From Inside Line Promotions
Little Rock, AR — (October, 28, 2013) — Everything started to come together for another solid Short Track Nationals appearance by Sam Hafertepe Jr. until a competitor got overzealous.
Hafertepe Jr. was in a transfer position during a B Main on Saturday at the 26th annual COMP Cams Short Track Nationals Presented by Hoosier Tires at I-30 Speedway when another driver ran into him on a restart, spinning Hafertepe Jr. out in turns one and two.
“We would have definitely got through the B Main,” he said. “It was a racing deal. It happens. I’ve taken people out. Sometimes it’s intentional and sometimes it’s not intentional.”
It ended the Short Track Nationals with a 16th-place result in the consolation race for Hafertepe Jr., who had made progress on an ill-handling race car all week.
“The car was brand new for Devil’s Bowl,” he said. “This car has been acting really weird on us. It’s taken a few different things than we normally do to make it work right. It just took us a little longer.”
Hafertepe Jr. started the week on Wednesday with the inaugural Short Track Nationals Open on the quarter-mile track. He claimed his heat race after starting third, which locked him into the feature.
“That was the best race track we had all weekend,” he said. “They did a really good job with the track that night. Our car wasn’t very good that night after the heat. We actually were trying something that I’ve done there in the past. The only reason we raced on Wednesday was to test. We tried something a little off the wall and obviously it didn’t work so well. All in all, we weren’t real, real bad, but we weren’t good enough to advance positions.”
After starting seventh, Hafertepe Jr. held on for a ninth-place result. It marked his 26th top-10 finish of the season.
He returned to I-30 Speedway on Friday for his preliminary night. Hafertepe Jr. advanced from third to second place in his heat race and finished where he started – fourth – in his qualifier. That put him in a B Main, which he won to earn a transfer to the feature.
“We went back to basics and we got going really well in the feature on Friday night,” he said. “I felt like we were really good. We kinda got a feel what our car needed to be. In the A Main we were the best we were all week. We made some good gains.”
Hafertepe Jr. maneuvered from 16th to finish seventh, which earned him the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars.
Once the preliminary points were calculated, Hafertepe Jr. started sixth in a B Main on Saturday with the top-seven finishers transferring to the $15,000-to-win main event.
Following a rain delay, Hafertepe Jr. maintained a transfer position until his car was spun around on a restart, which ended his weekend.
“With all that rain, we were just riding around in the B Main and got taken out,” he said. “It was just a bad deal. I felt like we would have been at the back of the A and in all honesty, at the way the track was, you probably wouldn’t be able to advance many positions.”
Hafertepe Jr. is scheduled to take this weekend off before ending his season Nov. 7-9 at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C., for the 7 th annual World Finals with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series.
QUICK RESULTS –
Oct. 23 – I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark. – Heat race: 1 (3); Feature: 9 (7).
Oct. 25 – I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark. – Heat race: 2 (3); Qualifier: 4 (4); B Main: 1 (1); Feature: 7 (16).
Oct. 26 – I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, Ark. – B Main: 15 (6).
SEASON STATS –
70 races, 4 wins, 11 top fives, 27 top 10s, 37 top 15s, 42 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 7-9, at The Dirt Track at Charlotte in Concord, N.C., for the 7th annual World Finals with the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.Sam15.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
APPAREL –
Hafertepe Jr. has t-shirts for sale at his race trailer at every race this year. For his schedule, visit http://www.Sam15.com.