Sam Hafertepe Jr. and The Pancho's Racing Products #93 were able to squeeze more speed out of the car this past weeekend and had a solid run with The World of Outlaws at Williams Grove. Sam and the team had struggled mightily two weeks ago the first time they teamed up in 2011 at The Grove and Port Royal but the team made some changes to the car for this weekend and Sam was able to crack the A Main line-up. The team was planning on building on Friday night's success in races on Saturday and Sunday but Mother Nature had different ideas and those races were rained out.
The Sunnyvale, Texas youngster was fast right out of the box Friday night as he was 5th fastest in warm-ups and then backed it up with a 7th place run in time trials.
"Any time you are at Williams Grove time trialing is crucial," explained Sam. "That's the whole key to your night. At other tracks you can maybe miss a little here or there and it's okay but here we had 35 cars within half a second of each other so there is just no room for error. We had the car good in warm-ups, it stayed good for time trials and I ran about as good of a lap as I could and we were rewarded with 7th."
Sam lined up for yet another typically stacked heat race from the 3rd position right behind a front row that consisted of Donny Schatz and Jason Meyers. Hafertepe ran the bottom on the start and was able to work his way under Meyers and into 2nd. Hafertepe was able to hold steady ahead of Meyers but soon faced challenges from a very strong Jason Sides. Sides pressured Sam for several laps before he was able to work his way past Sam. Hafertepe made a last ditch effort to re-take the dash spot but it nearly ended in disaster.
"I drove it in really hard to turn 1 there when Sides got me," said Sam. "I knew if we could make the dash we'd be starting up front based on our time so I had to take a risk. Unfortunately I hit the cushion pretty hard and upset the car pretty badly which allowed a couple more cars to pass me."
Sam gathered up the car in the 5th and final transfer spot with Tyler Walker breathing down his neck. Hafertepe held the bottom and held of Walker to take the final transfer out of the heat.
The Pancho's Racing Products #93 J&J lined up for the Main event from the 15th position. Sam was able to move a few spots forward early in the race and was able to work as high as 11th before the handling began to fade on the car. As the race wore on Sam tried several different lines but just could not find anywhere on the track that the car seemed to like.
"I was trying everything," said Sam. "I was trying high, low, lifting early, driving it in deep, there just wasn't anything I could think of to get the car to hook up and go."
Hafertepe solidiered on to finish a disapointing 22nd but knows there is more in the car.
"After the week we had before we can definitely say we've made a lot of improvements to the car," said Sam. "We are a lot faster but there is more in the car. We were originally going to build a Maxim for this weekend but we decided not too because we just hadn't given this car a fair shake. Tonight we had it a lot better but we didn't go far enough with our changes. I actually feel like we made a lot of good decisions with the car but we just didn't take them far enough."
The following night the team unloaded for another night at The Grove and had just finished warm-ups when the rain came to end the night.
"It wasn't like it was a heavy rain or anything," explained Sam. "I know a lot of fans wondered why they would cancel because the rain wasn't that strong or anything. The problem was that we had run warm-ups and the track was really hard. When you have the track hard like that it's just way too difficult to get it back into racing shape and I don't think a lot of people realize how long it would have taken to get it back."
The following evening at Lincoln Speedway the team had just pulled into the pits when the storm clouds opened up.
"I was looking at the track in turns 1 and 2," recalled Sam. "It was actually my first time seeing the track in person. I was about to walk to turns 3 and 4 and all of the sudden the rain came pouring down. It was really disapointing. Everyone always tells me that Lincoln would be a place where I really like racing and that suits me really well and all I could think of after seeing the place while we left is how much fun it would have been to race there that night. Fortunately our schedule has us coming back there a few times this year and I'm really looking forward to it."
Sam will now be headed to Ohio for a race with The World of Outlaws Friday night at Attica and then Saturday night with The All Stars at Mercer. Sam will be behind the wheel of his familiar, family owned Lone Star Speedway Maxim-Fisher #15h but before he actually gets to Attica he's going to be side-tracked by a trip back home.
"My dad and I have had Dallas Mavericks season tickets for a really long time," said Sam proudly. "We had them when the team was absolutely terrible and now they are on their way to the Conference Finals so I'm going to fly back and catch their two home games and then head back to Ohio. Hopefully Daryl hasn't burned down the truck and trailer by then and we can come back and try to get that first Outlaws win at Attica."
Sam would like to thank the following supporters: Plumbfast Mechanical, Lone Star Speedway, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Pancho's Racing Products, Kear's Speed Shop, PPM Titanium Products, GPC Race Products, Butlerbuilt, Infinity Shocks, DMI, Finish Line Machining, Torco Racing Oils, Smiley's Racing Products, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions, Vortex Wings, AFCO Racing Shocks, Simpson Racing Products, Quick Sand Express Inc.
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- administrator on May 19, 2011
- Article Date: 5/19/2011