Dalton Hill Racing

Tonight was the last night of the points season. The track was very heavy all night long.

Dalton started 5th. It was anyone's race until Dalton hit the birm coming out of turn 4 which really upset the car. This caused him to fall back. With only 7 laps to go it was nearly impossible to chase the leaders down & get back in the battle.

The invert was a zero again this week so Dalton started 14th. An incident on the initial green flag caused a turn 1 wreck taking one car to the infield. That moved Dalton to 12th for the double file re-start. Even though the track was heavy & tacky, it really was a one groove track. On the bottom. Dalton drove a great race and ended our season with an 11th place finish.

The main event video from race # 14 is now on-line. Click on the Micro Race Video button at the top of the page to view.

The car was setup exactly as the previous night. The track was a lot slower & just an ugly greasy mess.

Dalton started on the pole. He lead all laps until turn 4 of the last lap when the 2nd place car got under him & it was a drag race to the checkered flag giving us a 2nd place finish.

The pill draw for the invert was a zero. One car did not keep its qualifying time & that put Dalton starting 13th. The only place to get an grip was up on the wall. Dalton was fighting hard to move forward. With 4 laps to go a car had spun him out & to the back he went. We the green flag came back out he picked off a couple of cars to give him a 18th place finish.

This week we decided to try a few more things different with the car. It looked really well all night long & Dalton could put the car where he wanted when he wanted. Stay tuned for the video of the main event to be posted in the next few days.

For the heat, Dalton started 2nd. He was fast, but an early race incident broke his front nose wing & we finished 4th.

The invert for the line up was 8. When we found out that someone who qualified better than us wasn't able to keep his time, we knew luck was on our side. Dalton got the pole. When the green dropped, he was gone. Dalton held the lead for several laps before he began to have carburetor problems. He still didn't give up a battled it out. Taken it 3 wide several times thru the corners. He ended up bringing home a 4th place.

We made some changes to the car this week. I think we are starting to get back on the right track.

Dalton had to finish 4th or better in the heat race to keep his qualifying time. So we ended up starting 13th. It was apparent early on that the car was still not quite right. Dalton was involved in a small wreck in the middle of 3 & 4 bringing out the caution & sending him to the rear of the field to 17th. When the green dropped again, Dalton went high & began passing cars. He worked his way up to 9th place and was doing good. The last few laps was a good battle & he ended up with a 11th place finish.

The car looked pretty good during practice. The track was deceiving and appeared to stay somewhat tacky throughout the night. Our car started out fast & good in the main, however the track went away rather quickly & we were just way to loose.

Dalton started 14th in the main. When the green flag dropped, Dalton went top side a began driving around cars. The car looked great. However, the track went away very fast. Dalton's car became very loose & hard to handle as the race went on. He did a great job of missing a few wrecks & he brought the car home in one piece with a 14th place finish.

In practice the car looked good. For qualifying we made some adjustments which made the car to loose, but got back on the right track for the main.

For the 20 car field Main Event, Dalton started 17th. His crew finally hit the setup right & he moved forward to 13th. He drove a great race & brought the car home in one piece.

Dalton won his heat race!! He started on the pole and drove his way to a first place finish.

Well the main didn't turn out so well. On the first lap of the main event 2 cars tangled together in front of Dalton and collected him in the crash. Dalton was able to get his car started and drove back on the track but the nerf bar was bent back the the rear tire and was rubbing the tire in the corners. He also bent his right tie rod bar which made the car hard to turn, so Dale had Dalton pull into the infield before we blew a tire and caused more damage to the car. We ended up finishing 18th,. Better luck next time for our main event!! Our next race will be next weekend August 1st in Lemoore. This will be our first time racing there, hopefully all will go well!!

