4~Hart Motorsports: Has Roller Coaster of a Day

[Hartracn19]

4~Hart Motorsports Media Relations

 

-- For Immediate Release

 

4~HART MOTORSPORTS: HAS ROLLER COASTER OF A DAY AT TENTH ANNUAL OKTOBERFAST AT SAS

 

SAN ANTONIO, TX (October 7, 2006) – The weatherman promised cooler weather and lower humidity. The temperature outside was not too bad, but the humidity felt pretty high, but for the second race in a row, the #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX water temperature stayed cool all day, proving the battle with overheating was solved.

 

The 11th race of the Texas ProSedan season was to be held on Central Texas’ own Nascar sanctioned high banked half-mile asphalt speedway located in San Antonio, Texas. The high banked track with long straight-a-ways always provides exciting racing for both the drivers and the fans. The day started with 25 Texas ProSedans drivers arriving to put their machines and talents to the test for the $1000 to win purse, put up by Terry Dickerson, and the track management.

 

Lloyd Hart driver of the #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX arrived early, and took the car out for the first of two practices. His practice was cut short, when the left front tire cut down. Hart was able to safely bring the car onto pit road without any damage to the car. “The car was feeling really good. It felt better than I had expected it to. I could tell we had a few adjustments to make, but overall, it felt really good. Then the tire went flat, and it shoved up the track towards the wall. Fortunately, we didn’t hit the wall or another driver when it went down,” Hart said.

 

The crew, Jack Foy and Joe Moloney, immediately went to work on the car. TPS requires its drivers to use Hoosier racing tires. The team purchased the last available tire from Oval Components, who were selling on behalf of Jerry Spencer from SS Motorsports of Austin. After a few more minor modifications, Hart took the car out for the second and final practice of the day. After the practice, the team had decisions to make. The car was good, but could be better. They could make additional adjustments, but would not have any more practices test those changes before qualifying. They decided to attempt the changes.

 

Hart lined the #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX up for qualifying. Of the 25 cars that came through the San Antonio Speedway gates, 24 were able to make time trials. At the end of the time trials, Hart had qualified 7th fastest with a time of 23.170 seconds, only eight tenths of a second slower than the pole sitter. The draw for invert was at zero, and the 11th TPS race of the year would start heads up as they qualified. Hart and Foy again discussed what changes, if any, should be made. They decided to free the car up a little bit more before the race.

 

As the field made their parade laps before the drop of the green flag, Hart swerved his car back and forth to build up some heat in the tires. The filed came around for the final time and took the starting green flag. The #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX took off like a rocket. As the field worked its way around the track, Hart was working out his strategy to move forward through the field. His car was now capable of working towards the front. Suddenly, coming out of turn four, the rear of Hart’s car started to break free, and the car went into a full spin. Hart was able to head the car towards the infield grass, and out of the way of the charging large field of Texas ProSedans. The car made a full 360 degree spin, and left Hart facing the right direction. After the entire field passed, Hart stepped on the gas, and shot the little car back onto the track. “Well, all strategy had just been tossed out the window. But that car was bad fast. I started working my way back up through the field really quickly. I hadn’t lost very much time at all. When we were on the parade laps, the car felt like it was real spongy, I was worried that we had loosened it up too much, or that we had another tire going down,” Hart stated.

 

As Hart changed his driving style to drive the now very loose race car, Hart worked his way back towards the front. Suddenly, Hart knew that it was a tire, as it lost the last bit of air that it held. “From the parade laps to then, the car just kept getting looser and looser. Finally, the car shot up the track about half a lane right at turn four. I knew for sure at that point, it was down. Fortunately, we were right at the entrance to pit road. I pulled in and Jack and Joe went right to work. They changed the left front tire really quickly, but as I pulled back onto the track, I heard Neil, the TPS race director say over the radio that I was three laps down. I knew the car was fast that night, but not fast enough to get three laps back,” Hart said.

 

Hart pulled the car back onto the track, and made one lap. Instantly he knew there was another tire flat. So he brought it right back onto pit road. “Man, we finally get the overheating problem solved and now this. We must have hit a lot of debris to have cut two tires, but hey, that’s racing.” The crew again shot into action, and changed the right rear tire. As Hart started down pit road to reenter the track, the caution came out. Hart took the to the track at the rear of the field, a couple more laps down.

