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Sam Hafertepe Jr. Reflects on Breakthrough Season

[b Sam Hafertepe Jr. Reflects on Breakthrough Season, Returning to WoO in 2010]

[i Daryl Turford]

Sunnyvale, Texas-The 2009 season was a tremendous year for Sam Hafertepe Jr. and The Plumbfast Racing Team. This past weekend Sam earned finishes of 7th and 9th at USA Raceway in Tucson, Arizona to cap off the sprint car racing season. The top 10 finishes capped off a long year that saw Sam begin the year on the World of Outlaws (WoO) tour until the team decided to run a true “Outlaw” schedule in July.

Sam and the crew came into the season more prepared than ever before. The team had prepared four motors and had several cars in their stable. Despite all of the preparation Sam’s season got off to a disastrous start as the team lost three motors during the Florida Speedweeks.

“Florida was absolutely devastating for our team,” recalled Sam from his Sunnyvale, Texas shop. “It truly took our team almost all of the season to recover from Florida. We came in really and truly believing that we could win a show and that we would be up front all week. To have things go like they did was just a nightmare both emotionally and financially. You know there are going to be some difficult times out here, but to be down to one motor less than two weeks into the season was something we really didn’t see coming.”

The team would struggle through the early part of the year at which time Sam and the entire team decided some major changes needed to be made. The team switched to Charlie Fisher Racing Engines and decided to try a Maxim chassis. The changes the team made paid off immediately.

“The first time we had the combination together we showed up at Eldora and blew ‘em away in our heat,” remembered Sam fondly. “We needed a run like that pretty bad and we were really looking forward to the dash and feature but, unfortunately the show would rain out. They got the show in the next night though and we had a pretty competitive car, but faded late to 11th.”

The team headed to Williams Grove knowing they would have to be “on kill” for the famed “Pennsylvannia Posse.” While many of the World of Outlaws regulars struggled Sam thrived throughout the evening as he was the only Outlaw to qualify for the Dash and was headed to an impressive 4th place run when a flat tire and a sputtering motor caused Sam to fade to 12th at the finish.

“Those two races were really the turning point of our season,” explained Sam. “We didn’t get the results we wanted and we finally had a sense that we were going in the right direction.”

A couple of weeks later Sam found himself in the thick of a battle for the feature win at Virginia Motor Speedway. Hafertepe started on the front row of the feature with Joey Saldana and the two racers waged war throughout the race as Sam chased his first career victory.

“I ran as hard as I could that night,” recalled Sam. “I was on the edge all of the way through and took some pretty wild chances in traffic but we came up just a bit short and had to settle for 2nd.”

Hafertepe would get on a roll and just two races later he would earn the Hard Charger Award at Attica Raceway Park as he tore from the 21st starting position to a 5th place finish in the A feature.

“That was an incredibly rewarding night,” remembered Sam fondly. “We couldn’t get the car right. We changed bars and shocks after every session and barely squeaked our way into the A Main. Finally for the A Main we got the car right and it was a rocket. I was running a different line than most of the guys out there and we were able to get through most of the field. To chase the car that hard all night and then eventually run that good was very, very satisfying.”

The team followed up the performance with a 7th place finish at I-96 Speedway in Michigan and things seemed to be headed in the right direction for the team.

“Unfortunately at this point we still hadn’t settled completely on the Maxim and we still only had one Fisher motor,” explained Sam. “We kept switching cars and sometimes ran both chassis in the same weekend and it was getting hard to have any kind of consistency.”

The team did however have a stellar TV performance when the WoO hit Dodge City. “We went out there with a very tired motor, but the car was perfect. I nailed the lap and I earned my first career fast time award. Things really started to roll from there.”

Hafertepe would chase Joey Saldana and Donny Schatz throughout the A Feature event on his way to an impressive 3rd place finish in front of the SpeedTV cameras.

The team would continue to have flashes of speed, but it wasn’t until July that Sam really started to succeed.

“Honestly, even at this point we still hadn’t fully recovered from losing those motors at the
start of the year,” explained Sam. “We were able to get a lot more stable in terms of our chassis, but it always seemed like we were running on a tired motor. You always hear about how Outlaw teams are switching out motors after 5 or 6 nights, well for a while there we really had to lean on the one and only Fisher motor that we had and actually put 19 nights on it before freshening it.”

Hafertepe and the team headed into July and The Brad Doty Classic at Limaland Motorsports Park feeling pretty confident.

“The car was a rocket all night,” explained Sam. “We timed great, we were a bullet in the heat and we ran 2nd in the Dash to put us on the front row of the feature. All week long my guys (Kory Miller and Daryl Turford) and I had been saying we wanted this race. We’re a very young team out here but we’re all aware of who Brad was and the impact he has had on the sport.”

Sam burst into the lead and led nearly half of the race in what probably would be considered by most insiders as the most exciting flag-to-flag WoO feature of the season. Jason Meyers snuck past Sam just past halfway after the pair had exchanged slide jobs all race long.

