Sam Hafertepe Jr., Seth Bergman and Austin McCarl celebrate their strong runs at Lakeside Speedway (Emily Schwanke Photo) (Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
On a night that began with the overall Quick Time Award, a Heat Race win and a Dash victory, Sam Hafertepe Jr. capped off a perfect trip to Lakeside Speedway Friday by leading all 30 laps of the Feature en route to his second-straight American Sprint Car Series National Tour triumph.
“I feel like my car was phenomenal in the Feature,” Hafertepe said. “I’ve been under the weather all day. I don’t know what I have or what’s wrong with me, just not all there. My car carried me tonight.”
Hafertepe shared the front row with the man he’s chasing in the championship fight, Seth Bergman. The two immediately swapped lanes entering Turn 1 on the opening lap, with Hafertepe ripping the cushion while Bergman rode the bottom. Bergman led briefly down the backstretch, but a bobble in Turn 3 allowed Hafertepe to regain the lead after the opening circuit.
From there, Hafertepe built a half-straightaway lead over the No. 23, but it was erased as soon as the pair caught the back of the field when Tasker Phillips took a tumble on Lap 7.
On the ensuing restart, Bergman again looked to Hafertepe’s inside in the opening set of corners, but was unable to keep pace with Hafertepe exiting Turn 2.
The gap remained fluid for the remainder of the race, with Bergman coming within striking distance on multiple occasions in lap traffic. The point leader jumped the cushion in Turn 1 with 11 to go though, and that was all Hafertepe needed to pull away to a one-second advantage, which he held onto for the remainder of the race.
If battling through illness wasn’t enough, Hafertepe’s car was also experiencing issues throughout the Feature.
“What really hurt us was our throttle was hanging,” Hafertepe said. “That was not allowing me to roll the throttle as good as I usually could through the curb. It made us get super tight a couple of times, and I think when that would happen, Seth would probably reel us back in.”
After a pair of fifth-place runs at Batesville Motor Speedway and Tulsa Speedway, Bergman’s runner-up effort was his first podium finish since his win at Tri-State Speedway on June 15. While Hafertepe’s win allowed him to close in, Bergman’s lead in the standings remains a healthy 127 points entering Saturday’s event at 81 Speedway.
“I feel like I really left everything out there,” Bergman said. “I did everything I could, short of just being reckless and driving through the side of him, which that’s not my style. Did everything I could, found a lane in traffic I thought I was going to be able to use with him, but he was smart enough and heard me, maybe saw the nose wing and he got down there. I was good enough to win, for sure. He just never made a mistake.”
Knoxville Raceway regular Austin McCarl came out on top of a fierce battle with Hank Davis in the closing stages of the race to take the third spot in his first National Tour start of the year.
“That kid did a really good job finding the moisture down there in 1 and 2 and getting by me, I had a really fun race with him,” McCarl said. “Sam and Bergman did a great job, they’re definitely the two top dogs on the ASCS I’d say. We’ll take it, it’s like a 15-year-old motor under that thing that I think runs pretty decent.”
Davis came home in the fourth spot to collect his eighth top five in nine starts with TwoC Racing, while Blake Hahn rounded out the top five, one spot short of his season-best of fourth.
The Hard Charger Award went to Landon Britt, who drove from 13th to ninth for his second-career top 10 in National Tour action at Lakeside.
UP NEXT: Race teams will make the three-hour trip southwest to 81 Speedway in Wichita, where the season continues on Saturday night. Tickets will be available at the gate, while those unable to make it to the track can catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman[2]; 3. 88M-Austin McCarl[4]; 4. 2C-Hank Davis[3]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 6. 95-Matt Covington[8]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 8. 21-Gunner Ramey[11]; 9. 10-Landon Britt[13]; 10. 98P-Miles Paulus[7]; 11. J2-John Carney II[9]; 12. 77-Jack Wagner[14]; 13. 22M-Rees Moran[17]; 14. 09-Matt Juhl[15]; 15. 15D-Andrew Deal[12]; 16. 55B-Brandon Anderson[18]; 17. 31-Casey Wills[20]; 18. 2J-Zach Blurton[21]; 19. 88-Terry Easum[23]; 20. 91-Michael Day[24]; 21. 938-Bradley Fezard[22]; 22. 2-Chase Porter[16]; 23. 1TAZ-Tasker Phillips[10]; 24. 45X-Kyler Johnson[19]