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Sam Hafertepe Jr. Impressive Florida Performance

Sunnyvale, Texas-Sam Hafertepe Jr and The Plumbfast Racing Team turned in an impressive performance this past week that resulted in 2 top 10 finishes during the always difficult season opening races in Florida. Unfortunately despite being a top 10 car on all five nights of racing action the team would only see the chequered flag twice which took away from what had been a very impressive performance by the Sunnyvale, Texas native.

The year started out at Ocala Speedway with The All Star Circuit of Champions. Sam ran 3rd in his heat but unfortunately and opening lap skirmish between Greg Hodnett and Danny Lasoski resulted in nowhere for Sam to go and as a result he left the track on a tow truck.

“It was just one of those first lap deals,” explained Sam. “Some guys got together on the bottom and I was already committed down there. These things happen on starts and eventually everyone gets bit. Fortunately we only really lost an axle and some shocks.”

The second night at Ocala was rained out and the team headed to Volusia Speedway in Barberville, Florida for 2 more nights of racing with The All Stars capped off by 3 nights with The World of Outlaws.

The opening night with at Volusia saw Sam run a solid 2nd to Terry McCarl in his heat to safely lock him in for the feature event in the 17th starting position.

Sam was a bullet all feature long and despite the lockdown, tacky surface that made passing difficult he was able to work is way through the field before ultimately passing Cale Conley on the final lap to secure a 10th place finish.

“I was really pleased with the results from the opening race at Volusia,” said Sam. “I told the guys that what had me so pumped up was that the car wasn’t really that good. I told Mike (Schure) and Daryl (Turford) that the 10th place run was going to be the worst we’d run all week because I knew how much better the car could be.”

The following night saw Sam time in with an impressive 6th place performance. Under All Star rules the top 6 qualifiers re-draw for their starting positions so transferring from your heat was of utmost importance if you planned on winning the feature event.

Sam was able to get a great start in his heat as he found the bottom and drove past both Brad Sweet and Kraig Kinser. Hafertepe switched to the top and lost 3rd to Joey Saldana but finished out the heat in 4th to lock him into the feature.

By luck of the draw Sam found himself starting 3rd in the feature but at the drop of the green it was clear he did not have a car to win as he was dropped to 6th on the start. Sam would drop as low as 7th in the field but through attrition and a slide job battle with Danny Lasoski that he eventually won he would work his way back up to 5th. As the feature wore on Sam ran comfortably in 5th, never pressuring those in front of him but never feeling pressure from behind him either.

“To be honest our car really wasn’t that good tonight either,” stated Sam following the feature. “We were definitely better on long runs than short runs and once we got strung out I could hold my own but I hated all of the cautions we had because they gave everyone a shot at us when we really weren’t that good. Fortunately there was a curb on the top and that’s generally when I excel as a driver.”

The World of Outlaws season opener was lost to rain meaning that the first of the remaining 2 Outlaw races would be run on Saturday and Sunday.

Sam would catch a lucky break and be the 16th fastest qualifier on Saturday night which put him on the pole of a very tough heat. Fortunately Sam got the jump and while Steve Kinser and Tim Kaeding fought a war for 2nd place Hafertepe drove away to a comfortable victory.

Sam started the dash in 10th and on the start engaged in a torrid battle with Jason Sides and Joey Saldana that saw the trio race side by side on two separate occasions before Sam ultimately ran 10th.

The season opening feature saw Sam move forward steadily as he was able to pass Fred Rahmer and held the 9th spot while pressuring Jason Sides and Kraig Kinser for the 7th and 8th positions.

The first two-wide restart in the history of the series saw Sam take advantage of the situation and blast from 9th up to 7th and soon Sam was pressuring Kinser again but this time for the 7th position. The pass for 6th seemed inevitable as Sam was clearly a top 5 car but unfortunately disaster struck on lap 17 when Sam blew the motor on his Lone Star Speedway #15H which resulted in a disappointing 21st place finish.

“We finally had a really good car here,” said the disappointed driver following the feature. “I just can’t believe that happened. It’s really devastating. Our goal was to come out of Florida with 2 top-10 World of Outlaws finishes and we were well on our way to achieving that goal when that happened. I’m sure we had enough of a car and enough time to get Kraig and work our way into the top 5.”

The following day the crew changed motors and Sam went out and set the 14th fastest time in qualifications which put Sam on the pole for his heat which he dominated thoroughly. The heat race was eventful however as drivers who weren’t in transfer positions stopped on the track on 2 separate occasions to deliberately bring out yellow flags and take advantage of the double-file restart rule.

“That was a bit of a joke,” said Sam following the heat race. “We were winning the heat by a straightaway and clearly had the car to win but other guys we’re trying to make up for their inability to get the job done by bringing out deliberate yellow flags. If we’d have gotten screwed on that I’d have been livid.”

Sam continued to be lightening fast as he drove by not only Donny Schatz and Jason Sides in the Dash to move from 7th to 5th.

Unfortunately Sam decided to make several changes to the car and the team wasn’t able to make them all before The World of Outlaws officials blew the horn and Sam was docked 2 starting positions.

“That was ridiculous,” said Sam following the race. “They rushed us along the night before and said they wouldn’t do that to us again the following night. Instead they were worse. Heck, they even blew the horn for the dash before I could get back from the interview they had me do on the front stretch. If I had wanted any changes on the car we’d have been screwed. I know they were trying to rush the show along for the fans but they were getting ridiculous. We made a ton of changes for the feature, every single one was necessary and there was no way we were going to get them all done in the time they gave us.”

During the opening laps of the feature Sam took his Maxim chassis to the topside of the speedway while most of the field preferred the bottom lane. Hafertepe’s car was locked down and fast on the top and he soon began moving forward through the field. Hafertepe disposed of Mark Smith and Paul McMahan early in the race to settle into the 6th position.

Sam soon began to utilize the top to reel in 4-time defending World of Outlaws Champion Donny Schatz. Hafertepe gained ground early on Schatz but as the run went on could only maintain the gap up until a lap 14 caution.

The double-file restart would not be kind to Sam as he immediately dropped from 7th to 10th. As the race went on however Sam closed back in on some of the cars that passed him until disaster struck on lap 22. Hafertepe was entering turn 1 when his left rear tire exploded dramatically. The tire actually came into the cage during the explosion and hit Sam in both the arm and the leg viciously. During the course of the blow out a part of the tire also blew forward and smashed the fitting for the front brake resulting in a total loss of brakes. Schure and Turford were able to change the tire on time but the lack of brakes ended Sam’s night.

“We almost trashed the car going into turn 1,” recalled Hafertepe. “We either cut the tire or we blistered it. I’m pretty sure we blistered it though because as the run went on I could feel it getting worse and worse. The car started vibrating and my guys told me that we were smoking the tire for the last few laps and it looked like it was going down. It kind of confuses me because earlier in the week when everyone else was blowing tires we were getting great wear, now, no one else is struggling and we are the ones not getting great tire wear. It’s just really frustrating because this is two straight nights that we’ve had a very good car and have been running in the top 10 when we dropped out. We had great All Star races but we really needed to come out of the Outlaw races with good finishes if we wanted to run as good as we think we could in points.”

Despite the final two disappointing races the driver of The Plumbfast Racing, Lone Star Speedway #15H has high hopes heading into the rest of the season.

“Everybody knows we were here,” said Sam. “We were a top 10 car every night and one of the 5 fastest Outlaws all week. Mike and Daryl worked great together and I think we’ve got ourselves a very good team. If we keep running like this we are eventually going to get rewarded and hopefully when we head to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks we will put it all together.”

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