Chad Hackenbracht - Legends / ARCA Series 2009

"Rad" Chad Hackenbracht is an amazing young man and he has been leaving his mark as he takes the necessary steps to prepare to climb the ladder to the Nascar ranks of racing.. Chad presents himself as a racing veteran both on and off the track. His lifelong focus on racing has bred character, great drive and determination.......

Chad was born November 7, 1991 His family knew that he would someday live his life as a professional racer because of his eat, sleep and drink attitude towards the sport. His dad comments that he has always been challenged with the "Lets move to the next Class by Chad, fueled by his wins and determination to climb the ladder of success..

From 2003 to 2006 Chad was busy honing his skills and further fueling his calling by racing in the Mid Western Quarter Midget association leaving many marks with wins, top 5's for all to follow.

Late during 2006 Chad made a move to the ever growing Legend Series participating not only in the Charolotte, NC area but all over the country. During 2006 Chad caught the eye of adriver development service company and he elected to participate in some of their services for a short time. Leaving their services late during 2007 and landing an opportunity with the HL Motorsports team located in Concord, NC. Chad has found the move to be great for his career and development. Chad continues to participate in the Legend Series and has rapidly set the bench mark very high for others to follow. Early during 2008 Chad was the leader of the National 600 Racing Series points and currently finds himself in the top 5 with stilltwo months of racing left in this season. Chad is catching the eyes of many as he is preparing for the move to the full sizestock car racing beginning with the ARCA Remax Series in 2009. Chad recently excelled in a Camping World series stock car test with the HLM team and his future is very bright. He is a thinking driver and continues to follow directions very well. It has been outstanding to be able to add Chad to the team. “He should do very, very well” stated Sr VP of Competition Rodney Jocish.

The 2008 racing season has been a very exciting year for Chad and he finds himself placed in a position to represent not only HLM but also Red Devil Energy Drink and Headshot product brands as he continues to climb the ladder of success. In addition to seat time many of his efforts have been used towards shows and autograph/photo shoots for sponsors with added seat time whenever possible.

In April 2008 Chad was turning heads and gaining priceless knowledge at Road Atlanta and at Road America while logging in approximately 1000 miles of asphalt road course expertise. The instruction and direction provided by the Skip Barber staff proved to be beneficial in the key areas of tire management, drafting, seat time, and cornering techniques. Chad has successfully graduated from the basic and advanced Skip Barber Schools. Chad appreciates the encouragement and leadership of everyone he has been exposed to and wants to say thank you to everyone for their efforts with his career. He is confident that being placed in a properly prepared car and being continually trained by the HLM staff will catapult his talents to the next level.

During 2008 Chad will find himself in a position to work with a teammate Bruce Hibbs Jr. and continue to develop his skills for the future in the ARCA Remax racing division. The HL Motorsports team is located out of Concord, NC. Chad would like to thank The Impulse One team for their confidence and commitment they have shown in the future racing with HL Motorsports team.

Chad is looking forward to 2009. His plans are to be racing on a full-time basis for his sponsor brand Head Shot. Until then Chad will be doing all the testing needed to get the okayfrom ARCA to race all tracks in the series. Plans are to work with the team to prepare for the 2009 season. Chad would like to thank everyone who has helped him and the team and those who have shared in the dream of racing. Without all their help this would only be a dream not a reality."I Thank All of You."

Visit Chad's website here.

Chad's Race Blogs
Latest entries at the top

July 18-19, 2008

    Starting with Caraway on Friday, we show up to unexpected news, they would split the Legends into two separate heats and features. The Semi-pro's, me, and the Pro's and Masters together. This was not what I wanted to hear, because to tell the truth, I like to race with the Pro Drivers, even though I’m running semi-pro during the shootout. So I started last in the heat and went on to win it. I had to draw for position in the feature, and I drew the pole position. I went on to run hard the first two laps of the race, and checked out from the rest of field. I then proceeded to ride around conserving tires and my equipment. So we left the track Friday and spent the night at a teammate's house then went on to South Boston, Virginia for the regional race. Here, we ran one practice session, and one feature. I was the fastest of all the legends in my practice, however when it came to qualifying I was the very first car out on the track, and just had a total loss of grip and qualified mid-pack.

    When we started the race, I was a lot faster than most of the cars around me, so I just started picking off cars one at a time. Going into turn three my teammate got spun and to avoid the wreck I went all the way down to the apron, and almost pit road! I came through the mayhem in fifth place and finally a caution was thrown. I restarted and passed the car that wrecked my teammate, but then he passed back under me. I then got a run on him so going into three I went under him but I drove into the corner a little too hard, slid up into him and spun myself out. However, I did a complete 360, downshifted twice, and kept going never getting hit by another car. I was not fortunate enough to get a caution, though I started to make my way back through the field. We got the white flag, and I knew we would get to a lap car coming out of turn two, so I set myself up to make a pass to the outside. One car in front of me lifted and went to the outside, another car went to the inside, and I saw a small opening between the outside car and the lap car, so I went through it. After taking it four wide on the last lap, I finished first in semi-pro, and about mid-pack overall.

