6/1/2021
Inside Line Promotions
Hill Overcomes Challenges to Finish 11th at Lake Ozark Speedway
(Photo by Paul Arch)
Inside Line Promotions – ELDON, Mo. (June 1, 2021) – Alex Hill fought a challenging track and a damaged race car to post an 11th-place finish on Sunday night at Lake Ozark Speedway.
“It was something else,” she said in reference to the rough track that caused multiple crashes throughout the evening. “I was mainly glad just to finish.”
The Hill’s Racing Team driver’s night got off to a solid start when she timed in fifth quickest out of 39 drivers competing in the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour event. She followed that up with a fourth-place finish in her heat race and was fifth to the checkered in her dash.
“We were really happy to qualify well, especially since we had problems with the car the night before and didn’t get to qualify,” she said. “I just mainly needed to finish in the top five in the heat race to make it to the dash. I was running fourth in the dash until Scott Bogucki slid me on the last lap.”
Hill lined up 10th for the weekend’s main event that played out on a treacherous surface.
“I was able to get up to fifth about halfway through, mainly because the cars in front of us were crashing,” she said. “I just ran the bottom. There was no way I was going to the top of that track. That’s where everyone was crashing.
“On one of the restarts I timed it wrong and got on the gas too early and my throttle hung up a little bit. I got into the back of Dylan (Westbrook) and damaged the nose wing. About 10 laps later the nose wing collapsed and after that my car was way too tight. I was just holding on at that point. I dropped back a bit and finished 11th.”
Friday’s opening night of the doubleheader got off to a bad start for Hill and placed her in a deep hole from which she was unable to recover.
“We had an issue with the fueling in qualifying and didn’t get a time so we had to start pretty much at the back for the rest of our races,” she said.
Hill started and finished eighth in her heat race before advancing from sixth to third in the C Main to transfer to the back of the B Main.
“There were 16 cars in the B Main and that makes it really hard to make it to a transfer spot,” she said. “I should’ve pulled in after a while.
“I was just running my race when I got lapped by the first-place car. Then I got monster-trucked by the second-place car. He ran over my front end, which sent my car backwards up the track and I got hit by another car. I didn’t flip, but it did a lot of damage to our car, including the frame.”
The incident was an even greater issue for the team since they didn’t have a back-up car for the next day’s race.
“I just want to give a shoutout to Flea Ruzic, who fixed our frame for us,” she said. “I didn’t get to see it, but the guys said the way he repaired it was pretty amazing.”
Hill’s team will take a brief break from racing as they regroup from a recent rash of crashes that have left them without a back-up car and many spare parts.
“We’re going to take a couple of weeks off so we can get caught up with the cars and parts,” she said. “We won’t miss any ASCS races. We plan to be back for the next one in Elma, Wash., on June 19-20.”
QUICK RESULTS –
May 29 – Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo. – Qualifying: DNQ; Heat race: 8 (8); C Main: 3 (6); B Main: DNF 15 (15).
May 30 – Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo. – Qualifying: 5 (39); Heat race: 4 (3); Dash: 5 (4); Feature: 11 (10).
SEASON STATS –
12 races, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 3 top 10s, 4 top 15s, 6 top 20s
UP NEXT –
June 19-20 at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash., for the Fred Brownfield Classic with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.HillsRacingTeam.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HillsRacingTeam
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hillsracing/
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Original Traders Energy
OTE is a Native Energy Collective that aims to connect communities with a sustainable supply of quality fuels, oils, and lubricants essential to daily life. They safely store, handle, and blend bulk petrochemicals to manufacture, supply, and distribute finished petroleum products including gasoline and diesel fuel. They sell better products for better prices exclusively to their members – native petroleum product retailers located on First Nations Territories across Canada. For more information, visit http://originaltradersenergy.com/.
“We’re excited to have OTE back with us again this year,” Hill said. “They provide the fuel at my dad’s stores. We really appreciate their support.”
Hill would also like to thank Townline Variety, BearPaw Convenience, Tony Stewart Racing, Ackland Insurance, Cool Chassis, Creative Edge Signs and Graphics, Lettrage Pixel, XYZ Machining, Fisher Racing Engines, Strodes BBQ and Deli, Allstar Performance, PPM Racing Products, Keizer Aluminum Wheels, Total Rentals, Original Traders Energy, PAC Racing Springs, Wilwood, DMI, MicroBlue, Vortex Racing Products, Saldana Racing Products, Kinsler Fuel Injection, KSE Racing Products, Brown and Miller Racing Solutions and Cigar Port for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
Article Credit: Inside Line Promotions
Submitted By: Shawn Miller
