podium finish of the season.
“I’d like to change that into a one, but it was a good night,” he said. “We had speed. It was a pretty quick track all night. We got rain just as we were getting ready to start packing. It delayed things a little bit, but they had the track pretty hard before that. We had a little bit of fuel issues as well. The air was so good we just didn’t have it right with our high-speed, but for the most part we had a clean night.”
Van Dam lined up on the outside of the second row for a heat race after timing in second quickest.
“We had a caution on Lap 2 and on that restart I was able to get a position in turns one and two and I think a lap later I was able to get one in turns three and four,” he said.
His second-place finish locked him into the feature inversion, which was a four. That lined him up on the inside of the second row for the 25-lap main event.
“They kind of botched the start and the row behind me got between Trey (Starks) and I,” he said. “We actually came out in fifth. We rode around there and couldn’t do anything. On one of the restarts we were able to get Cam (Smith) for fourth. Later in the race a couple of other cars got tangled and put us up to second.”
Van Dam restarted in the runner-up position with approximately a third of the race remaining on the fast track.
“Trey got a good start and pulled away,” he said. “Clean air was huge. The track was so fast that having all that air to yourself was definitely an advantage for the leader.”
Van Dam’s second-place finish marked his first podium since a runner-up result at Grays Harbor Raceway during the track’s season finale last September.
“It was a good, clean night,” he said. “We had the speed. It was just one of those races where everything needed to go your way to win.”
Van Dam is scheduled to compete at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., this Saturday as long as the weather is cooperative.
QUICK RESULTS –
April 25 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 2 (4); Feature: 2 (3).
SEASON STATS –
9 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 5 top 10s, 6 top 15s, 7 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore.
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.HenryVanDam.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanDamRacing
APPAREL –
Van Dam has sweatshirts and hats available for sale at his race trailer.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – A.R.T Speed Equipment
Established in 1976, A.R.T. Speed Equipment is a parts and fabrication shop with a huge inventory of sprint car and mini sprint parts. A.R.T. also builds top-notch chassis. For more information, visit http://www.ARTspeedequip.com.
“I’ve been using A.R.T. chassis for the past few years and they are made with great quality,” Van Dam said. “The awesome customer service I receive makes it a great company.”
Van Dam would also like to thank Kovash Logging, Johansen Excavating, Enumclaw Xpress Lube, Les Schwab Tire of Enumclaw, Factory Kahne, Clems Enumclaw Powersports, Van Dam Dairy, Village Green Resort, D&L Equipment Repair, Zender Equipment, Big Bob’s Flooring Outlet, Bob and Joan Shumway, Kellan and Kelsey Hall, Foothills Auto Supply, American Powder Coating, Pete Vos, Char’s Barber Shop, Wesmar Race Engines, SpeedMart, Van Dam Farms and Rich Van Dam Dairy for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Apr 26, 2015
- Article Date: 4/26/2015 by Inside Line Promotions