Catchfence

Chad Hackenbracht

So Lucas Oil Raceway was an interesting weekend to say the least for us at CGH Motorsports. Starting the day Thursday, I was fairly confident that we were going to have a very strong race car. After the driver’s meeting and some USAC practice we finally got our turn on the track. I was one of the first cars out on the track for practice. I went out and made a lap of warm-up to get some heat in the tires and brakes, and just get everything up to temperature before going green.

When the green flag flew for practice I was coming out of turn four, and when I came off of turn two, the motor made a studder and sounded off key and not good at all. So i reported it to the crew and I immediately brought the car down pit road. They jacked the car up and saw oil coming out of the back of the motor. After a lap of practice, we were forced to go to a backup motor and try to change motors in time for qualifying.

After running around for an engine hoist, a spare motor, and other misc. items I was told to take a break while they work on the car and get it ready. We missed the in-line time for pre-qualifying tech forcing us to go to the end of the qualifying order. I finally made it out on the track for my two laps to feel the car out. I was now on a mission to figure the track out and get a quick lap out of the car. My first lap was my quickest setting me fourteenth in the starting order.

I was satisfied with qualifying being that I out qualified a lot of top-team cars, and I had only seen the track for one lap prior to qualifying. Though we qualified decent, we were forced to start at the rear of the field due to missing the in-line time. This put us in a bad position but I was not concerned a bit. I was determined to race my way to the front as soon as I could. I didn’t waste any time following other cars sent to the tail, I led the way and quickly broke into the top-20 and soon the top-15.

After a great pit stop I was already into the top-10 at halfway and coming on strong. At times we had the fastest car on the race track. We took a bunch of swings at changing the car on the various pit stops and they were all for the better.

By lap 140 when the caution flew, I had moved into the fourth position. I knew I was faster than at least third place, so I wanted to get a great restart like all of the other restarts earlier in the race. When the green flag flew, I was told over the radio “green, green, green.” So I eased into the gas, only to find that the car in third didn’t do the same. I’m still not sure if he missed a shift, spun the tires, or simply thought there was another caution lap. I have been told about fifty different stories of the incident, but who knows.

The incident tore up the front end of our race car and virtually took us out of contention for any good finish. We decided the damage wasn’t too bad and stayed out during the caution. Restarting third with a very tore up race car, I treated it as if it wasn’t bent up at all and the car drove great considering all the damage. I wasn’t too concerned with anything happening to the tires or to the car, and I thought I could keep my position fairly well. I was passed by some cars but didn’t fall too far back by the time the caution rolled around. We took advantage of the caution and came down pit road with the leaders and took four tires, as well as pulling out the right front fender. After the pit stop, I started deep in the field and started to work my way back up, when two laps into the run the right front tire blew. If this tire hadn’t blown, I feel we would have had a top-10 or top -15 car without going the laps down that we did. Instead, we finished 16th with a tore up race car.

Onto Pocono the next week, I felt strong going back to the tricky triangle and I was ready for it. Practice started off decent and ended alright with some work to do to get a little quicker. I qualified 12th, which I was not pleased with because I felt the lap was stronger than 12th and the car was better than a 12th place effort. On to the race, the car took off early in the race extremely well. Soon worked our way into the top-five and eventually third at one point with a very fast race car.

After a not so good pit stop, we restarted in sixth or seventh but slowly faded back being passed by a few cars. Turns out we made the wrong adjustment on the pit stop and tightened the car up when we should have loosened it up. Just a minor communication mix up between Kevin and I. We ended up finishing seventh at the end of the day, all in all fairly satisfied with our weekend.

Now we head to the dirt track in Springfield, IL which I am looking forward to. I have never been on dirt, but I have been told it turns into a regular race after the track gets a few laps on it.

The crew and I will be on the road for the following week after the dirt race, headed to do some in-store appearances with the Madison race car for Hampton Farms, whose returning after their stint at Lucas Oil Raceway.

We’ll also get a little bit of down time during the week as well, and have our second CGH road tour of 2011. My goals for the dirt race are to come home in one piece with a clean race car and top-10 finish.

Thanks for reading and I’ll connect again soon!

- Chad Hackenbracht