• Tag Archives USAC 360

  • Last Race of ’12

    Posted on April 25, 2013 9:06 am by Marty Hawkins

    Petaluma Speedway hosted it’s first injected 360 Non-Wing Sprint Car Race on October 13th. The Adobe Cup attracted 18 sprint teams who were informed at the drivers meeting that the track was left dry & slick intentionally to give the regular Spec Sprint competitors more of a chance against the injected cars. Sebastopol’s Geoff Ensign was quick time in the VanLare 5v over Santa Rosa’s, Marty Hawkins, Sparky Howard, Nick Larsen, and Colton Slack. Ensign made quick work of Heat Race #1 as he picked up the win over Jim Richardson. Colton Slack won Heat Race #2 over Klint Simpson, and Billy Aton beat Scotty Dupont to the checkers in Heat Race #3. With no cushion to lean on, the feature event quickly went single file as the beautiful red #32 of Colton Slack took the early lead from his outside front row starting spot. Pole sitter, Billy Aton slid into second as Marty Hawkins worked his way into third when Nick Larsen encountered troubles early. Running in fourth place, Sparky Howard felt the pressure of teammate Geoff Ensign all race long, as Ensign repeatedly tried the outside of turns 1 & 2 on every restart. Throughout the race Hawkins pulled to the inside of Aton twice coming off turn four but didn’t have enough to complete the pass. With about 6 laps to go Colton Slack appeared to hook the inside berm and turned around, handing the lead to Aton. On the final restart Aton brought em’ down slow and stacked the field behind him coming off turn four. Geoff Ensign used it to his advantage as he got alongside Howard and passed him going into turn one, but with only a few laps left, third Petaluma Speedwaywas as far as he could get. Billy Aton took the win with 19 year old Marty Hawkins in second and Ensign in third. It didn’t sound like any of the three drivers were very happy with the track, as they all made comments in their trackside interviews. Aton was happy to be in victory lane. Marty Hawkins said he flew home from Southern California (where he is a junior in college) just to race in Petaluma. He said he wished they raced more injected non-wing shows just 15 minutes from home. All in all, it was a good night of racing and if there had been a little cushion, Ensign would have surely made it a three car battle to the end.

    -David Bell, Sprint Spat Assoc. XXIX 2012, Original Post (http://www.hoseheadforums.com/forum.cfm?ThreadID=72301#thread366245)

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  • Goodbye for now, but one last thing…

    Posted on September 8, 2012 9:57 pm by Marty Hawkins

    Labor day weekend marked the last race I would run before headed off to start another chapter in my life, college. Both my Dad and I worked our tails off and was able to put two complete cars together, with the help of borrowed parts from Jimmy VanLare. Unfortunately, it was no Cinderella Story as our weekend was plagued with bad luck. Continue reading →

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  • CRA at Ocean

    Posted on June 23, 2012 4:22 pm by Marty Hawkins

    After a disappointing DNF at Hanford I was ready to get back to Ocean Speedway where we managed to get a 5th earlier in the year. Running again with CRA, only this time we kept the 360 in, unfortunately do mainly to time. Either way, we were ready. We arrived in Watsonville where is was rather cold, and the track was looking fairly decent. In hot laps the car felt good and I was anticipating a good night. However, the folks at Ocean had different thoughts. After hot laps they went out with tractors and scrapped the cushion off. The result was not surprising. Slow laps on a slick track. Unfortunately for Dustin Baxter, who had his first run in a 410, was not prepared for the changes that had been made to the track. Heading out early he hauled the car into turn three, where it managed to slide all the way to the wall, and then proceeded to launch out of the park. Thankfully Dustin was alright, but wasn’t able to get the car back together. After qualifying the track prep again went out and worked on the track for a good half hour. Putting the blade on it and ripping it up, while putting some water on. Being in heat one we weren’t ready for the changes. We qualified 10th which put us in the third row of our heat, and pretty much just stayed there to finish 7th. I wasn’t very excited about not getting the car to go forward, but thankfully we did not have to run a semi. We lined up 12th for the main, but once again wasn’t ready for what the track had to offer. The top was nothing to get a hold of, and my set-up made the bottom feel like a row boat in the ocean. I tried every line I could think of but still ended up in 14th. Needless to say I was frustrated. Instead of showing up to race against the CRA group, we showed up to race Ocean Speedway. It might have got us this time, but I wont let that happen again.

