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Van Dam Earns Season-Best Result at Cottage Grove During Western Sprint Tour Speedweek Finale

(Photo by Lisa Dynes Photography)

Inside Line Promotions – COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (July 18, 2017) – Henry Van Dam picked up his second straight top-five finish and his best result of the season last Saturday at Cottage Grove Speedway during the final night of the Western Sprint Tour Speedweek.

“Overall we did fairly well,” he said. “I felt like we had a fast car. We went out late to qualify and the track had slowed down, but we felt good about our qualifying lap.”

Van Dam opened the event by qualifying eighth quickest. He then advanced from fourth to second place in a heat race.

“The outside was definitely faster so we got moving on the top and then hung out the rest of the time,” he said.

That was good enough to earn a position in the dash, in which Van Dam started fifth.

“The dash had a crazy start,” he said. “We were three or four wide in the first corner. I thought I could clear them, but couldn’t clear the row in front of me. I got hung out and fell back to sixth. We got back up to fifth and tried a slide job at the end for fourth, but I came up short.”

The fifth-place finish started Van Dam on the inside of the third row for the main event.

“We were able to go right to third in the first two laps,” he said. “The race went green the first 18 laps and we were into traffic within the first few laps. The story of the race was how you got through traffic. The two drivers in front of us got through it really well.”

Van Dam maintained third for most of the race before losing a position in the closing laps while battling through traffic.

“We ended up getting held up by a lapped car and gave up third because we got caught in the middle,” he said. “I think the story of our season is that we’ve had a really good car to end the features. We just haven’t put ourselves in a good spot to get the results. We did a better job on Saturday. We had a car capable of winning. It just came down through how you got through lapped cars.”

Van Dam, who finished fourth, is scheduled to compete this Saturday at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash.

QUICK RESULTS –

July 15 – Cottage Grove Speedway in Cottage Grove, Ore. – Qualifying: 8; Heat race: 2 (4); Dash: 5 (5); Feature: 4 (5).

SEASON STATS –

8 races, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 6 top 10s, 7 top 15s, 8 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Saturday at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, Wash.

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.HenryVanDam.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/VanDamRacing

APPAREL –

Van Dam has t-shirts available for sale at his race trailer and at Enumclaw Xpress Lube.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Johansen Excavating

Based in Buckley, Wash., Johansen Excavating specializes in civil construction. For more information, visit http://www.JohansenExcavating.com.

“Johansen Excavating has been a partner for the past few years,” Van Dam said. “They’ve been a great sponsor, but have been even better friends.”

Van Dam would also like to thank Kovash Logging, Highmark Concrete Contractors, Northwest Welding & Fabrication, Enumclaw Xpress Lube, Les Schwab Tire of Enumclaw, Clems Enumclaw Powersports, A.R.T. Speed Equipment, Van Dam Dairy, Village Green Resort, Factory Kahne, D&L Equipment Repair, Zender Equipment, Big Bob’s Flooring Outlet, Bob and Joan Shumway, Kellan and Kelsey Hall, Foothills Auto Supply, American Powder Coating, Pete Vos, Char’s Barber Shop, Wesmar Race Engines, SpeedMart, Van Dam Farms and Rich Van Dam Dairy for their continued support.

INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –

Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.

To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.

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