Abe Harder Finishes Top-Five Overall at Cayuga Speedway
(Nelles Corners, Ontario) – Abe Harder, of Alymer, ON, and his Tri-Corp Transportation / Theatron Studios.com / Pennzoil / Truck Liners 2000 / Pontiac Grand Prix hit the track for the first time in the 2007 season last weekend, Saturday June 23rd, at Cayuga Speedway. Harder and his black # 58 machine were set to compete in second event of the Ontario Sportsman Series, a pair of 50-lap features around the 5/8th-mile track.
The day started with practice, and Harder and the team, let by crew chief Peter Wall worked on the setup. “We had to make a few changes to get the car legal to race in the OSS, after racing at Delaware over a year ago. Nothing major, but some minor changes and some old weight percentages. We fought a push all through practice and tried to loosen the car up the best we could.”
In qualifying, Harder turned the fifth-fastest lap of the session, and following the inversion started third. When the green dropped, Harder was shuffled back to fifth. With a number of fast cars behind him, Abe was forced high, and gave up a number of positions. This slip would put the # 58 back in eighth position. In the late stages of the race, while fighting a severely loose race car, Harder continued to press forward and secured a solid seventh-place result. “Our car was loose all the way through the corners, but especially from the center out of the corner. I had to wait until I was all the way on the straightaway before I could totally get on the power. We’ll take the result and make some changes to tighten it up for the next feature.”
Following the inversion, Harder rolled off sixth in the final feature. He dove to the bottom, worked his way behind Billy Innes in traffic, and came out of an early shuffle in second position behind Innes. For the next 15 laps, Harder and Innes put on a classic battle for the lead, with Billy shutting the door. “Our car was handling a lot better than in the first feature. The guys had it working. The #00 and I were having a great race up front.” After hounding Innes, Harder had company behind him, as Steve Robblee arrived on the scene. Robblee would get to the bottom of Harder for second, but when Robblee went after the lead, Harder struck. He got in the hole that Robblee opened up and moved back to second.
As the laps wore down, Harder worked hard to try and stay with Robblee, but he couldn’t do it. He would end up being caught in the closing stages by Matt Robblee, who passed Harder to place Abe third at the finish. “I can’t say enough about my crew. The car was a lot tighter in the second race. Still a little loose, but way better than before.”
When the final results came out, Harder had posted a solid fifth-place finish for the night overall, while Steve and Matt Robblee had finished one-two. “We so pleased with this on our first night out. We haven’t raced in over a year, and to put up a couple runs like this on the first night out was great.”
The next event for the OSS will be Saturday June 30th at Sauble Speedway in Sauble Beach. The Harder Racing Team won’t be in attendance, but will return to OSS action later in the summer.
For more information on Abe Harder, Harder Racing, Tri-Corp Transportation, the Ontario Sportsman Series, or Cayuga Speedway, please visit
www.harderracing.ca,
www.tricorptrans.com,
www.ontariosportsmanseries.com, or
www.cayugaspeedwaypark.com.
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