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  • Back to 360′s At Hanford

    Posted on June 23, 2012 4:03 pm by Marty Hawkins

    Well, we went back to Hanford again. This time with the West Coast 360 group. I was hoping we would be back up to speed with the 360 group, but after qualifying 15th out of 19 that would prove to be trivial. We started in the front row of our heat and since everyone was to make the main event we figured we would test out some set ups. We went from first to fourth in our heat and me being the inexperienced mechanic that I am, really didn’t know what to do to make the car go forward. So what does everyone do when they don’t know the answer? You guess! And in terms of racing and wanting to be competitive, we guessed pretty aggressively. Unfortunately all our guessing was for not. The track was slick and most people where running over each other on the bottom. On lap 5 some cars got bottled up in front of me. In an attempt to avoid it I ended up clipping the left front tire off someone else’s car and knocked the front end out. It’s a bummer that the only time I got to test out the set up was under yellow and in heavy traffic. It would have been interesting to see what the car would have done in open air. Nevertheless, we got it all put back together, loaded it up and headed home.

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  • “Chris & Brian Faria Memorial” May 11th & 12th

    Posted on June 23, 2012 3:32 pm by Marty Hawkins

    Mom covered for us at the shop while we took Friday off for the Tulare Thunderbowl and two nights of USAC West Coast 360 racing. The race is in memory of two of the Faria brothers, and it’s the first time we’ve been able to make this race and show some support for our good friend, Danny Faria and his family. Marty qualified 8th out of a stout field of 28 cars, but then things just got slicker and slicker. Starting deep in his heat, Marty would only get to 5th and would need to run the semi in order to make the main event. He would finish 2nd in the Semi, but wore a new left rear tire half way out doing it. We made some more changes to the car and lined up for the main. Marty tried every line on the track, from rubbing the fence, to hooking the berm. At the end of the show, he had dropped to 17th and wasn’t happy. The track was so slick and dusty and he just couldn’t get a hold of anything. After the race, our new friend Johnny Vermeer came over and dropped off a new right rear tire for Sunday night.
    Sunday was hot while Marty washed his car and did his regular maintenance routine. Johnny showed up with more help in the way of some tire bleeders to keep the pressures down as the tires get hot. Qualifying didn’t go as well, ending up 19th out of 33 cars, but he did transfer straight out of the heat race and that meant we didn’t need to wear out any tires in the semi. Lining up deep in the main event, Marty was patient as he raced in heavy traffic and worked his way into the top ten and passed about 5 cars in the last five laps to bring the Blakeley Landscaping maxim home in 7th place. New tires made all the difference and Marty felt pretty good after this one. We don’t get alot of double headers and it was nice to get a second night and a second chance to get things right.
    We’d like to Thank Johnny Vermeer and his boys for coming by and helping us out. We really appreciate their generosity. Thanks to all the folks who helped make the Faria Memorial a great event. Thanks to the volunteers from KWS who put on the breakfast Sunday morning (Marty and I don’t eat to well when were gone…so Thank You). We also want to Thank Donny Austin at Nor Cal Drive-line and Johnny Franklin’s Driveline Service, along with Frank Giammona at Santa Rosa Auto Parts. These are just some of the wonderful folks that make racing possible for us.

