Sam Hafertepe Jr. climbed behind the wheel of a midget this past weekend as he joined over 260+ competitors at what has become The Super Bowl of short track racing; The Chili Bowl. The Sunnyvale, Texas racer teamed with his father and long-time friend Triston Dycus to field a Spike-Esslinger and found immediate success as they qualified for their preliminary feature on Tuesday before ultimately finishing 11th in their B Main on Saturday.
"Following the 2012 Chili Bowl we decided that we were going to take a shot at the race," explained Sam. "We made a deal with Bryan Clauson to acquire a midget/engine and over the course of the year Triston and I prepared it for this past weekend in our spare time."
Dycus, who himself is a very successful dirt modified racer in Texas met Sam when he worked for Smiley's Racing Products and Sam was a regular customer. The pair formed a lasting friendship that took the next step as the duo worked together along with Lone Star Speedway, All-Pro Reconditioning Services, Maritech Windows, Tony's D&D Auto Parts, DMS Farms, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, BMRS and Smiley's Racing Products to field a car for The Chili Bowl.
Sam and the team opened their Chili Bowl by drawing the pole position in their heat. Hafertepe blasted to the early lead from the outset and was dominating the race when on lap 4 he bicycled viciously and nearly flipped.
"I was driving the car pretty hard and setting a pretty fast pace," explained Sam. "I just got into turn 1 and caught the curb a little too hard and started bicycling. I was able to gather it back up though and I knew I had a pretty big lead so I just calmed down, slowed my pace and covered the last 4 laps".
Sam lined up 4th for his qualifier and made some nice early moves in to work his way into 2nd in the first set of corners before attempting a slide job in turns 3 and 4 for the lead that came up just short. As the race wore on the handling wasn't where Sam needed it to be and he eventually lost out in a battle for 2nd with Jonathan Beason.
During the early laps of the feature Sam jostled for position. Sam soon found himself mired in a battle with former Chili Bowl preliminary feature winners Shane Cottle and Zach Daum. The battle raged on throughout the field as Sam tried to work his way past Cottle while holding off Daum who had come from the C Main.
A late race restart on lap 18 set up a 7 lap dash to the finish as Sam was able to put a little distance on Daum and was all over the back bumper of Cottle and Kevin Ramey. The trio exchanged sliders but Sam eventually settled with an impressive 11th place finish.
"We were really pleased with the night overall," said Sam. "I think Daum and I were actually faster than the cars in front of us but the track became so top-dependant that it was hard to make anything happen. You could run in and slide a guy, but he would just turn under you and drive back by. Overall though, to come here with my own team and having not raced here in about 5 years I was very pleased with tonight's outcome."
Hafertepe's 11th place finish locked him into an outside front row starting position for Saturday night's C Feature surrounded by non-wing heavyweights such as Bobby East, Jon Stanbrough and Bud Kaeding.
Sam was able to make a clean start and began stalking East for the lead during the early laps before smoke started emanating from the motor of the #15h.
"We had a fitting break and it was leaking fuel all over me," recalled Sam. "We shot some flame out of the side and that kind of spooked me so I started lining up where to park to be close to a fire extinguisher in the infield. I ran about 2 more laps though and figured, if I hadn't caught on fire by then, that I wasn't going to and I started trying to track down East again."
East had built up more than a straightaway lead and was mired in lapped traffic. Sam closed rapidly during the final few laps and was just a few car lengths back at the checkers to transfer safely into the B feature.
"To me that C feature might have been our most impressive performance all week," said Sam. "We were surrounded by non-wing guys who will eat your lunch and aside from East we were able to drive away from them fairly easily."
It took several attempts to get the B feature underway as desperate driver's took desperate measures in hopes of making The Chili Bowl feature race.
Unforunately Daryn Pittman and Thomas Meseraull got together leaving Sam with nowhere to go. Hafertepe tried desperately to stop before the crash but made contact with the pair and bent his front axle. Sam restarted at the rear and put on an exciting slide job exhibition with Bud Kaeding as the pair tried to race towards the front. Sam eventually ran out of laps and finished 11th in the B feature, missing a trip to the feature by just 5 spots.
"Overall I'm really pleased with our week," stated Sam. "I had run here twice before, years ago, but I had never really made a serious attempt at this race. To be as competitive as we were and to stay out of trouble like we did made the week a success. You show up here and obviously in the back of your mind you want to make the Saturday night feature but to come as close as we did in our first shot as a team is something that I think we can all be proud of."
Sam would like to thank the following supporters: Lone Star Speedway, All-Pro Reconditioning Services, Maritech Windows, Tony's D&D Auto Parts, DMS Farms, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Smiley's Racing Products, Fisher Racing Engines, Maxim Chassis, Pro Shocks by OC Shocks, Fire-Down Graphics, Butlerbuilt, Vortex Wings, Kear's Speed Shop, Pancho's Racing Products, GPC, Torco Racing Oil, Simpson Racing Products
Follow Sam on Twitter: @samhafertepejr
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