July 29, 2008

      This week at the shootout, I started eighth in the heat race, and made my way up to second. Later I was passing for the lead, I got hit pushing me up into the car I was passing, and this spun me out in front of the rest of the field. I got hit in the rear and also in the front. I tried to make a lap but the car wasn’t handling right, so I pulled off of the track. I started 9th in the B-main, made my way to the front and won the B-main by half a straightaway. I started 21st in the A-main. Before completing the first lap, I had made it through two wrecks and was running seventh. From here on we ran green until the end, I passed for third with about ten laps to go, when three laps later, and they cut our race short due to the time limit. I had been running the leaders down and would have won the race, had they not cut our race short!

July 8, 2008

     I made it through the heat to finish 2nd and started 2nd in the feature with Lowe's Motor Speedway's. The green flag dropped and I got a bit of a head start on the pole sitter, putting me to the lead by the time we got out of turn 2. I lead about 3 laps, until the 7 car drove through me in turn 1 and on to the backstretch. I ducked in behind him and got back into him the next time we went through turn 1, and in letting him know I didn't appreciate his move, I moved him back. Evidently, he didn’t think that he did anything the lap before, because the next time we went through turn 2 he hit me yet again, this time I fell back to 4th. I rode behind another car the rest of the race
to finish 3rd, passing the other car cleanly.

July 11, 2008

     This past Friday at Caraway Speedway we got to the track, unloaded, went out for practice, and quite frankly didn’t think I was going to be that good. Well, I finished a solid third in the heat, which put in place to draw for the top 6 positions in the feature. I drew 6, darn. Well with my two teammates starting directly in front of me, I knew it would be a good, clean race. We go out for the warm-up laps, everything is good. The green flag drops, we go into turn one, I had just gotten down to the bottom groove, when my right rear axle broke ending the night.

July 12, 2008

      Saturday, we went down to Lanier Speedway, we rolled off the trailer being one of the fastest of all legends cars. I finished first in my heat, putting me on the outside pole for the feature event. We got the green in the feature, made it through turns one and two, and I took the lead on the backstretch. I had spaced out from second place by about ten car lengths or more, when the caution came out. We restarted and I still had the lead, then another caution came out. When we restarted I had a car on my outside, and the car behind me decided to take it three wide in the first turn! I had to back out of the throttle, not wanting to tear up my equipment. I fell back to third and passed for second. Three laps later I had closed the eight car length lead the leader had on the field. I was right on his rear bumper going into turn one on the white flag lap, now this is where it gets interesting. In the middle of turns one and two, the leader brake checked me, but I kept in the gas and went to turn under him when he blocked me by going there too. Well going down the backstretch I was on his bumper, and not lifting, this scared him or something because he slammed on the brakes so hard, I had to go into a lower gear! I jumped to the outside going into turn three and was passing him on the outside. He tried to shove me to the wall coming out of turn four, but I still never lifted. I wanted to win. I beat him back to the line by maybe an inch! What an exciting race, I was by far the fastest car there.


      As for this week at the shootout, I started last in my heat race, consisting of eleven cars, and finished 4th. This put me out of the invert for the feature which meant I was to start twelfth in the feature. Well I got to the bottom and started working my way to front, when the leader blew a motor going into turn one, everyone started spinning left and right, and I made it through, untouched. I sat under red flag conditions in 5th, however since the car blew a motor they let the others back ahead of me. I restarted 8th and had made my way to the fifth position, when on the last turn of the last lap, I was pushed into the car in front of me by the 88 car. This sent me and the car in front of me spinning. I didn’t get to finish the race. All in all, it would have been a good point’s night, however now I have dropped out of the point’s race with two of the top point’s competitors finishing in the top five.

 

Straight from Rad Chad on the Shootout Race - July 8th:

We show up Monday to practice, fast right away, we decide to only go out 2 more times to see how the car is, and I was one of the fastest out of all the legends. Tuesday, we get there with high hopes, then while I'm in the driver's meeting I look up the weather, and realize "IT'S GONNA RAIN" so I call Dan (crew chief), no answer, so I text my brother and tell him "no matter what WE NEED RAIN TIRES!" so he goes and gets rain tires back at the shop, however since I was the first heat race, they don’t arrive for my heat.

The track officials sent us out in a downpour! I still had regular cut tires on, and a windshield in. So they throw the green flag with puddles everywhere on the track, and the very start of the race, since I had a windshield in, I could not see a thing, the leader spins everyone, who could see that is, checks up, but of course I didn’t know all of this because, I couldn’t see!!! So I tore the left front of my car up, and tried to limp around the track, but that wasn’t going to work. So they lapped me twice before they called the heat race, and we were supposed to go back out when it stopped lightning and the rain let up a bit.