Well the night didn't quite turn out as we would have liked. We had problems with our car during practice, we thought we were having problems with our carburetors so we switched them out after practice and put a new set on. When Dalton went on the track for qualifying we soon realized that it wasn't the carburetors that was causing our problems. So Dalton qualified 17th out of 18 cars. The problem with the car was our fuel pump was going out. We fixed it enough so Dalton could run his heat race and main event.

For the heat race Dalton started 6th out of 6 cars and we ended up finishing last because we didn't get any practice time and our car was way to loose.

For the main event Dalton started 16th out of 18 cars. He drove a great race and ended up finishing 13th.

For the heat race Dalton started 3rd and drove his way to a second place finish!!

The main event Dalton started 3rd and did an excellent job. His car was a little loose coming out of turn 3 & 4 but he drove a great race and finished 6th.

Friday night racing was qualifying, heat races, and trophy dashes Qualifying.

Dalton did an excellent job qualifying for the Budweiser Outlaw Nationals. There were 25 cars and Dalton qualified 14th.

The top 4 cars out of the heat races made it into the main without running a semi. Dalton finished 3rd and made it straight into the main!!

The top 16 qualifiers got to run the trophy dash. How you finished in the trophy dash is how you would line up for the main event. We were in the 2nd trophy dash and Dalton finished 5th which seated him 15th in the main event.

Dalton started 15th in the main event and he had his hands full. He keep complaining that the car was really hard to handle after his rounds of practice, we just figured it was because the track was really rough and he had never ran on a track that bad before. He did a great job controlling the car and ended up finishing 17th. After we came home and started cleaning his car we figured out what Dalton's problem was, his rear axle was bent pretty bad. Great job Dalton for running a car that wasn't in the best of shape!!

Our next race is a two day race 6/19 - 6/20 It is a big race - The Budweiser Nationals GO DALTON!!

For the heat race we started 5th out of 6 cars. Unfortunately we did not finish. Dalton has two 2 DOT's

For the main event all 23 cars raced. We started 21st. Dalton ran a great race and avoided 2 big wrecks. We ended up finishing 14th!!

There were 23 restricted 600's for Plaza Park's race #5. We had the car way to tight for qualifying and Dalton ended up qualifying 21st out of 23 cars.

For the heat race we went the opposite way with the set up and had the car way to loose. Dalton started 6th out of 6 cars and finished 6th.

For the main event we finally got the set up on the car right. Dalton started 21st out of 23 cars. Dalton was doing an excellent job and had already passed 6 cars when a car in front of him spun out and Dalton had no where to go but on top of the other car. We ended up crushing the top wing, bending the nerf bar all the way back to the rear tire, bending the rim, and a bent tie rod. Dalton ended up jamming his thumb pretty bad from the wreck that we ended up taking him to the doctor for x-rays to make sure his thumb wasn't broken or fractured. We got the good news today (6/3/09) that all the x-rays were negative and his thumb will heal soon. Picture below was taken right after the wreck.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO STEVE FROM HAMBLIN MOTORSPORTS FOR TAKING 2 HOURS OF HIS TIME ON SATURDAY MORNING TO FIX DALTON'S CAR SO THAT WE COULD RACE THAT NIGHT!!

Well this night started off way better than Friday nights!! Dalton ended up qualifying 15th out of 25 cars.

For the heat race Dalton started on the pole. He had an excellent start but we soon found out that the car was way to loose. Dalton did a great job controlling the car and ended up finishing 4th which put him straight into the main without having to run a semi!!

Dalton started in 12th position out of 22 cars for the 20 lap main event. I was very proud that he didn't get tired and he finished all 20 laps. Dalton ended up finishing 15th!

For qualifying on Friday night Dalton had some problems. First we thought Dalton forgot to shift and the motor started smoking. He ended up qualifying last out of 30 cars. The guys pulled the car into the pits and cooled it down and put in more oil.

We were hoping for the heat race that the car was good and ready to race. But we found out that after two laps the car was smoking again, so Dalton pulled the car into the infield and didn't race the heat race.