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  • Two shows, One night at Hanford 7/16/11

    Posted on July 20, 2011 12:43 pm by Marty Hawkins

    Earlier in the year we left Hanford in the rain after securing a feature starting spot in our heat race. So after a few weeks off and some promo time at the fair and parade over the 4th in Calistoga, Marty was back on track in Hanford for two main events in one night. I had a feeling they were going to try and keep the track wet with the extra main event on the schedule and I was right. The track was super wet and heavy. Thank God Kim and the younger boys came along, otherwise we would’ve never been able to keep the car clean. We must have removed over 100 lbs. of mud every time that car came off the track. Continue reading →

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  • Hanford 360s

    Posted on May 26, 2011 8:42 pm by Marty Hawkins

    Marty and I headed off to Hanford this weekend all by ourselves. We drove past Tulare late Friday night and slept in the motor-home at Danny Faria’s again. The next morning we mounted up a few tires (Thanks to Faria) and headed to Hanford to run with the USAC West Coast 360′s. The track was tricky early; wet on the bottom, slick in the middle and a cushion up top. Marty and I had a tough time without anybody there to help us. We didn’t qualify well and went backwards in the heat, so we had to run our first B main of the year. After getting something to eat and settling down, we got the car figured out and Marty started going forward. He started 6th and finished 3rd in the B, then started going forward right away from his 19th starting spot in the feature. He was really fast off of turn 2 down the back chute. At one point he was inside the top 10 and looking good. The bottom had slicked off and the middle was really slick. Late in the race with the rear tires gaining pressure and the lighter fuel load, Marty’s car started getting loose and he got real sideways in turn 1 and lost a couple spots. In the end he finished 13th and rolled it in the trailer in one piece for the 4th week in a row. It was tough to tow out of Hanford and head for home after spending so many weeks at the Faria’s. We want to thank them again for their hospitality. We have had so much fun hanging out and racing with them here in central California and can’t wait to get back here soon. Next week we head to Calistoga with the wing.

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  • Pombo/Sargent Classic in Tulare

    Posted on May 19, 2011 10:26 pm by Marty Hawkins

    I grew up at the sprint car races and have seen some really great battles over the years. This may sound silly, but to me, a great sprint race is like watching ice skating on steroids. It flows from one end to the other, fast, smooth and on the edge. You watch as time runs out knowing that someone will try a risky move near the end. Sometimes things go wrong and parts fly, and sometimes they make it look so easy as they pull off the pass for the victory. You watch intensely wondering when it will happen and how it will go. I’ve seen a bunch of these kinds of races and they are the best. Last weekend I actually watched my son in such a race. Knowing he is only 18, with limited experience in his sprint car kept my stomach in knots. He has been getting better and better and just two weeks ago pulled off his first heat race win. He started on the front row of that one and afterward, Peter Murphy took the time to come over and congratulate him. Peter was watching from the pits and went on to win the feature that night. This week Marty out-qualified Peter and half the field, then lined up behind Peter on the second row of the heat. At the drop of the green Marty pulled alongside Peter down the back-chute, but Murphy took the lead going into turn three. Then Peter tried the top of turn one and Marty almost got him again. Marty shadowed the leader for 8 laps and at times they were running so close to each other as they pitched it into turn one that I held my breath. Then with 2 laps to go, Marty slid his Schnee chassis in just above Murphy, turned it downhill, and drove under him off of turn two and passed him down the back-chute. He took the white flag and had a half straight away lead at the checkers. It was smooth and patient and calculated. IT WAS AWESOME! Afterward Peter Murphy came over and said (in his cool Australian accent) “Hey mate, if I come over and tell your kid he did a great job, I don’t think he should be allowed to pass me the very next time we race”. He was only kidding of course and a great sport to come over again.

    Like I said, Marty did a much better job in qualifying. He was 12th out of 24 cars and he would’ve started on the front row of the feature if he was just one car faster. That’s OK because the track was so slick in the feature that we ended up going backwards. Marty was upset that he finished 15th (understandable), but I wasn’t. Unlike the last time we raced Tulare, Marty tried every line on the track. He ran the top (and even bounced off the wall once), the middle and the bottom. Greg Alexander, who is an accomplished driver, was frustrated as well since he started on the pole and ended up 5th. He said he couldn’t get a hold of anything consistent. I told Marty that I’m glad we didn’t start on the front row, because we need a little more time to get the set-up right. Marty learned a bunch by running all over the track. He is getting his short game down pretty good in the heats and even had a good qualifying night, so we are consistently getting better and once again rolled it into the trailer in one piece. I don’t think we have ever raced 4 weeks in a row, and this coming weekend in Hanford will be our 4th. Then thanks to our wonderful sponsor and friends at The Toiyabe Group, we will run the following weekend at Calistoga with the wing and our fresh Bailey Bros 410. Marty is a little nervous about running with the wing because he has been getting so comfortable wingless. He really loves racing in Calistoga. I think he’ll do fine.

