Slump No More – Robbins Back In Victory Lane At Opp
Young Driver Takes Second Win In 2007 Season
Hunter Robbins started the 2007 season with a smile. In his first five races of the season, Robbins had four top-10 finishes, including a win at Five Flags Speedway (FL) in April and a near win in the annual Rattler at South Alabama Speedway. The young driver proved to the competition he was a contender every race he entered, but the Summer hasn’t produced the finishes he wanted. Flat tires, mechanical woes and getting caught up in others’ incidents on the track stripped Robbins of great finishes and some pride.
That all changed Saturday at South Alabama (Opp, AL) when Robbins shook the bad luck to win the VIPER Series Pro Late Model race, his second victory of the 2007 racing season.
Robbins made a motor change to his Late Model to enter the Pro Late Model division and was quick in practice and qualifying.
“We wanted to get some more time at Opp,” said Robbins. “We put our crate motor in and went down there and we had a good run. We ended up qualifying sixth, but after the invert we started third. That was pretty good for us.”
Throughout the race, Robbins stayed patiently aggressive, waiting for the right time to make the move for the victory.
“We ran second pretty much the whole race,” explained Robbins. “I felt my car was faster than him. It just took a couple laps for my car to come in. A couple times we almost had the leader passed and the caution would come out.
“Right there at the end with three or four to go we were around a lot of lapped cars. On one lap I saw an opening and stuck my nose in the middle. I already committed to the hole and wasn’t going to back out. We touched a little bit, and I hated to get into him, but we came out with the lead. We led the final two laps and got the win.”
The victory not only was a boost to Robbins, but to his whole crew. After a few months of race wins slipping out of their hands, they finally shook the late-race bad luck to score the win.
“It is going to really boost the whole Victory Circle Communications team,” said Robbins. “We have kind of had our heads hung low over the last month or so. We just couldn’t shake the bad luck. I have to thank my crew chief David Ray and all the crew members for sticking with it and keeping the faith. It looks like we have finally turned it around and we will be able to start winning more races and finishing in the top five.”
With the added enthusiasm of his second victory, Robbins is ready for his next race, the site of his first victory of the season.
“I can’t wait to go back to Five Flags Speedway. I believe we are going to have a really good car. We have always had a good car there and everything is going our way right now. If we qualify well we will run good, and hopefully get another win there.”
The next race for Robbins will come Saturday, August 31st at Five Flags Speedway as part of the Blizzard Series.