We found out from Steve Hamblin from Hamblin Motorsports that Dalton was having transmission problems and the car wouldn't stay in gear. So Dalton did not attempt to race the semi.

Well, we had an eventful night last night. We deceided to take Dalton to the Kings Speedway last night in Hanford for a race and some seat time. There ended up only being two cars in his class, himself and his buddy Derek Galante. The boys had a great time and did a great job. They had two heat races and a main event. The first heat race Derek came in first place and Dalton came in second. For the 2nd heat race Dalton came in first and Derek came in second. The boys were every excited that they each won a race and couldn't wait to race the main to see who would win that. For the main Dalton came in first and Derek came in second, they both did a great job. After the races the boys learned that they were getting a pay check for their winnings. The picture below is a picture of Dalton and Derek with their winnings. Dalton also won a trophy for placing first in the main event. Dalton ended up winning $125.00 for his first place main event, after paying daddy back for the entry fees and pit passes he ended up taking home $50.00 for himself. Not a bad nights pay for an 11 year old!!

There were 8 cars in Dalton's heat race. We started 6th and finished 8th. Which means we had to run a semi.

Dalton started 8th out of 10 cars in the semi and was really fast. He made his way up to 4th place and had a spot in the main event until he started getting tired and hit the wall with only 5 laps to go. After he hit the wall he went from 4th to 9th and didn't transfer to the main event. After that race we took Dalton on Saturday to a practice track in Tulare. He learned how to slide the car into the corners and learned not to lift in the corners. Here are a couple of pictures from that day.

Dalton and his buddy Derek giving me thumbs up before they head out on the track.

Dalton's first race started off with a bang. When we rolled his car out to a pit box we ran over a nail and put a hole in our back right tire. Thanks to Freddie Galante for saving us with the use of a spare tire and rim.

Qualifying Dalton rolled his car out on the track and ran a great line. We ended up qualifying 2nd to last. Little more seat time and more learning for dad, papa, and grandpa and they will get this qualifying down.

Since Dalton is a rookie he will be starting his first couple of races in the back. He started 7th (last) in the heat race and passed a car and ended up 6th.

He did not qualify into the main event so Dalton had to race a semi. He started 8th in the semi out of 12 cars and ended up finishing 12th. Dalton had his hands full with his car, the car was to tight and he had a hard time turning it. His next race will be in two weeks. Hopefully things will go better for that race.

4/2/09

Here is the finished micro with all the sponsor names and numbers on the car. We are heading out for our first race tomorrow at Plaza Park. I will post results this weekend.

3/29/09

Well after a lot of stress and a lot of long hours for the guys, Dalton made his first practice in his micro last night. The car was finished at 4:30 and Dalton had never even driven the car before, so he had no idea how to start it, shift it, or stop it with a clutch. After 10 laps around the pool the guys loaded the car up and took it to Plaza Park in Visalia for practice. I must say I was really nervous being that Dalton had only been in the car about 10 minutes for a few laps around the property and never out with any cars before. The first time on the track Dalton was getting the feel of the car and the track so he stayed out of the way and was just learning everything. For the second practice he was ready and he went out there and drove his butt off!! Next weekend will be his first race at Plaza Park, being that he is a rookie he will start in the back for his first three races. I can't wait to see what the year has in store for us. It's finally done, here is a picture of Dalton's micro after it has been painted. It still needs to be lettered and numbered but the big part is done. Thank you Mike Jimenez for an awesome paint job, we love it!!

Dalton giving me the thumbs up as he getting ready to fire up his micro for the first time in our backyard.

Well here is our next big adventure. Dalton's new 600 micro sprint car. This is what the car looked like when we brought it home. It is now at the paint shop getting a new look. Dalton couldn't deal with the orange paint, so it will now be an electric blue with black and white graphics. I will post a new picture once it is back. Hopefully next month the car will be put together and ready for the play day at Plaza Park in Visalia.