Hafertepe along with 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser began to track Meyers back down in traffic but just when things were getting interesting again Sam slapped the wall down the backstretch and the car went into a vicious series of snap rolls which ended Sam’s night and destroyed the frame.

“We trashed a car and lost a race we had a great shot to win,” recalled Sam. “The funny thing is none of us were mad or upset. I think that was a big moment of growth for our team. I think a lot of teams out here would have pouted or gotten angry at their driver or the situation, but my guys knew that I was hanging it all out there and I think we all agreed it was worth risking a race car to try to win ‘The Doty.’”

The team spent the rest of the week getting ready for the prestigious Kings Royal. The $50,000 to win race brought some stout competition from all over. Once the field had been whittled down to it’s final 24 starters Sam felt he was in the position to win the race.

“I had told Daryl earlier that night that no one was going to beat Schatz based on the way the surface was and where he was starting,” recalled Sam. “Soon, I started getting ideas about how we could make the car roll better and by the time we rolled out for the feature I thought Schatz was beatable and I was pretty sure I was the guy who could do it.”

Hafertepe methodically picked his way from 5th to 3rd in the opening laps while Schatz and Dale Blaney battled for the lead. Sam forced his way into the consciousness of sprint car fans everywhere on lap 18 when he passed Blaney for 2nd and immediately set his sights on Schatz for the lead.

“Our car was so good,” beamed Sam. “I could drive it wherever I wanted and it seemed like we couldn’t do anything wrong.”

Hafertepe worked his way onto Schatz’s bumper on lap 23 but a yellow would dramatically alter the race.

“During the yellow our car began to sputter,” recalled Sam. “I’m still not sure why we were using so much fuel, but we were in trouble. When Schatz took off on the restart the car just didn’t feel quite as good and the sputtering motor killed our chances of pulling off the upset. From there on out I just tried to be as smooth as I could and take what I could get.”

Hafertepe would find himself struggling in the closing laps as Blaney snuck by for 2nd on lap 36 but Sam would catch a break in the form of a fuel stop.

“We needed that really badly,” explained Sam. “We couldn’t have made the finish otherwise and it let me go after the leaders again.”

Unfortunately the track had taken rubber at that point and passing was at a premium. Sam would cover the final 4 laps and earn a 4th place finish.

“To run like that at The Doty and The Kings Royal showed us and everybody else that we can beat anybody, anytime, anywhere,” stated Sam. “I firmly believe that from that point on we were a much tougher team and I think the results showed that in the 2nd half of the season.”

Following The Kings Royal the team found themselves at a crossroads.

“Fusion Energy Boost had paid us very well for their time in 2008, but we hadn’t seen a dime in 2009,” explained Sam. “It was midseason, we’d run their graphics all year and we still hadn’t seen a penny. I’m not sure if Fusion didn’t pay the Outlaws or if the Outlaws just didn’t pay us. The Outlaws swear up and down that they haven’t been paid, but the only thing I know for sure is that we didn’t get paid. We decided earlier in the year that if it got to July and we hadn’t been paid that the graphics would be taken off the car and we would race where we want. Unfortunately it came to that.”

The team decided to follow a true “Outlaw” schedule that saw them compete whenever they could throughout the Midwest.

It didn’t take long for Sam to find victory lane as the 2007 Knoxville Nationals Rookie of the Year set a new track record with the Interstate Racing Association at Eagle Valley Raceway in Wisconsin before taking the lead on lap 12 of the main event and running away with the win.

“That was a pretty cool night for us,” recalled Sam. “Kory and Daryl had won races on crews before, but never while working on a 410 and we had never all won together as a team. I think it was also Daryl’s 100th race as a crew member for me and I know it meant a lot to him to win that night.”

From Eagle Valley the team headed out for The Thunder Through The Plains Tour which was highlighted by two top-5’s to round out the tour including a 2nd in the $10,000 to win finale at Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota.

Following Huset’s, The Plumbfast Racing Team decided to compete in both the 360 and 410 Nationals and they got things off on the right foot by finishing 4th on their preliminary night at the 360 Nationals.

“We were in a pretty tough field on our preliminary night,” recalled Sam. “A lot of good cars went home but, we were on top of things and came out with the 8th best point total.”

Sam would charge from 8th to 4th in the Saturday night A Main. During the closing stages Sam appeared to have a car capable of running 2nd or 3rd but a blown tire that exploded dramatically over the turn 3 fence ended the night prematurely and forced Sam to limp to a 17th place finish.

The team headed into The 49th Annual Knoxville Nationals confident following the success they’d had with the 360 at Knoxville the week before. Hafertepe timed in 12th overall on his preliminary night but more importantly was the fastest car who was able to transfer out of his heat which made him high point man at that point. Sam would line up 8th for the preliminary night feature and needed only a solid finish to lock him into his first career Knoxville Nationals A Feature.

