New Car Has Late Model Driver J.J. Hill Ready to Contend for Championship in 2012 at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — Like most teams during the off-season, the #41 TicketNetwork.com Late Model team of J.J. Hill has been hard at work preparing for the 2012 Late Model season at Stafford. The team has been preparing a brand new Late Model for the 2012 season, which has Hill excited about his prospects for the upcoming season.
“We started from the ground up putting a new car together,” said Hill. “We’ve been running some ancient equipment, so it’s nice to be building a new car from the ground up. The car has everything we want in it, so we’re very excited about the season.”
After finishing no higher than 26th in the Late Model points standings for the first 4 years of his career, Hill fortunes took a turn for the better beginning with the 2009 season. He finished 7th in the points standings to earn Most Improved Driver honors, and he followed that up with his first victory in the prestigious Late Model 100 in 2010. Last season saw Hill grab his second career feature victory and he also cracked the top-5 in the points standings for the first time. With a new car and a great crew, he is looking to continue the upward trend and be a contender for the track championship this season.
“It’s hard to believe that I’m going into my 8th season,” said Hill. We really struggled a lot for the first four years, but we’ve slowly changed the face of the crew, and when you get the right people around you, better things start to happen and we’ve had some success the last couple of years. The championship is definitely on our minds. We’re trying to win races every time we come to the track, and I feel like that if we can do what we do every week, then we can be one of the contenders this year. We’ve definitely talked about it in the shop and part of the plan this year is to run for points.”
While the 2009 season may have been Hill’s breakout season, he still feels like he hasn’t quite reached his full potential and he is primed for a break-through year in Stafford’s Late Model division this season.
“We were up front for a lot of races last year, we just had small stuff happen that kept us from getting the results that I would consider to be a breakout season,” said Hill. “I think that if we can take a couple of small steps forward this year, we can achieve breakout results. I feel like we showed people that we’re there, we just have to take that next step forward.”
Along with the new car that the TicketNetwork team has put together, Hill will have his car from last season as a backup just in case a backup car would be needed during the season.
“It’s a good feeling to have a solid backup car,” said Hill. “Knowing that this is a car that we have won twice with before and that it’s a good top-5 car is a good feeling. Look at a guy like Tom Butler. Last year he had to run in another car for part of the season and he did pretty well in that car, so it’s comforting for us to know we have that backup car if we should need it during the season.”
With a new car, a solid backup car, and a good team, Hill seems to have all the piece of the puzzle in place to become a weekly contender as well as a championship contender.
“We’re really excited about the season, we can’t wait to get started,” said Hill. “We feel like we have a good plan to start off with on the new car, and we have plenty of time to get things ready if we’re not there right away. I have a great crew with Rob Russell, Billy Johnson, Alex Salony, R.J. Surdell, Josh Zwinklestein, Eric Drew, Steve Spallacci, Dave McGuire, and Neil Jewl, and we have a great sponsor in TicketNetwork.com. It’s great to have some financial support and I can’t thank TicketNetwork.com enough for all of their support. I also have to thank my Mom the car owner, my Dad, Lifecare Family Chiropractic, and Gold & Diamond Exchange for all of their support as well.”
Hill and the Late Model division will kick off the 2012 season with the 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 27-29. Tickets for the CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler are available and on sale now through the SMS Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission tickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will be priced at $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT Admission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with overnight parking available.
For more information on the 41st Annual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, or to order tickets, contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at 860-684-2783 or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR