(Photo by Malcolm White Photography)
Inside Line Promotions – ELMA, Wash. (June 7, 2015) – Sometimes it’s just not your night, which was the case for Henry Van Dam on Saturday at Grays Harbor Raceway during the Summer Thunder Sprint Series event.
Van Dam was quick in qualifying and his heat race, but was involved in a late-race crash during the main event at the 3/8-mile oval.
“We try to keep things to the basics when we analyze each night,” he said. “The first thing you look at was did the car have speed. We were comfortable with what we had, but want to work on it to get it faster. The other side of racing is knowing you can’t control everything. There’s going to be nights when things don’t go your way. Saturday was one of those nights.”
Van Dam kicked off the event by qualifying second quickest. He then maneuvered from his sixth starting position to finish third in a heat race to lock himself into the feature redraw.
“The way the start (of the heat race) shook out we were pretty much eighth going into turn three and we were able to get up to third on a track that wasn’t very wide,” he said. “We just worked the bottom and people were sliding off the bottom on exit. I think we got two positions on Lap 2 and then were able to pick one off every other lap.”
Unfortunately, Van Dam drew the highest number – eight – during the random redraw, which lined him up on the outside of the fourth row for the 30-lap main event.
“We made some adjustments for the feature and I had a good start,” he said. “I was up to fourth or fifth on the first lap, but on Lap 2 our car got sideways and did a wheelie. I had to get out of the throttle and got passed by about five people.”
Van Dam drove back toward the top five, but was nearly caught up in another incident.
“I got to the bumper of a car and had to jam on the brakes really hard to avoid him and got passed by two people,” he said. “It was one of those nights when you got rolling things happened.”
Van Dam rebounded into the top five heading into the closing laps when he was ran into by another competitor.
“I slid a guy going into turn four,” he said. “We had been racing pretty hard. He crossed over and instead of trying to drag race me down the frontstretch he ended up coming up the track and took me out. It ripped my front end out. Something punctured my oil tank and we caught on fire. It was a pretty good little flame.”
Van Dam was in contention for his seventh top five of the season and possibly a podium when the contact ended his night early. He was credited with a 20th-place result.
Van Dam is scheduled to return to competition on June 20 at Grays Harbor Raceway.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 6 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Qualifying: 2; Heat race: 3 (6); Feature: 20 (8).
SEASON STATS –
16 races, 1 win, 6 top fives, 10 top 10s, 11 top 15s, 14 top 20s
UP NEXT –
June 20 at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash.
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.HenryVanDam.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanDamRacing
APPAREL –
Van Dam has t-shirts available for sale at his race trailer and at Enumclaw Xpress Lube.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Clems Enumclaw Powersports
Located in Enumclaw, Wash., Clems Enumclaw Powersports has been family owned and operated since 1974. Clems has been a one-stop shop for all powersports needs for nearly 40 years. For more information, visit http://www.EnumclawSuzuki.com.
“Clems Enumclaw Powersports makes sure our needs are taken care of getting around the pit area,” Van Dam said. “I’m very grateful for their support of the race team.”
Van Dam would also like to thank Kovash Logging, Johansen Excavating, Enumclaw Xpress Lube, Les Schwab Tire of Enumclaw, Factory Kahne, A.R.T. Speed Equipment, 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 Jun 07, 2015
- Article Date: 6/7/2015 by Inside Line Promotions