Josh Hamner Comes Back Home to Chase Gulf
Coast, Blizzard and Mobile SLM Championships
2008 Blizzard Champion’s Bid To Bring Kyle Busch Motorsports Another Title Starts This Week
In 2009, Josh Hamner spread his racing wings and got the opportunity to compete, and win, in the ASA Late Model Challenge Series. The series raced at tracks from North Carolina to Wisconsin, which gave Hamner few chances to race near his Alabama home.
There is plenty of great short track racing in the deep south, but two of the places that Hamner missed the most were the tracks that make up the Gulf Coast Championship series for Super Late Models – Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida and Mobile International Speedway in Alabama.
So when Hamner’s ASA opportunities dried up for the 2010 season, another exciting door opened for the young race to run those events close to home. Hamner will contest for the Gulf Coast championship, as well as in the Blizzard Series at Five Flags and the Miller Lite Super Late Model Series at Mobile, this year for the #51 Super Late Model team of Kyle Busch Motorsports.
“Everyone knows that we went ASA (Late Model) racing last year and doing a traveling deal like that takes a lot of effort to go and be competitive, so I didn’t get to run at Pensacola and Mobile as much as I would have liked to,” said Hamner. “Those are my homes away from home.”
Hamner’s Gulf Coast season will start this week, as he races in the Blizzard Series opener at Five Flags on Friday night and in the Miller Lite Series opener at Mobile on Saturday night. Hamner, the 2008 Blizzard Series champion, believes his new opportunity is one in which he is capable of winning the championship at each track as well as the overall Gulf Coast title.
“I’ve got a great opportunity that Kyle has given me with his people and his equipment. I’m really looking forward to working with Chris Gabehart and Boss Suss and all of those guys. They are in it 100-percent and they’re there to win. We’re going after the Gulf Coast Sweep with a Pensacola championship, a Mobile championship and the Gulf Coast Championship. That’s what we are after and I really think that we have a really good shot at doing that.
“We just need to have Lady Luck on our side and have a few things go our way. Our cars are going to be good and I have a lot of laps at those tracks, so I think it will be a pretty good package that we’ll have.”
Josh Hamner will kick off his Gulf Coast Championship title bid on Friday, April 9th at the Five Flags Speedway for a 100-lap event. On the following night, he will run the 100-lapper over at the Mobile International Speedway on Saturday, April 10th.
The Gulf Coast Series and the Blizzard Super Late Model Series lead up to the 43rd Annual Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway on December 5th. The winner of the Blizzard Series gets an automatic starting spot in the 300-lap Super Late Model race.
