JULY 8, 2011
JEFF HARTMAN'S JOURNEY TO THE 2011 PA 600 SPEEDWEEK CHAMPIONSHIP

On the surface, Jeff Hartman's trek to the 2011 PA 600 Speedweek Championship appeared to be a relatively smooth ride. As is the case with many accomplishments in motorsports, though, his title winning journey had its share of bumps and potholes...

"We went to Trail-Way the week before the Speedweek opener, just to get the car dialed in, hoping that it would help us to get off to a good start at Speedweek," explained Hartman. "But it was a nightmare."

Hartman qualified for the 600cc Micro-Sprint feature on June 18, his R&D session at Trail-Way, then got tangled up with another car in the main event and flipped wildly. His potent No. 026 was badly hurt in the incident, causing a long week of late nights in the team's New Jersey shop to repair the car and prep it for the June 25 Speedweek opener at Trail-Way.

Adding insult to injury, while the Hartmans were on their way home after flipping on June 18, the truck that pulls their enclosed trailer to various race tracks all over the northeast suffered mechanical problems.

"We were thinking, 'oh my God, is this setting the tone for our Speedweek?'", said Newt Hartman, Jeff's father and former dirt Modified standout.

One week later, with the family owned racecar and truck repaired and ready for action, the Hartmans were back at Trail-Way for the first event of the six-races-in-eight-days gauntlet that make up PA 600 Speedweek.

The team's confidence was bolstered as Jeff recorded a runner-up finish to Mike Rutherford in the A-Main, and that renewed sense of optimism served them well in race two, held on Sunday, June 26 at the Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown, Pa.

Jeff started on the pole at Lincoln - earning that right by scoring more points than anyone else in the dual heat race/ passing point format used throughout the 600 Speedweek series. Brock Zearfoss jumped into the lead at the outset, but mechanical woes sidelined Zearfoss after a few laps, handing the top spot back to Hartman.

With light rain falling during the A-Main and a late race restart that set up a terrific duel with Mike Dicely, Jeff held on to win the first Speedweek feature of his career. The Flagtown, NJ ace was now leading the tour's point standings, and, with four races remaining, he'd already secured that much sought-after victory.

"That was an unexpected bonus," stated Hartman, "because I never thought our first Speedweek win would come at a big track like Lincoln. I was really looking at Linda's to get that first win, but it was really great to do it at Lincoln, and to battle with Dicely like that for the win."

A potential bump in the road to the championship occurred at Path Valley, where the Speedweek caravan rolled in for race three on Monday, June 27. Hartman was scored behind Jake Murphy in the final rundown, but both the Hartman and Murphy teams agreed that Jeff took the checkered flag in front of Murphy's No. 36. In the end, Hartman was credited with 13th, enabling him to maintain a slim lead in the Speedweek standings.

The two-day break after Path Valley allowed everyone to catch their breath and regroup, with the fourth installment of the miniseries set for Thursday, June 30, at Susquehanna Speedway Park. Hartman scored another second place finish at Susky, thereby propelling himself to a sizeable 19-point advantage over Brett Schoenly as the tour traveled to Linda's Speedway on Friday, July 1st.

A fourth-place effort at Linda's permitted Hartman to breathe a bit easier at the Speedweek finale, the big Micromania event held at Lanco's Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway on Saturday, July 2nd. He began Micromania with a healthy 21-point margin over Shoenly. The only other drivers still in contention for the Speedweek crown were Dicely and Tim Buckwalter, who came to the Clyde trailing Hartman by 25 and 28 points, respectively.

But Jeff Hartman was not going to cruise to this championship; that would have been too easy. He struggled in his first heat race at Micromania, starting ninth and finishing seventh. Round two of qualifying was better, as Jeff started and finished in the second position. In the passing point system, however, those efforts relegated him to the B-Main, where he started seventh. The top six finishers would transfer to the 50-lap A-Main.

Hartman finished fifth in the B, barely qualifying in a talent-laden field. He would roll off in 25th position, now very grateful for that nice cushion in the point chase.

Before Micromania began on Saturday, Hartman revealed his goals for the evening - and his strategy for claiming the Speedweek title. "We just need to qualify," he said, "then keep our nose clean in the feature. Realistically, it won't matter too much where we finish, as long as we make the feature and run all the laps."

Given his struggles in the preliminary races at Lanco, that (qualifying) almost didn't happen.

In the A-Main, though, Hartman followed his plan by staying out of trouble and steadily picking off the cars in front of him, one by one. As the final checkered flag of Speedweek waved over the field, Jeff Hartman crossed the stripe in tenth position, gaining 15 spots during the frantic 50-laps of side by side and three wide competition. He captured the 2011 PA 600 Speedweek Championship by 21 points over Buckwalter, who finished third in the Micromania A-Main.

"This is hard," smiled an obviously relieved Newt Hartman, who was every bit the proud father...and deservedly so. "People don't realize how much work goes into this deal," was his assessment of the effort involved with preparing for and running all of the Speedweek events. "We finished third in last year's Speedweek standings, and I didn't think we'd be able to match that this year, much less win the whole thing. We really just wanted to get a Speedweek (feature) win this year, and we got that out of the way early. Then we were leading the points, and that puts the pressure on, but we had to go for it. We're not that good on the banked tracks, like Path Valley and here (Lanco), and that almost bit us tonight."

Jeff agreed with his dad, noting that winning the 600 Speedweek title is a big deal. "To do this, with the caliber of drivers who compete at each of the Speedweek races...it feels great," he said, looking tired, happy, proud, and relieved all at the same time around midnight on Saturday, as he accepted the Champion's paycheck from one of the Speedweek organizers, Trip Kone.

The long, difficult journey had ended for another year. And Jeff Hartman followed that winding road to a championship.

Story by: BARRY ANGSTADT