    We would like to thank the great sponsors of the USAC West Coast 360 Series including DJ Safety, Saldana Racing Products and Circle Track Performance for the great contingency prizes they gave us for the heat race wins. We also want to thank Ted Surber for his support and Russ Westerskov for showing up in Tulare and lending us a hand in the pits. We’ve been having a great time hanging out with Danny Faria and are kind of sad that we’ll be towing home after Hanford this weekend.

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  • The Fun Continues, Our 360 vs. CRA

    Posted on May 12, 2011 9:55 pm by Marty Hawkins

    We headed back to the central valley this weekend for our first race with the USAC/CRA 410 guys. Uncle Greg came along and made the drive much nicer in his new Ford truck. We got to Danny Faria’s shop around midnight and were up first thing in the morning to finish getting the car ready. We hadn’t gotten our 410 back yet, so we were giving it our best with the 360. Danny worked all day on the family farm and let us have full use of his shop. The Majority of the work was done last week, so we mostly mounted tires, set the chassis and played with the bigger fuel tank. Once we were loaded, we hooked up with Butch Brazil and it was off to Hanford.

    There were 24 sprint cars and only three of us had a 360 under the hood. The car felt great in qualifying, but it just wouldn’t pull very hard off of turn four which still had moisture. We started on the pole of heat two, with the likes of Super Ricky Gaunt, Greg Bragg in the Moose Mobile, both the Williams boys and The Bullet, Blake Miller all breathing down my neck. The heat went non stop for 10 laps. I had one of the Williams poking his nose under me and The Bullet on the outside. I was hoping just to finish with a transfer position, but then I started driving in a little lower and the car hooked up really nice. I pulled away just enough to win my first CRA heat race. I have to say that since we have raced with these folks so much over the past couple of years, it was pretty special to finally pull off a heat win. I have a lot of respect for these teams.

    The good news was, we transferred straight to the feature. The bad news, we had to start dead last. Knowing our odds of pulling off anything spectacular against these guys in the main (we already did that in the heat), we were ready to learn as much as we could since we are coming back here in a couple weeks with the 360 bunch. We all talked things over about how to hook up the car, but still keep it drivable in a pack. The track had been getting slicker as the night went on, so we killed stagger, tucked in the wheels and went to staging.

    At the drop of the green, everyone in front of me went to the bottom and had to use the brakes to stay off of the car ahead of them, so I went to the middle and drove around 4 cars before the yellow came out on lap two. Then I was able to pick up about another 5 spots before the next yellow on lap 8. I was feeling pretty good and our Schnee chassis was going wherever I pointed it. As long as we kept things in a pack, I could keep up and even drive by some of the more powerful cars. Then we had a string of long green flag laps and a few of the veterans were able to get back by me. The car ran great and we were able to hold onto a 14th place finish. All in all we were pretty happy to have another successful weekend. Our gracious host however didn’t have as much fun. You would think that a guy who opens his home and his shop to people he hardly knows, then works all day before heading to the track, would have a little karma on his side. Danny lost his brakes in the lap two incident when another car ran over him. He kept it going and drove from his 8th place staring position, past Spencer, and past Kruseman to take the lead (WITH NO BRAKES). He led for 12 laps lifting the throttle pedal to choke the motor down and toggling the kill switch while steering with one hand. On lap 26 while battling with multi-time USAC National Champion, Bud Kaeding, he lost the handle and spun it in turn four. Kaeding went on to win the race, coming from the back after his lap 2 altercation, while Danny watched the last 4 laps from the pits. It just didn’t seem right, and yet when the fans came down out of the stands, Danny put on a smile and was his normal, upbeat self. I guess if we race long enough, we’ll have nights like that too. I hope he has more luck next week at Tulare (while I follow him right to the front).

