From Daryl Turford
Sunnyvale, TX — Sam Hafertepe and the Pancho’s Racing Products team got off to a slow start this past weekend and were never able to recover from a pair of bad qualifying efforts at The World Finals at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Sam sat in the car for the first time on Thursday night just before warm-ups. Following the 3 lap session Sam would turn in 2 very disappointing time trial runs that put him behind for the rest of the week as he timed in 33rd and 36th.
“We didn’t have much time and we weren’t able to get the car and the motor quite the way we wanted in time trials”, explained Sam. “We only needed like 1 more warm-up session but we knew going in that this deal would be tough with so few laps together. Pancho, Tab and Mike had the car very well prepared which did make it a lot easier though”.
Friday night saw Sam line up for the opening heat race in the 9th position. Sam didn’t get the start he wanted and needed at the drop of the green flag and was only able to improve his position 1 spot. The lightening fast surface did nothing to help Sam’s cause and after a successful slide job in turns 3 and 4 on Mark Smith Sam would have to settle for 7th.
“The car was really fast in the heat”, said Sam. “I went to go low on the start and didn’t expect anyone to be down there, unfortunately when I committed there the guy in front of me did too and it killed our momentum. We had one of the fastest cars in the heat races but starting where we did with the competition we had in front of us we just couldn’t quite get it done”.
Sam was buried in a stellar B Main but on the opening lap showed he meant business as he charged towards the front. Hafertepe started 13th and was up to 7th when another car broke in front of him. Sam went to grab the brakes only to find that he didn’t have any. Following some desperate measures Hafertepe recovered but was now running 10th. Hafertepe tried desperately to claw his way into the A Feature despite the lack of brakes and was able to pass quality cars including Mark Smith, Chad Layton and Jessica Zemken but he would come up short finishing 7th.
“Our car was awesome again in the B Main”, said Sam. “I believe 100% that if we’d have had brakes that we’d have made it through the B with absolutely no problems whatsoever. I have no doubt in my mind”.
The team was able to immediately identify and resolve the brake problem for Saturday night and The Pancho’s Racing Products team was locked and loaded.
Once again Sam would start in the 9th position but soon a questionable call would make things more difficult.
“On the initial start the leaders took off and I went straight to the bottom like I had the night before”, explained Sam. “The guys behind the leaders were asleep and I got a great run and exited turn 2 in a transfer spot. That’s when the race went yellow and they penalized me 1 row for jumping the start”.
The angry Sunnyvale, Texas native took his emotions out on the field on the next start when he made an identical start to work his way up to 8th. Sam then worked his way past Todd Kane and into 7th. 1 lap later Kane returned the favour with a slider in turns 1 and 2. Sam and Kane were battling with 2 laps remaining when Greg Hodnett blew a tire to move Sam into 7th on the restart.
The restart saw Sam waste little time in dispatching of Kane as he set his sights on Keith Baxter and the final transfer spot as he blasted under the white flag. Hafertepe closed the gap but could not get close enough to make an attempt for the transfer spot as he crossed the line in 6th.
“The Outlaws pretty much cost us a shot at transferring when they penalized us”, said the upset driver. “I asked them why they let the second start go when I did the same thing as I did in the first and they said there was a 10 foot difference in when I hit the throttle on the start. I got to see it on television later that night and it just confirmed what a bad call it was in my opinion”.
As a result of Sam’s weak qualifying effort he once again had to line up at the back of the pack on a less than stellar, tire eating track surface.
Hafertepe did what he could but could only get a few cars on the opening lap before he settled into line and couldn’t move forward for the rest of the race.
“The track conditions were terrible”, explained Sam. “We burned off an SC 15 right rear which is usually the tire we go to when the track is taking rubber in the feature. I hadn’t seen a track tear up tires like that all year”.
Despite the disappointing results Sam was quite pleased with his team’s efforts.
“Pancho, Tab and Mike had that car incredibly well prepared”, said Sam. “They gave me absolutely everything they could. I even told Pancho that we should go with used tires in the Saturday night B Main given where we were starting and he didn’t hesitate to throw new one’s on again. Every detail was taken care of to the best of their ability and I had absolutely no worries when I hopped into their car. I can’t thank those guys enough because they are the first team to ever take a chance on me and they did everything 100% and didn’t leave anything out there. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get them some better results”.
Sam will now once again return home and perform double duty at Cowtown Speedway this weekend. Following a stellar 2nd place run in his modified qualifier Sam will now line up 4th for an 100 lap feature on Thursday night. The following two days will see Sam compete in both his regular 360 sprint car as well as the modified.
“I’m looking forward to getting back home”, said Sam. “I have a blast running the modified and I’m going to try to do everything I can to lead all 100 laps. We’ve been kind of snake bitten in the 360 though and I can’t think of a better way to make up for that by earning our way into victory lane in front of my home town crowd”.