(Photo by Malcolm White Photography)
Inside Line Promotions – ELMA, Wash. (Sept. 8, 2015) – Henry Van Dam scored his best finish of the season with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series on Monday at Grays Harbor Raceway.
Vam Dam battled back from a rough qualifying result to post a 15th-place finish as he earned the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars in the main event.
“It started off pretty rough, but it ended up decent,” he said. “The track wasn’t that great so it was tough to deal with all night.”
Van Dam kicked off the competition by qualifying 25th quickest around the 3/8-mile oval.
“I just went through the hole in turn two both laps,” he said. “It was a monster. I caught it both laps and it would turn you into the backstretch wall so you had to get out of the gas and you lost so much speed.”
Van Dam then maneuvered from ninth to seventh place in a heat race, which was one spot out of locking into the main event.
“We picked a couple positions off the first couple of laps,” he said. “We were able to run down the sixth-place car. I think we were faster, but the track was so rough at that point. It would be really tough to pass him so I played it more safe than anything.”
That relegated Van Dam into the Last Chance Showdown, where he advanced from seventh to fifth place to transfer into the back of the main event.
“The B Main was pretty rough again,” he said. “Once I got into a transfer spot I knew we were safe. There were a couple of lapped cars that made it interesting to get through. The track widened out a little bit for the feature. The holes got rougher on the bottom so it was slower and you were able to make the top work.”
Van Dam rallied from his 23rd starting position to record a 15th-place finish.
“We definitely got better throughout the night,” he said. “It’s so hard with the World of Outlaws because they are ready to go right out of the box. For us to get caught up and feel like we had somewhat their pace at the end of the night was a good feeling. We passed a lot of cars coming up through there. I felt like we had some speed.”
Van Dam returns to competition on Wednesday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., with the World of Outlaws. His best Outlaws result at the high-banked track was a 16th-place finish in 2013.
QUICK RESULTS –
Sept. 7 – Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash. – Qualifying: 25; Heat race: 7 (9); B Main: 5 (7); Feature: 15 (23).
SEASON STATS –
23 races, 4 wins, 9 top fives, 14 top 10s, 18 top 15s, 21 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Wednesday at Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore., with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series
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 – 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, Clems Enumclaw Powersports, Van Dam Dairy, Village Green Resort, Factory Kahne, 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, Rich Van Dam Dairy and Northwest Welding & Fabrication 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 Sep 08, 2015
- Article Date: 9/8/2015 by Inside Line Promotions