ARCA - Transmission Issues Limit Chad Hackenbracht And CGH Motorsports Finish At Salem

SALEM, May 3, 2011: It was clear that Chad Hackenbracht and his family-owned CGH Motorsports team were a contender at Salem (Ind.) Speedway in Sunday’s running of the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers 200 but transmission issues plagued what could have been a career-day for the upcoming driver and his team.

With crew chief Rob Torrey and director of competition Kevin Reed calling the shots for the third race of the season, the team embraced a satisfying testing session at the half-mile oval just a week earlier, the Mooresville, North Carolina-based team was hoping what they had learned would transfer to race weekend.

Hackenbracht’s No. 58 CGH Motorsports Chevrolet Impala SS was one of the first to tackle the tricky half-mile short track during the lone hour and a half practice session on Saturday afternoon. Immediately, the New Philadelphia, Ohio native flexed his muscle by maneuvering his Chevrolet bow-tie to fourth on the speed charts.

Continuing to tweak on their automobile throughout the session, the team landed seventh overall – giving the team a positive vibe to start off the weekend. In qualifying, Hackenbracht laid out the ninth fastest lap tying a personal-career best with Kansas Speedway last October.

With their best starting position of the season in the books, Hackenbracht and his team turned their concentration towards race day.

Mother Nature though drenched the track Sunday morning forcing ARCA officials to tediously dry the race track right up until race time. The field would rev their engines at 2:15 p.m. and assist in the track drying process by running 20 green flag laps at caution speed.

By lap 21 the field was under racing conditions with Hackenbracht wasting no time moving to the front. Finding himself in tight battle with likes of Salem veteran Brett Hudson, nine-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel and Allgaier Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger, the rookie found himself competing with ARCA’s finest before showing them how strong his machine was by launching himself into seventh position by lap 45.

Hackenbracht would escape disaster on lap 52 when the machines of Kimmel, Matt Merrell, Tim George Jr., Grant Enfinger and Chris Buescher all became entangled on the backstretch.

Restarting inside the top-five, Hackenbracht was focused on inching forward and racing the leaders but just after the green flag waived, Hackenbracht informed his team that he could not keep his machine in fourth gear.

Hackenbracht would find himself doing the unthinkable of driving with one hand and keeping his other hand on the shifter trying to keep his automobile at top speed. Reluctantly, Hackenbracht would have to come to pit road with the team trying to use a bungee cord to keep the shifter in place. Despite their efforts, Salem’s brutal pavement would put a period to that plan.

The 19-year old protégé would eventually be forced to bring his machine back to pit road and make the hard left hand turn into the infield where he climbed from his machine disappointed after completing 99 of the race’s 206 laps.

“We had an incredibly fast car,” offered Hackenbracht, who finished 19th. “It’s a shame that the transmission didn’t hold out for us, because I think we could have finished easily inside the top-five, if not been contending for the win. I want to thank Rob, Kevin and the entire CGH team for a great weekend. We rightfully didn’t get the finish that we deserved, but everyone knew we were here.”

Hackenbracht commented on the team’s performance this weekend. “It’s a big boost to this team to see us as competitive as we were. I mean, we were out there racing some of the best in the business. That was a lot of fun and it shows what this team is capable of. Hopefully we can go to Toledo here in a couple of weeks and have everything go our way and have a finish we deserve.”

Round four for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards treks to the Toledo (Oh.) Speedway for the running of the Menards 200 on Sunday, May 15th. Like Salem, Hackenbracht and CGH Motorsports will make their inaugural debut at the half-mile oval in the first of two Toledo Speedway races this season.