|
Dirt Inc.
Chassis - Maxim
Engines -
Driver - Chad
Hillier
Return
to Chad Hillier Stories
Return to
Richard Day's Stories
Return to SprintCar
PR
Go to Chad Hillier Racing
Hillier Finishes 19th at Lebanon Valley
Speedway
WEST
LEBANON, NY (July 22) – World of Outlaws Kevin Gobrecht
Rookie of the Year contender Chad Hillier drove the #5C DIRT Inc. Maxim
into 19th place in Sunday’s CarQuest
Auto Parts event at Lebanon Valley Speedway.
“We weren’t bad, but I
think we could have done better,” said Hillier, who was racing at the
high-banked, ½-mile oval for the first time. “The car was a little too snug
in the feature, but it was rolling around nice and we were competitive. We
didn’t have the best time, but we were right there in the mix. I think we
made the right call on tires, but I’m not sure we did the right thing to
the chassis to compensate for it. There wasn’t a whole lot of passing going
on; I just wish we could have been one of those doing the passing.”
Hillier was the 19th-fastest
qualifier in the 32-car field with a 17.139-second lap, .538 seconds off
Tim Shaffer’s pacesetting lap around “The Valley of Speed.”
“We felt like the car
needed more gear after hot laps, but in qualifying I think we could have
gotten away with what we had in hot laps,” Hillier said. “That might have
enabled us to pick up a 10th of a second, which would have made
the difference between making the inversion (top 16) or not.”
Forced to compete in a
star-studded heat race that included World of Outlaws veterans Paul
McMahan, Steve Kinser, Craig Dollansky,
Danny Lasoski, Hillier raced into fifth place to
qualify for the 25-lap “A” Feature.
“There were plenty of
great drivers in our heat,” Hillier said. “When I got into fifth place, I
just did my best to keep up. I was glad to qualify for the feature in the
heat race.”
Hillier, the only
driver to win championships in all three sprint car divisions at Skagit
Speedway, started inside the 10th row in the main event.
“We had a hard time
getting the car through the corners in the feature,” Chad said.
“After we got lapped, I didn’t want to get out too far toward the wall. I
had to make the corner pretty wide to get the car to roll through, but I
didn’t want to get in the way of the guys who were racing for position up
front. If we could have figured out how to make the car work with what we
had, I think we would have been a lot better. Getting stuck in the back
with as tight as we had the car, it just took too long to get going. We’ll
use what we learned there somewhere else though.”
Hillier and DIRT Inc.
will be back in action Wednesday when the World of Outlaws visits Ohsweken Speedway, a high-banked, 3/8-mile oval in Ohsweken, Ontario, Canada for the first time.
“Since nobody else in
the series has raced at the track, it should be an equalizer for us,”
Hillier said. “We usually have guys who have raced at a track 20 or 30
times, but now it could be the locals who can spank us. Another big
challenge is getting across the border. Hopefully, that will go smoothly
and the race goes well. I haven’t heard much about the track; just that a
lot of people will be there. It should be interesting.”
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.
Ideas, suggestions, questions or comments can
be sent to: SprintCar PR.
NOTICE TO BULK EMAILERS:
Pursuant to US Code, TItle 47, Chapter 5,
Subchapter II, p. 227, any and all unsolicited commercial E-Mail sent to
this address is subject to a download and archival fee in the amount of
$500 US. Anyone who sends unsolicited commercial email to this account will
be charged a $500 proofreading fee. Consider this official notification.
Failure to abide by this will result in legalaction.
|