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Dirt Inc.
Chassis - Maxim
Engines -
Driver - Chad
Hillier
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Hillier Racing
Wheelstands Hamper Hillier at Thunderbowl
TULARE , CA (October 13) – If Olympic judges had been present
at Saturday’s Dave Helm Memorial at Thunderbowl Raceway , Chad Hillier would have
probably received a medal. Unfortunately, while his wheelstands
excited the crowd, they kept him from qualifying for the “A” Feature
honoring his former boss.
The World of Outlaws
Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year contender was running fourth in the “B”
Feature when his turn-four wheelie allowed Jeff Delte
to pass him for the final transfer position.
“We had a pretty good
race there in the ‘B,’ but we were tight and wheeling pretty bad,” Chad said.
“I made one really big wheelie and lost the transfer spot, and couldn’t get
it back. We were running third when Haud (Jac Haudenschild) got by us, and wheelied really bad
coming out of turn four and lost fourth place. Fans love wheelies but, when
the wheels are up the air, you’re not going fast. You don’t get style
points either.
“I thought I was going
to benefit in lapped traffic, but we couldn’t ever get back into a transfer
spot. That was really unfortunate; it would have been nice to transfer into
the feature. We should have had the car a little bit freer so we could get
through the corners better. We had a good car; we just didn’t get a chance
to show it.”
Hillier drove the #5c
DIRT Inc. Maxim around the Tulare ’s
semi-banked, 1/3-mile oval in 14.230 seconds, which was the 22nd-fastest
qualifying lap and .597 seconds off Paul McMahan’s pace.
“We qualified OK, but
it can always be better,” Chad
said. “We got a little sideways in the first turn and lost quite a bit of
speed, but the next corner was pretty good. We just needed to be six or
seven spots better.
“The track was pretty
narrow all night. Unfortunately, we had to start on the third row in the
heat race and we didn’t transfer out.”
Hillier, the only
driver to win championships in all three sprint car divisions at Skagit
Speedway, finished seventh in the Second Heat Race.
“You could run up top
for a few laps, but it was pretty rough,” Chad said. “You really had to
be careful running up there. It’s surprising that the race went as well as
it did considering how narrow and rough the track was. It wasn’t a typical Tulare race. The
track usually has a top and a bottom, but everybody was running around the
bottom.”
Hillier and DIRT Inc.
will run World of Outlaws races at Manzanita
Speedway Friday and Perris Auto Speedway Saturday.
“We’ve been to Manzanita a couple of times, so I think we’ll be pretty
good there this time,” Chad
said. “We’ve been getting better and better on the half-miles. We’ve never
been to Perris, so we’re excited to go there. We’re looking forward to the
weekend.”
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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