Photo Courtesy: RACE22.com
Release Prepared by: Sam Hunt

Chesterfield, VA(March 31, 2011) --   Sam Hunt and his STH teammates had their second race at South Boston Speedway last Saturday, "The Nascar Whelen All-American Series 150". The team had a test session the Friday before the race to shake the car down and to insure the extensive repairs from the previous week's crash were complete.  

The entire front end of the car had to be replaced, so the handling characteristics needed work to get the car back to competitive lap times. Compounding the challenges at the test, were damp track conditions in turn 1 and 2. After Frank Deiny initially checked the car out, it was found to be leaking brake fluid in the right front brake caliper.

Website Designed, Hosted and Maintained by RACE22.com

Spring Race in Winter Conditions!  

After that was corrected a slow leak was discovered in the engines oil pan that needed some attention. After several hours of preparation the car was finally ready for testing. After making approximately 70 laps the decision was made to forgo putting sticker tires on for qualifying test runs due to track conditions. Sam was able to improve his times from 16.4 down to 16.2 but was still searching for more corner speed.

Saturday morning temperatures were in the mid 30's and the sky was overcast, looking like it could begin snowing any minute! Accompanying the cold temperatures was a pesky 10 mph breeze. In the race day practice sessions, Sam worked on his braking points going into the corners, pushing the car deeper into the corners to reduce critical tenths of seconds from his lap time. His times in practice were respectable, getting down to the 16.2 of the previous day but, Sam was still a full 3/10s of a second off the top cars lap times. After making adjustments to free the car up in the center of the corner, the team prepared the car for qualifying.

Sam watched the early qualifiers go out and soon realized the effects of very cold temperatures on new tires. Several cars actually spun out on the warm up lap. As Sam took the track for his qualifying run, he knew his chances for a top 10 position would require him to post a time he was unable to obtain earlier in practice on 20 lap tires. With the combination of new tires and cold conditions, Sam had no interest in risking damage to the car in qualifying. The team's first race had been cut short and the extensive work done to repair the car weighed heavily on his mind. The objective for the day was to complete 150 laps and remain on the lead lap at the finish. A bonsai qualifying run would never reward his team, in light of the teams' objective. Sam posted a very conservative 16.4 lap time that would start the car 18th in the 20 car field.

When the green flag dropped, Sam kept some space between himself and the car in front of him, with all eyes watching and expecting an early race pileup. However, the first nine laps were clean and the #42 car ran 18th until the first caution came out for debris. Under caution, Sam hit pit road for the first time and the team made adjustments to help the car off the corners. On the restart, Sam passed the #2 car of Dennis Holdren and drove in the 16th spot until the next caution for a wreck on the front straight. Under the next long green flag run, the water temperature gauge showed the engine temperature rising above acceptable levels. When the next caution came out, the #42 car pitted and all of the grill tape was removed to increase air flow to the engine. Sam ran 16th until lap 100 when the #94 car spun on the front stretch just in front of Sam. He dodged the spinning car and avoided contact. Under the caution the team pitted again experimenting with adjustments to find more speed. When the green flag dropped on lap 102, Sam was able to advance another position when the #68 veered head-on into the (turn 1) wall causing a lengthy delay to clean up the track. When the green flag dropped, Sam held his position for the remaining 35 laps finishing on the lead lap in 14th place.

Comments from Sam Hunt:

"It's been a long couple of days. The team was really looking forward to yesterday's practice session, working on qualifying laps. Last week the car basically had to be rebuilt from the dash forward after the race, so it was important to shake the car down and make sure everything was working correctly. That cost us some time on Friday but, it was really the damp track conditions that eliminated our opportunity to test qualifying laps. The track conditions were really tricky again today due to the cold weather. My tires in practice had good grip and I thought I could finally break the 16 second barrier in qualifying. When I saw, and felt, how the new tires were struggling for grip it became clear that today, it would not happen. Although Frank and some of the more experienced drivers managed qualifying really well, it just wasn't the time to push the car: the risk / reward just wasn't there. We fought a loose off throughout the day, not sure if it was due to my line through the corners or the car? We made several changes throughout the race and got better but then the engine temperature became an issue. Not really sure what caused that but when Mike removed the nose tape the temp dropped. It felt good to finally complete a race after Caraway last fall, the long winter, and then the wreck last week but, I'm far from satisfied with my performance. I've got to pick up my speed through the corners to qualify better and race better. "