Sam Hafertepe Jr. Earns Heartbreaking 2nd Place Finish at Williams Grove -
Sunnyvale, Texas-Sam Hafertepe Jr had nearly pulled off his first career World of Outlaws (WoO) feature win this past weekend but had to settle for a heartbreaking runner up finish during the middle of a 3 race WoO trip through Pennsylvania and Virginia this past weekend. In addition to the 2nd place finish Hafertepe also finished 21st at Williams Grove on Thursday night and 15th at Virginia Motor Speedway on Saturday night.
Thursday at Williams Grove saw Sam try a new shock package against the famed Pennsylvania Posse and it really didn’t work as Sam struggled all night and had to use a provisional to race in the main event after losing a motor in his heat. Sam had a relatively uneventful feature and eventually came home in 21st.
Friday night at The Grove saw Sam and the team return to their regular shock package which resulted in an immediate improvement. Hafertepe time trialed 13th fastest and then dominated his heat winning by almost a straightaway over Donny Schatz. Sam raced from 8th to 7th in The Dash to earn himself the 7th starting position in the A Main.
The opening lap saw 2 wild crashes, one involving Schatz and the other involving Kerry Madsen. Sam was well ahead of the Madsen wreck but had the Schatz wreck directly in his path.
“I could see cars flipping everywhere,” recalled Sam. “It looked like Brian Monteith was going to come down the track and take us out so I slammed on the brakes and just when I realized that I had Monteith cleared I got rammed from behind by Brad Sweet.”
Aside from minor tail tank and bumper damage Hafertepe was able to continue on.
Sam immediately got the jump on Craig Dollansky on the restart and settled into the 3rd position behind Pennsylvania Posse drivers Brian Leppo and Stevie Smith. The lead trio began to drive away from the field when Smith looped his car out of turn 2 on lap 8 to bring out the caution flag and move Sam into 2nd. During this time WoO officials determined it was time for a fuel stop as well.
Under the red crew members Mike Schure and Daryl Turford checked air pressures in the rear tires and overfilled Sam’s fuel cell with fuel to ensure that the Sunnyvale, TX racer would make it to the finish. Hafertepe was also supremely confident.
“I told the guys under the red that the car was perfect and that Leppo was mine on the restart,” said Sam.
True to his word Sam blasted past Leppo down the front straightaway and into the lead. Hafertepe was strong out front and immediately put distance between himself and Brian.
“Our car was just awesome in clean air,” explained Sam “The car was just absolutely perfect and I knew if the breaks went our way we were going to do something pretty special.”
Several yellows slowed Sam’s progress and allowed the field to catch up to him.
“I hated those yellows,” said Sam. “Our car was really good everywhere. Early in the race I got some cars down low, I was good enough to slide people and we were bad ass fast on the top so I actually wanted the race to get into traffic because I knew that I could get through it. Unfortunately every time we caught the back of the pack we’d get a yellow and gave those guys another shot at me.”
At the mid-point the field appeared to have things together and Sam settled into a rhythm turning the fastest lap of the race by over 3/10ths of a second on lap 15.
“Right around the middle of the race it appeared as though we were going to get the rest of the race in without a caution, everyone was spread out and these guys are the best in the business so I figured that we were going to get to the checkers without another yellow. I turned up the wick and started running even harder, trying to stretch the lead on Leppo and to give myself some breathing room.”
Laps 20-23 saw Sam really put some distance between himself and Leppo when a caution came out after Monteith got together with Brad Sweet in turns 1 and 2 on lap 23.
“That yellow killed our chances,” explained Sam. “I had abused my tires pretty good trying to put some ground between Leppo and I so I didn’t have quite as good of a car as I did earlier.”
On the restart Leppo was able to get the advantage on Sam and re-took the lead. Hafertepe tried in vain to track him down but the car just wasn’t as good.
“As good as our car was in clean air, we were just as bad in dirty air,” explained Sam. “Once Brian got out front I was doing everything I could to track him down but I just didn’t have the car.”
A yellow for Craig Dollansky set up a wild 5 lap showdown between Leppo, Daryn Pittman, 24th starting Fred Rahmer and Sam that the crowd at Williams Grove will not soon forget.
“It was really hard to beat Leppo on the restarts,” confided Sam. “I could get about a 2-3 car length lead on him but he has some awesome motors and it seemed like by the end of the straightaway he could make up whatever I had gained on him.”
The final restart saw Leppo again get the jump but Sam was close enough to throw a slide job on him going into turn 1 to take the lead.
“That was the best slide job I’ve ever thrown in my life,” said Sam. “I cleared Brian pretty safely and I immediately drove to the inside of the back straightaway to take away any chance he had to slide me back. I still don’t know how he did it but he still got a heck of a run on me and was able to slide back under me in 3 and 4. I probably should have taken the bottom away from him but I didn’t think he’d have such a run.”
Leppo re-passed Sam for the lead out of turn 4. Daryn Pittman took advantage of the situation and threw his hat in the ring with the lead trio as he slid past Sam in turns 1 and 2. Hafertepe was able to turn back under Pittman however and held 2nd as he tried to chase Leppo back down and earn his first career WoO feature win.
While Sam was chasing Leppo 24th starting Fred Rahmer made his presence felt and out of nowhere passed Pittman with 3 laps to go and drove underneath of Sam with 2 laps to go in turns 1 and 2 as Leppo began to fade as he was running out of fuel. Rahmer and Sam both charged past Leppo in turns 3 and 4 with Rahmer leading Sam under the white flag.
“I wanted to win that race so badly,” said Sam. “It’s Williams Grove, it’s The Posse and The Outlaws haven’t beaten them in so long, I wanted to be the guy to who pulled it off. To have it come down to you and Fred Rahmer for 1 lap at The Grove and a WoO feature win is pretty much all you could ever ask for.”
Sam tried desperately over the last lap to track Rahmer down but the veteran Posse member was just too strong on the bottom and took the win.
“I think it really played into Fred’s hands that he was on the bottom,” explained Sam. “All of us were on the top and that’s so much harder on the tires up there. My guys said he really came on towards the end and I’m willing to bet that was more of a case of everyone else slowing down than him actually getting faster. You have to give him credit though, he raced his ass off to get up to us and they clearly had a really good car too. To come from 24th and win anywhere let alone Williams Grove is very, very impressive.”
While most of those close to Sam in attendance were thrilled Sam couldn’t help but feel like he’d let one slip away.
“I really feel like when I put the hammer down between laps 15-23 that I cost myself the win,” explained Sam. “I used up my tires and I really didn’t need to. I had the field covered and everyone there knows it. I just feel like I let one slip away and that I let myself and my team down no matter how much they tell me differently.”
Following the race the team drove through the night to Virginia Motor Speedway. Hafertepe and the crew had high hopes for a good run having finished 3rd and 2nd respectively in the last 2 WoO shows at the facility.
Sam started the night off promisingly by going out late and still turning the 6th fastest lap in time trials but that would be the high point of the evening. Hafertepe would run 5th in his heat and 9th in the Dash before struggling to a 15th place finish in the feature event.
“We just couldn’t get dialled in at all tonight,” explained Sam. “We will keep searching though and pretty soon we will figure out what this car needs and when we do I expect a lot more runs like we had at The Grove.”
The Plumbfast Racing Team is now headed to Ohio and Michigan for races at Attica Raceway Park in Ohio on Friday and I-96 Speedway in Lake Odessa, Michigan on Saturday.
“We came from 21st to 5th at Attica last year and ran 7th at I-96 so I know we can run good at both those tracks,” said Sam. “We’ll just go to work, get the car ready and throw everything we’ve got at them.”
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