Haggenbottom charges hard in home state
Mike Haggenbottom agrees “there’s no place like home!”
A couple Fridays back at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa., the Levittown, Pa. driver recorded his careerbest finish in the top series of the United States Auto Club (USAC) when he placed fourth in what turned out to be a 101-lap Silver Crown event on the half-mile clay oval.
The race is the series’ only event in the Keystone state.
Haggenbottom, who is midway through only his second season in the series, also earned the race’s KSE Racing Products “HardCharger” Award for advancing the most positions of any other driver in the race. He started 15th in a Maxim chassis owned by his brother, John, of Bristol, Pa.
Cracking the top 10 in this ultra-competitive series has been Haggenbottom’s goal. His best previous finishes in a USAC Silver Crown race were two 11thplace finishes last year.
On Friday he not only earned his first top-10 series finish, but he got a top-five result as well.
What’s more, the strong finish propelled him into fifth place in the national point standings at the season’s midpoint.
Haggenbottom Racing is definitely representing the tristate area well in this national series. Its sponsors include Belmont Garage of Langhorne, Pa.; Valley Forge. Inc. of King of Prussia, Pa.; Robison Racing Products of Dublin, Pa.; Speed Equipment Corp. (SEC) of Bensalem, Pa.; Kashady Automation of Bensalem, Pa., and Mershon Concrete of Bordentown, N.J. Other decals seen on the car advertise ASI Racewear of Patchogue, N.Y.; Hooker Harness of Freeport, Ill., WDB Landscaping of Morrisville, Pa., and PME Engines of Mooresville, N.C.
The car Haggenbottom drove at Williams Grove is powered by a Chevy engine prepared by Rider Racing Engines of Mechanicsburg.
Haggenbottom is a former United Racing Club sprint car champion and a five-time TriState Race Savers 305 sprint car champion, but he’s only run at Williams Grove about a dozen times in the past. There was no Silver Crown race at Williams Grove in 2018, his rookie season in the series.
USAC Silver Crown races are tests of not only speed but also of endurance, as drivers must conserve their fuel, brakes and tires, and try to set up their cars so they run well late in the race when their fuel load has decreased. It’s definitely a game of strategy, compromise, pace, and working with whatever cards one is dealt.
After starting 15th, Haggenbottom took advantage of some opportunities to pass. Despite no cautions in the early going, he moved up to 14th on lap three by passing Eric Gordon, 13th on lap four by passing John Heydenreich, 12th on lap seven by passing David Byrne, 11th on lap 11 by passing Matt Goodnight, and he cracked the top 10 on lap 15 by passing Kyle Robbins.
Shane Cottle was in front of him at that point, but he got ninth on lap 18 when Tyler Courtney slowed ahead of him between Turns 1 and 2 to bring out the first caution flag, although Courtney did continue.
Haggenbottom ran in ninth place from laps 18 through 38, and then got eighth on lap 39 by passing Austin Nemire, who had qualified fifth. He was still in eighth place at the halfway point on lap 50 when another yellow flew for debris on the track.
He passed Chad Kemenah on the restart on lap 51 to rise to seventh, and then remained in that position until lap 97. At that point he was sandwiched between Cottle and Gordon. With three laps to go Haggenbottom was pleased to think he was poised to achieve his goal of a top-10 finish with a seventh, but the racing gods had more spots in mind for him on Friday.
On lap 98 he got sixth when both he and Gordon passed Cottle. On the next lap the driver who was second, Chris Windom, spun out the leader, Steve Buckwalter, in Turn 1, which gave Haggenbottom fifth place and set up a greenwhite checkered scenario.
Windom was leading on lap 100 when his right-rear tire let go in Turn 1, which gave Haggenbottom another position and the fourthplace finish. Brady Bacon ended up winning over Kody Swanson, Justin Grant and Haggenbottom. Gordon, Nemire, Byrne, Buckwalter, Windom and Goodnight rounded out the top 10.
“My car was pretty tight for the last half of the race,” Haggenbottom said afterwards. “I was hoping to get by Justin Grant because it was Justin Grant, but I didn’t want to run over him either. I didn’t want brakes to become an issue, and you use them hard at Williams Grove.
“We were totally happy to get a top-10 out of it, so to get fourth was like getting a Christmas present.
“It was nice how many people showed up. I was surprised at how many people knew me from running sprint cars, and we had a lot of friends and family there. A lot of them had never seen a Silver Crown race, let alone watch me run one.”
All the USAC Silver Crown races are broadcast live on a payper-view basis by FloRacing.com. The next one is June 28 at Madison International Raceway in Oregon, Wis.
For more information, follow “Mike Haggen bottom Racing” on Facebook.
Thank you to Linda Mansfield for her assistance.
The 29th annual PA Speedweek Series for 410 sprint cars will kick off on Friday, June 28 at Williams Grove Speedway.
Sponsored by Sprintcarunlimited.com, the track will host the series opener on June 28 and then come back one week later with the 31st annual Mitch Smith Memorial on Friday, July 5.
Both races begin at 7:30 pm with gates opening at 5:30.
Williams Grove Speedway is one of two remaining tracks that are still on the speed week schedule that helped get the series started back in 1991 when Steve Smith Sr. and Don Krietz Jr. scored inaugural series wins at the oval.
Smith went on to claim the first series title.
Since then, a total of 33 speed week races have been run at Williams Grove Speedway.
This year, the June 28 Williams Grove series opener will offer a total purse worth more than $25,000 including $5,000 to win a 25-lap main event.