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Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
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Haggenbottom Finishes Ninth
In 2019 USAC Silver Crown Series
LEVITTOWN, Pa., Oct. 7 — Mike Haggenbottom of Levittown, Pa. not only achieved his goal of competing in all the USAC Silver Crown races in 2019, but he earned his first top-five finish in the national sanctioning body’s top division and improved his finishing position in the final point standings for the year by two positions.
Haggenbottom, one of only a handful of drivers based in the Eastern United States to tackle USAC’s premier division, finished 11th in the driver standings during his rookie season last year and ninth for the 2019 season, which recently concluded.
His brother and car owner, John Haggenbottom of Bristol, Pa., finished eighth in the owner point standings for the 2019 season, which consisted of 10 events.
What’s more, the Haggenbottom Racing No. 24 got a top-five finish in the race closest to its home base, as Haggenbottom finished fourth in the 100-lapper at Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pa. on June 14.
“The race results don’t really show how far we came this year,” Haggenbottom said. “This year we’d at least seen most of the tracks we were racing on before, which helped. I think our asphalt program really turned the corner during the last few pavement races too.”
The USAC Silver Crown series is unique because it requires prowess on both asphalt and dirt tracks.
“Williams Grove was definitely the highlight of our year on the dirt, but I think the September race at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis went well for us as far as our blacktop program goes,” Haggenbottom explained. “It was a little bit of everything that makes me say that. We put another car together, and then between Andy Belmont and Gene Nead tuning our car, I felt more comfortable there than I did in the past. We adjusted our shock program, and definitely made some strides.”
Belmont is a well-known retired stock car driver and team owner. He and his business, Belmont’s Garage of Langhorne, Pa., are longtime, enthusiastic supporters of Haggenbottom.
Nead used to be a NASCAR crew chief and now runs the NASCAR program for Brembo S.p.A, an Italian company that is a world leader in high-performance brakes. Haggenbottom has known him since 1986 when Haggenbottom worked for Frankie Kerr, another veteran NASCAR crew chief and a member of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
In addition to owning his own landscaping business Haggenbottom works for ASi Racewear of Patchogue, N.Y., which produced some of Brembo’s racing caps this year in a deal that came about last December during business-to-business networking at the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) Show in Indianapolis. The entire relationship underscores how small a world racing can be.
Marketing and networking are the foundation of most successful businesses and racing teams, including Haggenbottom’s. In addition to Belmont Garage, ASi Racewear and Brembo Brakes, Haggenbottom’s team advertises Valley Forge, Inc. of King of Prussia, Pa.; Robison Racing Products of Dublin, Pa.; Speed Equipment Corp. (SEC) of Bensalem, Pa.; Kashady Automation of Bensalem, Pa.; Mershon Concrete of Bordentown, N.J.; Hooker Harness of Freeport, Ill.; PME Engines of Mooresville, N.C., and WDB Landscaping of Morrisville, Pa.
All of those companies followed Haggenbottom’s progress in 2019 closely through the media and the live-streaming telecasts by FloRacing.com.
“We had an ignition problem at Lucas Oil Raceway and a crash at Du Quoin that didn’t help, but we achieved our goal of running all the races, and overall as a team we were a lot better this year,” Haggenbottom said. “We want to thank the companies and individuals that supported our team; we couldn’t do it without them.”
The Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Du Quoin, Ill. was one of Haggenbottom’s best races of 2018, as he placed 11th and won the KSE Hard Charger Award there. But this Sept. 1 Du Quoin was not kind to him, as he hit the wall and flipped in Turn 2 on lap six of the 100 lapper. Luckily he wasn’t hurt.
“That used up our inventory of parts, and took us out of a good top seventh or eighth-place finish in the points,” he noted. “However, all in all I think we did pretty well for all the travel we had to do.”
Haggenbottom feels he got better at tire management this season too. “These races are so much longer than a sprint car race,” said the former United Racing Club champion and multi-time RaceSaver sprint car champion. “Learning to adjust to and run a full 100 miles is very different than a 25- or 30-lap sprint car feature.”
He added that the winningest driver in USAC Silver Crown history, five-time and reigning champion Kody Swanson of Nolen Racing, “really helped us with our asphalt program.
“He helped with set-up and driving tips,” Haggenbottom said. “He babysat us. We could go to him with any questions, which we really appreciated.”
Swanson ran into his own challenges at Du Quoin when his team experienced engine problems. He ended up borrowing Patrick Lawson’s car for that race to salvage some points, which helped him win the drivers’ championship.
“I felt really bad that we couldn’t help him at Du Quoin,” Haggenbottom added. “We brought along a spare motor so his team could use it if they needed it at Springfield and Eldora.”
Haggenbottom Racing used three cars for the 2019 campaign: a Maxim chassis for the dirt tracks and a Stealth and a Beast for the asphalt tracks. The asphalt cars’ engines are prepared by PME Engines. The dirt car’s engine is a Rider out of Mechanicsburg, Pa.
Haggenbottom won several contingency awards during 2019. He earned the KSE Racing Products Hard-Charger Award June 14 at Williams Grove Speedway after he qualified 15th and finished fourth.
He snagged the Wilwood Brakes award at Memphis International Raceway in Millington, Tenn. at the season opener in March; at the Hoosier Hundred at the Indiana State Fairgrounds on May 23; at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg, Ind. on May 24, and at Madison International Speedway in Oregon, Wis. on June 28.
For more information follow “Mike Haggenbottom Racing” on Facebook and @MHaggenbottom on Twitter. USAC’s website is at usacracing.com.
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