Hafertepe Runs Down Martin To Conquer Belleville

BELLEVILLE, Kan. — Even in the thick of lapped traffic and the laps winding down, Sam Hafertepe Jr. can never be counted out.

The five-time American Sprint Car Series champion was trailing 2023 champion Jason Martin by several car lengths in the closing laps of Thursday’s main event at Belleville High Banks.

With a pack of lapped cars ahead of them, Hafertepe soared around the top side of Turn 3 of the half-mile oval, weaved in between two lapped cars and swapped lanes to the bottom out of Turn 4 to make the pass on Martin, taking the lead and later the win on opening night of The Big One.

“I’m glad we could do that for the fans tonight,” Hafertepe said. “That was pretty awesome.”

The win comes as his fourth of the season and 82nd of his career with the series, upholding his spot as No. 2 on the all-time wins list. Hafertepe also becomes the second winner in series history at Belleville and the first in 10 years, following the national 360 sprint car tour’s debut at the track in 2015. In three career Belleville starts and first since 2009, Thursday was the Texas racer’s first trip to victory lane.

After a victory in the dash, Hafertepe took the lead from the pole at the drop of the green flag in the 20-lap main event with Martin in tow. When Hafertepe hit lapped traffic on Lap 6, he dove low in Turn 3 to make the pass, giving Martin the high side and lots of speed coming off Turn 4 — enough to put a slide job on Hafertepe in Turn 1 to take the lead.

“I just wanted to pace [Hafertepe] and see how he was running his lines and what he was doing when we got to lapped traffic,” Martin said. “I knew I was good enough I could drive by him whenever the right opportunity came.”

“Early in the race, [Martin] got us because I wasn’t really running as hard as I should’ve been running at that time, but I also didn’t want to overrun my racecar either,” Hafertepe said. “Once he showed me the pace he was willing to run, I said, ‘OK, well I’ll run that pace then.’”

Martin led the next 11 laps, dodging and weaving his way through lapped traffic with Hafertepe following. When Martin got behind Austyn Gossel in traffic on Lap 17, he dove low in Turn 3 to make the pass while Hafertepe sailed around the top. As Martin passed Gossel and slid up in front of Jeremy Huish to put them a lap down, Hafertepe shot the gap between Gossel and Huish out of Turn 4 and beat Martin to the line to retake the lead.

“I knew we would have a shot at him, but I didn’t know when,” Hafertepe said. “I followed him through all the lapped cars; I took the same lines he did. Then, right there at the end, I said, ‘I’m not taking the same line, no matter what happens.’

“We had, I think, two-to-go or something like that, and I just knew, ‘Alright, no matter what, I’m not gonna follow him this time,’ and it paid off for us.”

More lapped traffic appeared in front of Hafertepe as he rounded Turns 3–4 on the final lap, and Martin made a last-ditch effort off the bottom lane out of Turn 4, but both were not enough to slow Hafertepe as he crossed the finish line to collect the $4,000 prize.

“I kinda chose where I went according to where we had been earlier in the race,” Hafertepe said. “I knew I probably couldn’t clear a lot of guys on the outside, so I just chose to stay up there to keep my speed up. I didn’t want to pinch myself on the bottom and then [Martin] get another run on the top.”

Martin crossed the finish line second, only .148 seconds behind Hafertepe.

“I’ve just gotta be smarter at making decisions on the fly,” Martin said. “Everybody thinks it’s easy to do, but at 140 miles-an-hour, things happen pretty fast, and I just made the wrong one. Tomorrow, I’ve just gotta be a little sharper and make the right one.”

Joey Danley crossed in third to bank his best career series finish. Matt Covington started and finished fourth, while Stu Snyder scored the Hard Charger honors in his drive from 10th to finish fifth.

The finish:

Feature (20 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 36-Jason Martin[2]; 3. 14-Joey Danley[3]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 5. 1X-Bryant Wiedeman[8]; 6. 23S-Stuart Snyder[10]; 7. 71-Brady Baker[9]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn[11]; 9. 2B-Garrett Benson[5]; 10. 4-Cameron Martin[6]; 11. 88R-Ryder Laplante[12]; 12. 45X-Kyler Johnson[7]; 13. 17W-Harli White[13]; 14. 88J-Jeremy Huish[16]; 15. 16G-Austyn Gossel[14]; 16. 91-Jeff Stasa[18]; 17. 2J-Zach Blurton[19]; 18. 7C-Chris Morgan[20]; 19. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[22]; 20. 10-Landon Britt[24]; 21. 88C-Brogan Carder[15]; 22. 88-Terry Easum[23]; 23. 17-Connor Lee[21]; 24. 5D-Zach Daum[17]