Inside Line Promotions – MILTON, Fla. (April 2, 2019) – Derek Hagar garnered his first two podium finishes of the season last weekend during a Southeastern Sprint Car Series doubleheader at Southern Raceway.
Hagar placed third on Friday and second on Saturday as he made his first non-wing sprint car starts since September 2016. The event also marked the first time he raced his own car in non-wing competition since September 2013.
“I think it turned out to be a good weekend,” he said. “It was a smart move on the business side of it. At least we got to do some racing, enjoy some sunshine and have a good weekend.”
The event kicked off on Friday with Hagar winning a heat race after starting on the outside of the front row.
“We had a good heat and got the lead off the start,” he said. “That put us third in points so we started third in the main event. We got up to second and had a good car. We made a couple of charges on restarts. They do dixie restarts where the leader starts out front and then it’s two by two behind them. We had a long red and after that my car wasn’t the same and we backed up to third.”
Saturday started on another strong note as Hagar maneuvered from seventh to second place in a heat race. That gave him the most points and garnered the pole position for the A Main.
“Saturday we got outran by a guy who runs non-wing for a living,” he said. “He came down from Indiana and is a USAC regular non-wing guy. I knew in the feature as soon as he stood on the gas and the left front came off the ground we didn’t have anything for him. With him having a 410 engine versus our 360 and being competitive with him it was a good showing. All we did was take the wings off. We had the winged sprint car setup on it from the get-go. That’s something to write down in the notebook. If the opportunity comes to race again we’ll be better prepared.
“We were still competitive with him. I wasn’t able to make a good charge on him. We had a restart with 10 laps to go. I tried to charge the corner hard, but he kept his head on his shoulders and drove by me.”
Hagar finished second to wrap up the weekend with his second straight podium.
QUICK RESULTS –
March 29 – Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla. – Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 3 (3).
March 30 – Southern Raceway in Milton, Fla. – Heat race: 2 (7); Feature: 2 (1).
SEASON STATS –
4 races, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 2 top 10s, 2 top 15s, 3 top 20s
UP NEXT –
TBD
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.DerekHagarRacing.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HagarDerek
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – J&J Auto Racing
Located in McKenzie, Tenn., J&J Auto Racing has manufactured sprint car chassis and racing parts for more than 40 years. For more information, visit http://www.JandJAutoRacing.com.
“They’ve been in the family since J&J Auto Racing started building cars,” Hagar said. “My stepdad’s dad owned race cars back in the Riverside days. They are good, safe, dependable race cars and great people to deal with.”
Hagar would also like to thank Dynotech Performance, DHR Suspension, B&D Towing and Recovery, Fragola Performance Systems, Xtreme Race Graphics, Southern Collision Centre, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, Weld Wheels, Hinchman Racewear, Wix Filters, Wings Unlimited, FK Rod Ends, Valvoline and Ti64 for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
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- Shawn Miller on Apr 02, 2019
- Article Date: 4/2/2019 by Inside Line Promotions