LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The grandson of American Sprint Car Series founder Emmett Hahn drove to the biggest victory of his career at the very track where it all began on Saturday night.
Driving the familiar yellow-and-blue No. 52, Blake Hahn powered around polesitter Howard Moore on lap 13 and never looked back en route to winning the 31st annual Short Track Nationals at I-30 Speedway.
The 23-year-old mastered both the long and short runs at the high-banked, quarter-mile clay bullring, withstanding two restarts during the second half of the 41-lap feature before banking a $10,041 payday.
Hahn was so overcome with emotion at winning the crown-jewel event that he performed two sets of victory burnouts and climbed atop the wing before ever visiting the scales to confirm that he’d met the minimum weight requirement for the feature.
Once that detour was complete, Hahn was able to reflect on a moment that he called “completely surreal.”
“I can’t put what this win means into words. It’s actually unbelievable,” said Hahn. “We’ve had a really fast race car over the last year or so, but haven’t had the results to show for it. … We won one race earlier in the season, but other than that it was all seconds and thirds and no victories until tonight.
“Coming out and doing this … any time we can come out to Little Rock and race inside the top five, it’s special, but to win against this kind of competition is beyond what I ever expected,” Hahn added. “We had our work cut out for us, but we were so strong as the runs wore on. It just took putting it together.”
After winning the six-lap Mike Pack Building Dash to earn the pole for the feature, Moore led the field of 21 to the green flag and quickly opened up a five car-length gap over Hahn off the initial start.
Quicky, however, Hahn began to reel in the leader as his car came in. Hahn chopped a half-straightaway lead down into mere car lengths by the 10th round, knocking on the back bumper of Moore’s machine as he looked low, and then high in an effort to pounce.
It took two laps, but Hahn finally made his move with an inside slice into turn one. Though Moore tried to cut back underneath on the other end, Hahn was not to be denied and officially led lap 13 before pulling out to a comfortable margin.
Entering traffic around the lap 20 benchmark, Hahn was able to cut through the slower cars he encountered with ease, but the race’s first caution flag waved one lap past the halfway point and set Moore back up on Hahn’s bumper for a critical restart.
Green conditions resumed with 19 to go and saw Hahn escape unchallenged, while Tim Crawley posed a threat to Moore’s runner-up position before Crawley faded out of contention with a mechanical issue.
The night’s final slowdown came with 11 laps remaining, when Chris Martin’s No. 44 car flew off the banking in turns one and two to bring out a red-flag stoppage. Martin was uninjured and able to resume, while Hahn had to deal with one final restart before staking his claim on victory lane.
While Hahn’s place was clear when the green waved for the final time, Friday night winner Sam Hafertepe Jr. was the man on the move. Hafertepe powered from fourth to second in a lap and a half following the restart, then waged a thrilling battle with Moore for runner-up honors inside of the final 10 laps.
Hafertepe finally cleared Moore with five to go, but simply didn’t have enough time to track down Hahn.
“Track position was everything tonight, with the way the track was racing and how they changed the conditions up,” noted Hafertepe. “It came to us in the last 10 or 15 laps, but it was too little, too late. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t won this race and kind of heartbreaking to have it end with us so strong, but we’ll take a second-place finish and see what we can do the rest of the season.”
Moore completed the podium and secured his first ASCS Mid-South Region championship in the process.
“Blake was just better than all of us tonight. He just snuck by me and then had us all covered,” said Moore. “I found a little moisture off turn two, but could never get a run to be able to challenge him.
“The championship means a lot, though. It’s pretty cool and something we’ve worked really hard for.”
Seth Bergman came out of a B-Main, charging from 14th to finish fourth, while Joe B. Miller was fifth.
Jordon Mallett, Harli White, Skylar Gee, Cody Gardner and Canadian Dylan Westbrook were the balance of the top 10.
Saturday night’s feature ran 41 laps and paid $10,041-to-win in memory of the late Jason Johnson, who passed away in June following a crash in a World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series event.
Johnson’s father also paced the feature field in a replica of Johnson’s 2006 STN-winning mount.
The finish:
Blake Hahn, Sam Hafertepe Jr., Howard Moore, Seth Bergman, Joe B. Miller, Jordon Mallett, Harli White, Skylar Gee, Cody Gardner, Dylan Westbrook, Johnny Herrera, Tim Crawley, John Carney II, Carson Short, Marshall Skinner, Morgan Turpen, Koty Adams, Chris Martin, Tony Bruce Jr., Ernie Ainsworth, Zach Pringle.