Well we got the car back to the garage, fixed the left front, put rain tires on and put a screen in the front so I could see (instead of a windshield) So when they restarted my race I was 2 laps down, and it was still raining. I started 8th and finished 5th (on the track) but in actuality I was 8th, because I was 2 laps down. So I started 13th in the B-main with 8 cars transferring into the A-main. This was not too thrilling for me; I didn’t know that I would finish too well in the A-main, if I made it through all the wrecks that would be in the B-main (it was still raining in the B). So I started and worked my way up through the field to finish 2nd, this meant that I transferred into the feature event.

I was in the very last legends feature event of the night, the major decision, since it stopped raining, was whether or not to stay on rain tires or go back to cut tires. Well, we put cuts on mine thinking that if my teammate, Daniel Hemric in the Pro division, did good on rain tires, that we could change mine to rain tires, he dominated by a half lap and Dan came running back with a quick jack, and an impact, but didn’t have the tires. So we didn’t get the tires changed. I went out on the track and I knew it wasn’t going to be good, it was still very slick, and the rest of the field, except the two leaders, were still on cut tires. I dropped way back as soon as the green flag dropped. (Oh yeah, I started 22nd) We had a caution 2 laps in, so being near the rear of the field, I decided to come in and get rain tires. Tim Snyder and my brother, Kyle Hackenbracht, along with two crew guys from another team, joined in and changed just my right side tires, because those are the only two we had time for and they would make the biggest difference. So I drove from 28th up to finish 7th by the end of the 20 lap feature event with 4 cautions. Needless to say it was a very stressful and eventful night.

 

Chad's Past News Bytes

"Rad Chad" on a roll in Bristol
Concord, NC: March 2008~ Of course, you would like to think that since our announcement last month regarding Chad Hackenbracht as the youngest and newest driver for HLM that maybe he was adjusting and getting settled into his new role. Well, throw that thought out the window. “Rad Chad” has been representing HLM and RED Devil with championship colors! Racing this weekend at the famous Bristol Speedway in the Battle of Bristol, Chad has improved his stats with 1st, 2nd and 4th place finishes. Wow, what a statement the RED Devil car made in Bristol with over 30 cars in the class. During end of race questioning with Chad, “the car was great; I didn’t have to force anything; it was just a clean weekend of racing and winning! Thanks to HLM and RED Devil for all of your support.”

For more details on Rad Chad’s schedule check back on the HLM website as we will be providing more updates soon.  As for right now, Chad will be racing at Concord Motorsports on Friday nights and this Saturday (5th), he will be racing at South Boston Raceway in Virginia. Way to go Rad Chad ~smoking hot in the RED Devil Legends series car!

In addition~ Keep your eyes open for the RED Devil ARCA car, planning to hit the tracks mid season; as well as, the RED Devil Bandolero car making it’s debut on the tracks in the Lowe’s Motor Speedway Summer Shootout June 10th through August 12th!

"Rad Chad" on the Road to Success
Concord, NC: HL Motorsports’ Management is investing in its youngest talent, “Rad Chad”, by providing him with some crucial seat time in a Formula Champ 2000 Series Racecar. In May of this year, Chad will be gaining essential training from Skip Barber School, beginning these lessons at the infamous Road Atlanta Speedway then furthering his advancement at the Road America Track in WI. The Skip Barber School provides professional instructions on cornering & drafting techniques, racing in the rain, tire management and overall racing strategies; all invaluable skills necessary for his transition towards ARCA in the up coming 2009 season. Rodney Jockisch, VP of Competition for HLM, reports “Rad Chad is excited to get there and build on his knowledge. We expect for Chad to excel in all aspects of the training, proving to his competitors why he’s ahead of the game.”

Hackenbracht Makes His Mark...
November 25, 2007: HLM driver Chad Hackenbracht showed off his driving skills in Lanier, Ga this weekend. It was during Chad’s challenge for the lead that proved to be the end of his night. During his final pass, the leader got loose, Chad got off the gas and was lit up from behind; taking his 9th place start, fastest on the track night to a complete halt with much needed repairs to the front end. The goal for the night was not accomplished but Chad made himself known to the field. During his interview, Chad’s response to the night’s events, “Lady Luck was not with us tonight, we should have brought home the checkered flag. Well, we will get’em next time.” It was an unfortunate accident that couldn’t be avoided; however, Chad’s talent on the track was obvious and once again the talk of the pits.

HLM Driver Chad Hackenbracht Hits the Track...
Chad Hackenbract will be getting track time at the Concord Motor Speedway November 16, 2007 racing his Legend car preparing for the possible PIR show that will be raced in Orlando. Chad has shown that he is on the gas and going to the front towards the direction of the checkered flag at all times. Outside passes are his specialty. He is very good at getting up on the wheel and getting it done. He has shown that he improves every time he gets into a race car. We look forward to continuing to assist Chad with his development and look for him to compete in some full blown race cars sometime in 2008. Further updates to follow.