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Dirt Inc.
Chassis - Maxim
Engines -
Driver - Chad
Hillier
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Go to Chad Hillier Racing
Hillier Runs 20th in ‘Knight Before the
Kings Royal’
ROSSBURG, OH (July 13) – Chad Hillier and DIRT Inc. made
their final preparations for one of the season’s most prestigious events in
Friday’s “Knight Before the Kings Royal” race at Eldora Speedway.
The World of Outlaws
Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year contender drove
the #5C DIRT Inc. Maxim into 20th place against 49 of the best
sprint car racers in the world on the eve of the Kings Royal by Crown
Royal. The winner of Saturday’s 24th annual race at “The World’s
Fastest Half-Mile” will receive $50,000.
“We didn’t qualify too
badly and we had a good heat race, but we were just a little too snug at
the beginning of the feature,” Hillier said. “By the end of the feature, we
were rolling around there pretty good. Twentieth is nothing to brag about,
but there were a lot of good cars there. I think if we could have gotten
going earlier, we would have been alright. We were good at the end, but I
couldn’t run as hard as I needed to at the beginning. We were able to get
up against the fence and got going good at the end. We just tuned the car a
little too much; we should have left closer to the way we had it in the
heat. We were pretty good all night though. All in all, we felt pretty good
about it.”
Hillier’s 124.775-MPH
lap was the 23rd-fastest qualifying lap, and .419 seconds off
fast-qualifier Kenny Jacobs’ pace. Chad raced past Eldora regulars
Dean Jacobs and Jimmy Stinson on his way to a fourth-place finish in the
Third Heat Race.
“We had a really good
car in the heat race,” Hillier said. “We got off to a really good start on
the first start, and the second start was just as good. On one of the last
restarts, we probably could have gotten into third. I had a good slide
going, but I wasn’t sure how much clearance I had so I checked up. I didn’t
want to do anything stupid because third isn’t any better than fourth in a
heat race. If I had had a shot at second, I’d have
gone for it, but (Donny) Schatz and (Terry) McCarl
had gotten away from the rest of us.”
Although rookie leader
Kerry Madsen, Brandon Martin, Daryn Pittman, Stevie Smith and Craig Dollansky
passed him during the first three laps, Hillier raced back into 19th
place by the mid-point of the 30-lap main event. Chad battled veteran Dion Hindi throughout the second half of the race en
route to his 21st top-20 finish of the season.
“Dion
and I raced together for a long time,” Hillier said. “The bad thing about
it was that we got lapped. When you see a car pass you, you think it might
be one that’s running in the top five and you don’t want to race them hard.
Dion got by me, and I got back by him a few laps
later when I figured there weren’t any more top-five cars around. Toward
the end of the race, we were catching some of the guys who lapped us.”
Hillier is energized
and ready for the first Kings Royal by Crown Royal of his career.
“Everybody’s going to
be pulling out all the stops for the Kings Royal,” Hillier said. “It’s the
biggest race of the year, so far. We run hard every night, but it would be
really good to have a good run at this one. It’s my first Kings Royal, so
I’m really excited about it. It’s a different format, so I hope we can get
into the show right out of the heat race. You just have to run every lap as
hard as you can and everything will take care of itself.”
Hillier gained valuable
points on Chad Kemanah and Justin Henderson – the
2006 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year and
runner-up – when they failed to qualify for Friday’s “A” Feature. Hillier,
who ranks 18th in the World of Outlaws standings, is 90 points
behind Kemanah, 304 behind Henderson and 38 ahead
of Jeremy Campbell.
DeWitt Industries
Racing Team Incorporated invites racing fans to visit its website at www.dirt-inc.com for news, results, sponsorship information and
photographs. The team is sponsored by Jansma
Construction, H.B. Jaeger, Fast Wings, Maxim Chassis, Pro Shocks and Weld
Racing.
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