On the initial start Sam vaulted from 8th to 3rd and looked like he might win the feature but a crash in turn 4 by a slower car necessitated a complete restart. Hafertepe wouldn’t get quite as good of a start the 2nd time around but gradually picked his way up to 3rd by the time the feature race was over.

“We were ecstatic with our performance,” beamed Sam. “Donny Schatz was the only car on our night to collect more points than us and following a 2nd place run in the A Scramble I found myself lining up for the Knoxville Nationals in 8th with a car that I TRULY believed could win. You can’t ask for any more than that as a driver.”

Contact with the front straightaway wall on lap 2 would ultimately kill any chance Sam would have to win the most prestigious race in sprint car racing, but The Plumbfast Racing Team was still proud of their performance.

“I think we had one of the fastest cars all week,” stated Sam. “We were one of the best on our qualifying night, we finished 2nd in the scramble, we were the 3rd fastest in the warm-up session for The Nationals but we just missed the setup in the A Feature and getting into the wall killed us. We learned so much and I think we gained a ton of valuable experience and I can’t wait to go back there next year.”

Following Knoxville Hafertepe and The Plumbfast Racing Team heated up as they barnstormed anywhere that was paying decent money. From mid-August into early September the team reeled off 3 top 5’s in 6 races. The highlight was a 2nd place finish at Attica Raceway Park where Sam chased Stevie Smith throughout.

“Stevie Smith had such a great year, but we were really hoping to beat him,” said Sam. “I threw everything I had at him all night and he was able to hold me off every time. I think the fans really enjoyed that one and we always seem to put on a show whenever we hit Attica.”

Throughout the final portion of the season Sam was fast no matter who he competed against as he closed out the year with 9 top-10 finishes in 11 starts. Unquestionably the highlight was Sam’s run in front of his hometown crowd at Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore, Texas. During the offseason Sam’s family had purchased the facility which had sat dormant for 4 years. Together they refurbished the speedway and restored it into one of the finest facilities on the tour.

Sam and The Plumbfast Racing Team turned in an incredible performance at The First Annual Lone Star Speedway WoOFest as he matched his career best WoO finish with a 2nd.

“That night was amazing,” remembered Sam fondly. “It rained several inches on the Wednesday so I had to leave the car to my guys to have ready so I could work on the track. I got my job done and my guys stepped up to the plate too. We had so many more distractions than anyone in that field and right up until it was race time I was the guy driving the water truck and making the finishing touches on the surface. I still can’t believe things went so smoothly.”

Joey Saldana and Sam shared the front row again and following a wild first lap that saw the pair exchange slide jobs Saldana was able to emerge with the lead. Hafertepe chased after Saldana desperately but just as he was appearing to make up ground in traffic a caution came out.

“The yellow killed us,” said Sam. “Joey was a rocket in open track and we could stay with him but we couldn’t even think about passing him in open track.”

Sam would cross the line in 2nd where he was welcomed by several friends and family members.

Sam spent much of his time behind the wheel of his family owned Plumbfast Racing sprint car but towards the end of the year he was given an opportunity to drive for the Pennsylvania based Pancho’s Racing Products Team for the World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“It was an honour to be asked by Pancho and Tab to drive their race car,” beamed Sam. “It was also nice to get back on a J&J for a bit, because we’ve always had a good relationship with Jack Elam and I do believe in his race cars.”

The team ultimately needed just a little bit longer to gel but The World Finals format quashed any chances the team had to succeed when they were not immediately fast out of the box on Thursday night.

“Everyone made their time trial runs on Thursday and we were about one warm-up session from being where we needed to be,” said Sam. “We were a little off on the motor, the car setup and gear. Once we got things dialled in we were really, really fast but we’d buried ourselves too much at that point.”

The team would start deep both nights but despite having a very fast race car they would not qualify for either feature.

“I felt bad for the guys,” said Sam. “Every time that car hit that track it had the best stuff on it, new tires, everything. The Pancho’s guys put it all out there for me but we just came up a bit short both nights.”

Following Lowe’s Sam would again hop behind the wheel of a 360 with a new-style J&J chassis to finish out the year. Hafertepe was a top 5 car almost every single time the car hit the track, but never could quite threaten to win another race before the year finished up in Arizona. Hafertepe closed out the year with 4 top-10 finishes in 4 360 starts against the best ASCS racers in the country.

“I was really pleased with the new J&J’s that Jack sent us,” said Sam. “We know our Maxim’s run and we are pretty sure these J&J’s will run so we’re kind of up in the air in terms of what we want to do for a chassis in 2010.”

The team is now back in Sunnyvale, Texas preparing for the 2010 season.

“We’ve decided we are going to make a full assault once again on The World of Outlaws tour for 2010,” said Sam. “There is just really nothing like racing those guys night in and night out. You have to be so focused as a driver and so prepared as a team. Sometimes the leadership really ticks me off and I hate that we can’t race where we want when we’re off, but at the end of the day these guys are the most professional organization and they have the best drivers in the world. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there and showing everyone what we are capable of in 2010.”

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