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Van Dam Happy With Progress Made at Willamette Speedway Last Weekend

Inside Line Promotions - LEBANON, Ore. (Aug. 2, 2013) - In terms of progress, Henry Van Dam is very happy with last weekend.

Van Dam rebounded from an 11th-place finish on Friday with a sixth-place result on Saturday during the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour doubleheader at Willamette Speedway.

"As far as progress goes, I felt like we made a ton of progress," he said. "I'm still not happy with the result. Overall, it's good to get wins and be in the top three so it's a little disappointing to let that slip away from us."

Van Dam charged from seventh to third place during his eight-lap heat race on Saturday to be one of two drivers to earn enough points into the feature redraw, which was completed by Friday's top-four finishers.

"Going into the night I knew drawing further back was going to be a benefit for us because you needed a lot of points to make the redraw," he said. "The heat race kinda went our way. We were really aggressive early and were able to get up to third."

Van Dam pulled the No. 3 during the random draw to start the 30-lap feature on the inside of the second row. He maintained that position for the first third of the main event before a miscue on a restart cost him three spots.

"I just made a crucial mistake getting into (turn) one," he said. "I kinda caught the infield and it pushed me up the track. We just settled in and ran the rest of the race there. We definitely had a better car. Obviously without mistakes we could have ran third. It was a complete driver mistake there. I got a little anxious and tried to get as low as I could and caught the infield."

Van Dam maintained sixth place for the remainder of the race, posting his best Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour finish of the season and his fourth top 10 in the last five races with the premier 360 sprint car series.

The weekend opened on Friday with Van Dam finishing where he started - fifth - in his heat race. That started him 13th in the feature and after working his way into the top 10, Van Dam lost a spot in the closing laps to place 11th.

"I never really found what I was looking for in the feature and we didn't find the rubber early enough to make up any ground," he said. "Once the rubber came down we just followed everyone around. I think Seth (Bergman) went by me around Lap 13 to 15. That's when I first noticed it."

Van Dam is scheduled to take the next two weekends off before returning to action on Saturday, Aug. 17, at Willamette Speedway with the ASCS Northwest Region.

QUICK RESULTS -

July 26 - Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. - Heat race: 5 (5); Feature: 11 (13).

July 27 - Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore. - Heat race: 3 (7); Feature: 6 (3).

SEASON STATS -

31 races, 1 win, 6 top fives, 19 top 10s, 26 top 15s, 29 top 20s

UP NEXT -

Saturday, Aug. 17th, at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Ore., with the ASCS Northwest Region

MEDIA LINKS -

Website: http://www.HenryVanDam.com

VIDEO -

Here is a link thanks to ARRacing Videos to Van Dam's victory at Grays Harbor Raceway on June 15: http://youtu.be/sFPjfxd5Vgs

APPAREL -

Van Dam has t-shirts and sweatshirts available at his racing trailer at every race he competes in.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT - Johansen Excavating

Based in Buckley, Wash., Johansen Excavating specializes in civil construction. For more information, visit http://www.JohansenExcavating.com.

"Johansen Excavating has been a partner for the past few years," Van Dam said. "They've been a great sponsor, but have been even better friends."

Van Dam would also like to thank Kovash Logging, Enumclaw Xpress Lube, Les Schwab Tire of Enumclaw, Van Dam Dairy, Village Green Resort, Bob and Joan Shumway, Kellan and Kelsey Hall, Foothills Auto Supply, American Powder Coating, Pete Vos, Clems Enumclaw Powersports, Char's Barber Shop, Wesmar Race Engines, Factory Kahne, A.R.T. Speed Equipment, SpeedMart, Van Dam Farms and Rich Van Dam Dairy for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS -

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations, media management and merchandising services for sprint car teams. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and your sponsors' return on investment.

To meet the media relations needs of your team, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or sprintcarreporter@yahoo.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.insidelinepromotions.com.

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