 

When racing resumed, Hart was able to see that car was not loose at all, and gripped the track well. “At that point, I knew winning was certainly out of the question,” Hart laughed. He also said “now all I could hope for was a decent finish. I didn’t know how many cars had gone out, but I knew that if I could finish more laps than them, I would have a decent finish.” Suddenly, the night would go from bad to worse for the 4~Hart Motorsports team. As Hart was coming out of turn four, he saw three cars, battling for the same piece of real estate. Knowing that never turns out good, Hart slowed up. Then the number 1 car of Bryce Dishman hit the wall. Hart waited for a second, and then he determined that the cars involved were staying up at the wall. He saw a large opening at the bottom of the track. Committed to that direction, he increased his speed to pass the carnage. Suddenly, Hart saw the number 1 car starting to rapidly move down the track. Hart locked his brakes to avoid pile driving straight into the driver’s door of the number 1. In doing so, the #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX spun. The car spun and the left front hit the wall hard. The breakaway bumper supports worked exactly as the Hart had intended them to. The car then spun back around, stopping as it sat with the left rear up against the wall.

 

The safety crew made its way to Hart, who was fine. He asked them how the car looked, and they said that besides the front and rear body damage, it appeared to be just a flat left rear tire, but otherwise looked drivable. Determined to finish the race, Hart drove back onto pit road. The crew quickly changed the third tire of the night, and got Hart and the #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX back onto the track before they went back to green flag racing.

 

The left rear camber was knocked way out, and suspension pieces were bent, but Hart drove it hard for the remainder of the race. When the car hit the wall with the front end, it had closed off the air passage to the radiator. Hart looked down and saw the temperature gauge had climbed past 250 degrees, and was still climbing. He was ready to pull it into the pits, when Foy told Hart over the radio that it was the last lap. Hart had noticed at that point that the race leader was right behind him, so Hart moved over, let him pass then followed him all the way around the track and across the start finish line to take the checkered flag. As the car crossed the line, Hart shut the engine off. Post race inspection of the engine shows that the engine may not have been damaged by the overheating. Post race results show Hart came across the start finish line in 14th position, and 10 laps down.

 

The winner of the feature race was Donnie Moore in the #70 VW Scirocco owned by George Merrell. Lloyd Hart and the entire 4~Hart Motorsports team wishes Donnie congratulations on another fine win.

 

“Based upon the available points in the last race, it appears that Donnie has locked in the 2006 Championship. We wish to congratulate their entire team for a great job all year. They have earned this years championship. We also wish to congratulate Joshua Tuttle, drive of the #4 Chevrolet Cobalt and his entire team for locking in the Rookie of the Year honors. Joshua had some tough competition this year, and persevered on to clinch it before the season is over,” Hart said after viewing the new points standings.

 

Hart went on to say “Again, my sponsor, Instant Imprints in San Antonio, and the 4 ~ Hart Motorsports team put together t-shirts that were supposed to be given away to the fans in the stands tonight, as a way to say thanks to them. However, this was OktoberFast. We were not able to get the shirts to the officials across the track today. So this weekend, we did something a little different. We handed the shirts out to the fans in the pits. Many teams had brought additional crew members, and we passed the shirts out to them as a way to say thanks.”

 

The #19 Instant Imprints Honda CRX driver also said, “I have to thank God for a safe race. When I hit the wall, it could have been much worse. So I also have to thank the great safety crew at SAS. They were right there after the incident. You all are the best!! Also, thanks to my fantastic primary sponsor, Instant Imprints. You are great to work with and our entire team is proud to be able to represent you. Instant Imprints has also sponsored each of the TPS races this year, and we thank you for that as well. Thanks to all of TPS for putting on such a great race, and to the San Antonio Speedway for hosting our races this year. I also have to say special thanks to my Crew Chief Jack, and all of my Crew including Joe, Karla, Greg, Samantha, Kathy, and Jonathan, and also to all of my family for their unending support of my racing!”

 

4~Hart Motorsports and the Texas ProSedans can next be found in, Texas at Thunderhill Raceway in Kyle, Texas for the 10th Annual Stockcar Spectacular On October 28th for their season ending race. Lloyd Hart in his #19 Honda CRX will be the defending winner of last year’s prestigious 9th Annual Stockcar Spectacular. The 4~Hart Motorsports team is looking to win this race two years in a row.

 

 

4~Hart Motorsports is sponsored by Instant Imprints of San Antonio. Information about 4~Hart Motorsports and more information about our sponsors can be found at www.4hartmotorsports.com

 

Information about Texas ProSedans can be found at www.texasprosedans.com