Hellmund and Suzuki Motorcycles and

[tqj3]

Release: April 13, 2003

Hellmund and Suzuki Motorcycles and ATVs Grand Prix Take Second in "Orleans 222;" Hellmund Moves to Second in Winston West Points, Leads in Rookie of the Year Points?

 

Las Vegas, Nevada -- Austin's NASCAR driver C. T. Hellmund still has the magic in NASCAR's Grand National Division Winston West Series and proved it by qualifying the Suzuki Motorcycles and ATVs Pontiac Grand Prix third for this weekends Winston West "Orleans 222" at "The Bullring in Las Vegas" and then racing to a second place finish behind polesitter Jim Inglebright.

 

Hellmund not only apparently took the lead in the rookie of the year standings, but jumped all the way to second place in Winston West championship points behind Inglebright. In four Winston West races, Hellmund has posted a win, a second, a third and (slightly embarrassing to the team) a seventh place. Despite racing older equipment, the Suzuki Motorcycles team has finished every race lap of the four races; which have been run on a variety of tracks, including a short oval, a road course and a superspeedway.

 

It isn't as easy as it looks. A melted spark plug wire cut Las Vegas practice short for the team, and an admitted error by Hellmund on his second qualifying lap relegated him to a third-place start. Inglebright took the pole with a 15.500-second lap, but Hellmund would post a race lap of 15.640 with about five laps to go, running on tires with over a hundred laps on them, doubly impressive because the team is running an older, 110-inch wheelbase car that is supposed to be slower on short tracks than the 105-inch cars almost everyone else, including Inglebright, is running.

 

At the start, Inglebright and Hellmund hooked up and pulled away from the rest of the field. Hellmund tried to dive inside Inglebright and lead, but Inglebright cut down on him. As they were on about lap 20 of a 222-lap race, Hellmund let Inglebright stay there. After one restart, lapped cars checked up and Hellmund was hit from behind, pushing him into a car in front and resulting in damage to both ends of the Suzuki/Pontiac.

 

Late in the race, Hellmund had dropped back to fifth, but put on a charge to pass everyone but Inglebright despite the damage to the Suzuki entry.

 

"I'm not taking anything away from Inglebright," Hellmund said after the race. "He drove a heck of a race and deserves the win. But it might have been nice to have a little more car under me at the end to take a run at him. We had the speed, just not at the end."

 

###

 

T. Q. Jones P. O. Box 91346 Austin, TX 78709-1346

 

PH: (512) 266-4814 FAX: (512) 266-4833 Email: tqj@mindspring.com

[Pacecar]

C. T. Hellmund's bio says that he ran Late Model Stocks in the past. Where? And what were his results? I can't remember him running any races at San Antonio Speedway.

[tqj3]

Hellmund ran late models mostly in the southeast, at tracks like Hickory and Concord. He ran modifieds a few times in Texas, including at Thunder Hill, but hasn't run anything but Winston West, Busch North and ARCA in the last few years as often as he was able to get sponsorship.

[Pacecar]

Thanks for the reply.

 

So he ran the very competitive Nascar Late Model Stocks in Hickory and Concord. What was his record in Late Model Stocks?

[tqj3]

You're talking about a guy without a rich parent or a name like Andretti, Petty or Earnhardt who has never been able to get funded for a full season in anything, but always runs up front when he gets in a car.

For instance, he qualified top ten his first time in Busch and ran in top ten until the rear end broke. He ran well in ARCA on a one-shot deal, and won his first Winston West race at Laguna Seca. He made a mistake in qualifying at the Bullring in Las Vegas last year, started 19th and finished third.

At Phoenix this year, he qualified his 1999 Grand Prix (110-inch car) in 13th and finished seventh.

He'd never seen or raced on the tracks at Laguna Seca, Las Vegas or Phoenix before he came there to race.

At Laguna Seca, officials tried to direct the team to the local/amateur racing parking area because they were pulling a 40-foot gooseneck with a dually pickup. Believe me, nobody, but nobody, knows how good this kid is.