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Van Dam Solid in Double Duty Debut at Stockton 99 Dirt Track

(Photo by Steve Curtis)

Inside Line Promotions – STOCKTON, Calif. (Nov. 6, 2013) – Henry Van Dam is more than content with his first visit to Stockton 99 Dirt Track.

Van Dam and his team pulled double duty last Saturday by competing with the King of the West 410 Sprint Car Series as well as the 360 class at the 3/8-mile oval during the Tribute to Gary Patterson.

“I think the track has some pretty good potential,” he said. “It was pretty heavy all night so it was tough to really go racing. Overall, I thought we were good. We made progress all night. Running two cars was a lot of work for us. Our results don’t show it, but I feel we had some speed.”

Once the team arrived at the track on Saturday they began to put together the spare car to run in the 410 division. After dropping in an engine, a front end, a rear end and putting the top wing on, Van Dam hit the track for the 360 division hot laps – which also served as group qualifying.

Despite losing a rear end in that car during the session, Van Dam posted the sixth quickest qualifying time. After starting third in his heat race, Van Dam ended fourth to lock into the feature and advance to the dash. He pulled the No. 3 to start on the inside of the second row for the dash.

“We started third and starting on the inside we were pretty tight,” he said. “Going into turn one on the start I had to get checked up and lost the spots that way.”

Van Dam finished sixth, which started him on the outside of the third row for the 30-lap feature.

“They had a really tough time getting the race started,” he said. “The first time we came out third, but they called it back for a red. The third time I ended up running off the race track in (turns) one and two and I fell back to 18th. We didn’t have a caution until Lap 26.”

Van Dam maneuvered back into the top 10 and ended with a ninth-place result, which marked his 25th top 10 of the season.

With the backup car in 410 action, Van Dam timed in 16th quickest to garner the final position in the inversion. That put him on the pole of a heat race, which he finished second in to advance to the main event.

“We were just trying to get the car settled out,” he said. “We knew we weren’t that great, so I was happy to get 16th and get in the invert. The track kept getting more hooked up and more hooked up, so we didn’t know what to adjust to. We got it pretty good for the heat race.”

Van Dam started 16th in the main event, but quickly encountered an issue.

“We started deep and got rolling pretty good to start with,” he said. “We had issues with the throttle hanging up. I drove off the race track in (turns) one and two and just pulled it in after that to not tear anything up.”

Van Dam placed 21st to cap his night.

The team will conclude the season this Friday and Saturday at Cocopah Speedway in Somerton, Ariz., with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour for Rounds 3 and 4 of the Cocopah Cup Challenge.

“It is a good, high-speed track,” Van Dam said. “It runs similar to Elma as far as keeping your momentum up. I look forward to a couple more good nights. Our goal is to win. We would sure like to get a couple of wins before heading home.”

QUICK RESULTS –

Nov. 2 – Stockton 99 Dirt Track in Stockton, Calif. (410 class) – Qualifying: 16; Heat race: 2 (1); Feature: 21 (16).

Nov. 2 – Stockton 99 Dirt Track in Stockton, Calif. (360 class) – Qualifying: 6; Heat race: 4 (3); Dash: 6 (3); Feature: 9 (6).

SEASON STATS –

44 races, 1 win, 11 top fives, 25 top 10s, 34 top 15s, 40 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Friday and Saturday at Cocopah Speedway in Somerton, Ariz., with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour for Rounds 3 and 4 of the Cocopah Cup Challenge

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.HenryVanDam.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanDamRacing

VIDEO –

Here is a link thanks to ARRacing Videos to Van Dam’s victory at Grays Harbor Raceway on June 15: http://youtu.be/sFPjfxd5Vgs

APPAREL –

Van Dam has t-shirts and sweatshirts available at his racing trailer at every race he competes in. For his schedule, visit http://www.HenryVanDam.com.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Johansen Excavating

Based in Buckley, Wash., Johansen Excavating specializes in civil construction. For more information, visit http://www.JohansenExcavating.com.

“Johansen Excavating has been a partner for the past few years,” Van Dam said. “They’ve been a great sponsor, but have been even better friends.”

Van Dam would also like to thank Kovash Logging, Enumclaw Xpress Lube, Les Schwab Tire of Enumclaw, Factory Kahne, Clems Enumclaw Powersports, A.R.T. Speed Equipment, Van Dam Dairy, Village Green Resort, Bob and Joan Shumway, Kellan and Kelsey Hall, Foothills Auto Supply, American Powder Coating, Pete Vos, Char’s Barber Shop, Wesmar Race Engines, SpeedMart, Van Dam Farms and Rich Van Dam Dairy for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations, media management and merchandising services for sprint car teams. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and your sponsors’ return on investment.

To meet the media relations needs of your team, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or sprintcarreporter@yahoo.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.insidelinepromotions.com.

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