Chad Hackenbracht 2009 Legends National Journal
Welcome to my racing journal. This will be a new feature on my website. My first journal entry will be from the 2009 Legends Nationals that were held in Lanier, GA, some 50 miles north of Atlanta off I-85.
Wednesday, October 7th: We originally were going to leave Mooresville, NC around noon, but had to get some things done to the cars and around the shop. My legends car teammate, Daniel Hemric 2009 National Points Champion in the Pro Division, left and went to break in tires which set us back about 9 hours for the three and a half hour ride to Lanier, GA. We finally left at 9pm.
Dan Snyder started driving but with each mile I kept thinking he is getting very tired. I kept asking him are you getting tired Dan? As we approached the South Carolina / Georgia border he finally said I need to rest so I volunteered to drive the rig which is about 65 feet long. Dan asked me if I had ever driven our race team trailer and I said sure I had. Little did he know that today was the first day I had ever driven the trailer…but definitely not a hauler 65 feet long. I guess that can be our secret. Though I had never driven a gooseneck trailer, we made it there fine.
Thursday, October 8th: After about three hours of sleep, we got up and headed to the track to get parked and start unloading for the long day of practice. The previous weekend, we had won there and were expecting to be just as good when we unloaded, however that was not the case. The four races I had run at Lanier this year and all of our practice times were at night, but this time we were practicing throughout the heat of the day. This was a disappointing time because we were not as quick as some of the other competitors, and had to do some work. We were trying to adjust the car because it was very loose into the corner and tight from the center off. We adjusted and adjusted trying all sorts of things and never did get the car feeling right. I knew that we were not quick enough to feel comfortable about making the show with qualifying being tomorrow. After winning the Semi-Pro National Championship last year, I knew just how important Fridays at nationals are, because where you start in the main can make or break your chances of winning.
Friday, October 9th: Friday rolled around and after finally getting a full nights rest, we got up and headed to the track for another full day of racing action. To start off the day we unloaded and learned about an extra practice session that we had in the morning, however all of the classes would be together, 20-30 cars would be out on the track at the same time, and they would have 30 minutes to cycle through over 200 race cars. I did not make it out for this practice to shake the car down and try a last minute adjustment.
Not only was there qualifying, but qualifying set where you started in the heat race later to come. Between qualifying and the heat races, you received points for where you qualified and where you finish in the heat race. After the heat race, they add up the points from qualifying with the points from the heat race to determine your placement among the various mains. The top 20 make it into the A-main, 21st-40th go into the B-main and so on dependant upon how many cars are in the class. If you do not make the A-main, and are in the B-main you must finish in the top 4 to transfer into the A-main.
With Pro being the last set of cars to qualify, I got on the track to take my qualifying laps sometime around 2P.M. Qualifying at Legends Car Nationals is not like your typical qualifying where there is one car on the track at a time. Here we qualified in a European format, which meant that a group of cars went out at one time. About ten cars were in each group and we had to get spread out so that we would be able to get some laps without having to worry about the other cars. My qualifying effort did not go as planned and I ended up qualifying 18th out of around 50 cars in the pro division.
With my qualifying time I was set to start 9th, out of a 12 car field in my heat race. From the drop of the green flag I could not go anywhere, I was soon passed and I had dropped back to almost last. After about three laps of trying to negotiate the cars racing in front of me, I decided it was time to try and go forward. I went to the high side and took it three-wide on the outside, I gained about one spot from this, not exactly what I had hoped. I then took it three wide yet again and gained another position, after these couple laps of mayhem it finally calmed down. I then started to set cars up and pick them off one by one. I raced my way up to sixth, passing for fifth when the checkered flew. After adding up my qualifying points and my sixth place heat race finish, I was 21st. This put me one position out of the A-main! The weather forecast for tomorrows championship day was not looking good, there is nothing worse than a rainy day at the race track.
Saturday, October 10th: After getting a chance to sleep a little bit, and having a night full of rain and thunderstorms, we showed up at the track with one goal, to win the B-main. If I did not make it into the A-main this weekend would be a failure. After unloading the trailer, my teammates and I made our way to the mandatory drivers meeting set for 11A.M. After the drivers meeting, the mains began. The first main out was the Pro C-main which I watched, to see if there was anyone fast that could possibly challenge me in the B-main. After about 4 hours it was time for me to get ready and race the B-main, I was on the pole for the race. I started first and soon took advantage of a nice lead. I led every lap of the B-main, and when the checkered flew I was about a half of a straightaway ahead of the second place car. This gave me confidence leading into the A-main, though I found out later that my lap times would not be fast enough to win the A-main, so we had some work to do.
At the drop of the green flag I had set a goal to follow the car in front of me that I knew would be fast and get to the front. This did not go as planned, because the other car was a bit faster than me and I could not stay with him. I started to pick off cars and soon had a wreck happening in front of me and picked up about five positions from the incident. I was then around 15th position and racing hard with the cars around me, we were swapping positions about once every lap. After finally calming down a little bit we started to try and catch the cars in front of us. However, everything was about to change, we had a caution for someone spinning, but the reason they spun was because there was oil on the track. The officials obviously did not care about this and let us go back green without cleaning up the track, everyone was pointing at the track but they ignored us. When the green flag flew again, cars were everywhere on the track, because they were sliding from the oil. I found that there was no oil and still some grip down on the apron. So I started to pass cars and work the very bottom of the track, I was soon followed by almost half of the field. The track was worse than any track I have ever raced on. Despite the conditions I rallied back to a sixth place finish, not what I was hoping for but still respectable considering the limited season I ran in a Legends Car. After the race everyone was talking about how ridiculous of a race it was and everyone was pretty fed up with how the officials handled it. Rounding out the weekend, I kept the car in one piece and had a blast while drifting the A-main because of the oil.
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my journal as much as I enjoyed writing it for my fans to read. My next journal entry will be about my upcoming 3-day ARCA test from the 2.5 mile Daytona International Speedway, in December. Here I will be working at taking the CGH Motorsports #58 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Tastee Apple sponsored ARCA race car to the top of the charts in hopes of being quick enough for the race in February.
Until then, all the best. -
Chad