    Since we were the highest finishing 360, we won a $200 Bonus and 20 gallons of fuel (Thank you USAC/CRA and Steve Howard at SoCal Performance). We also want to Thank Danny, Butch and Uncle Greg for making the weekend so much fun. We are looking forward to heading back to Tulare this weekend and pulling off a great finish for our wonderful sponsors, The Toiyabe Group, Blakeley Landscaping, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, HMS Airless Repair, Carmichael Auto Service, The Barricade Company,  Ted Surber and Palisades Ranch, VanLare Steering Repair, and Johnny Franklin’s Driveline & Hitch Service.

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  • Tulare 4/30

    Posted on May 5, 2011 7:51 am by Marty Hawkins

    These past couple of weeks have been spent working on equipment to get us to the track rather than working on the actual car. Two weeks ago dad and I decided it was time to change the roof on our trailer. The way it was originally made was with ¾” plywood and then just sealant over the top, but after years of it sitting in the rain it began to leak and rot out. After removing the old roof, we replaced the plywood, and of coarse that night it decided to rain. Thanks to some help from Terry Shank, we put galvanized steel over the top of the plywood, and then sealed it off real good. On the inside dad finished off painting the walls white and the floor gray. When it was all done, he listed it on Craig’s List and within 2 hours had 12 phone calls. So after all that work (probably over 40 hours between the two of us) we sold the trailer two days later. Thank God we had a plan. Greg Cato had offered us his 28ft triple axle trailer at a great deal. So the next day we picked up our new trailer at 8:00am and spent the next 13 hours cleaning it up and putting our racks in it. We also spent a day putting on the diamond plating that they had for the sides and front of the trailer. After about two weeks of trailer work, I was ready to go racing. The only problem was that fixing the trailers up was a little more expensive than predicted, but thanks to Ron and the Toiyabe Group we were able to load up and head for the Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.

    After arriving in Tulare, we met up with Randy Wright who was making sure he got his fill of racing in before having a month long project at the nuclear power plant he works at. We hadn’t been to the track in over a month, so we had our fill of early problems to deal with. It was the first time out with our new tail-tank and of coarse it had a leak at the fittings. We stayed calm, figured everything out, then headed out for hotlaps. Tulare is notoriously sticky early in the season, but for some reason it was dry slick again. I qualified 15th out of 21 cars. Not a good qualifying position by any means. I lined up on the outside front row in the 3rd heat and at the drop of the green flag I drag raced the pole sitter into turn one. He slid up across my nose in the turn and I was able to turn the car down and take the lead coming onto the back chute. Rusty Carlisle and Ryan Bernal were close behind, but I was able to hold them off for the 10 lap heat and pull off my first heat race win. This put me 15th for the start of the A-main. Early on in the race I was able to pick off a few cars, but the track was really dusty and loose. Most guys were all the way on the bottom of the track or about a foot off the wall. I was doing alright and about half way through the race I made it into the top 10. I played it a little too safe and stayed in line, only picking up one more position and ended up with a 9th place finish.

    I want to thank Danny Faria Jr. for opening his shop and his home to us, and for allowing us to leave our car and trailer at his house in Tulare, so we don’t have to tow it back and forth over the next few weeks. I also want to thank Butch Brazil and Randy Wright. We wish Randy could come help us every weekend.

    I am looking forward at the chance to better my finish when we go back to Tulare next weekend with the West Coast 360′s. This weekend we are planing on making it to Hanford to run with the USAC/CRA bunch. We don’t have our 410 back yet, so we will be making the run with our 360.

    We want to thank all our sponsors who keep us going: The Toiyabe Group, Blakeley Landscaping, Santa Rosa Auto Parts, The Barricade Company, Carmichael Auto Service, Ted Surber and Palisades Ranch, VanLare Steering Repair, Johnny Franklin’s, HMS Airless Repair and SoCal Performance.

    See you at the Races!

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