INNISFIL, ON- ‘The Hillsdale Hurricane’ Thayne Hallyburton continued his impressive rise through the Sunset Ltd. Late Model division on June 14th, recovering from an early-race incident to lodge a 7th place finish in an impressive 25-car field.
Hallyburton, a multi-time Barrie Speedway feature winner, is competing fulltime at Sunset for the first time in his career, piloting a 2014 Port City by Baker chassis.
“We knew coming into Sunset, that it was going to be a process to come up to speed with some of these guys”, remarked Hallyburton. “The fact that we’ve been able to improve virtually every night this season is a huge boost to our confidence. It really speaks to the amount of effort and number of hours my guys put in through the week. This team won’t rest until we’re contending for wins”
The Hillsdale, ON driver appeared ready for a long night, after early-race contact spun the Hillsdale Service Centre No. 14 into the turn-4 grass, sending Hallyburton to the 22nd position.
“Once you restart in 22nd, there’s nowhere to go but up”, laughed Hallyburton. “We knew we had our work cut out for us at that point, but when you have to come from the rear, all you can do is grab a handful of wheel and go to work. Which is exactly what we did”
From lap-25 on, Hallyburton crafted a masterful performance, cutting through the field to reach the top-10 in the race’s dying stages.
“I’m happy we were able to showcase a glimpse of what this car’s truly capable of, tonight”, said Hallyburton. “This is all a process. Acclimating ourselves to a new chassis and a new speedway was never going to be an overnight fix. We’re right on schedule. Opening our season with 3 top-10s in the first half is fantastic and I can’t wait to turn things up and continue to chase our first Sunset win”
Sunset Speedway’s Ltd. Late Model division will not return to action until July 5th, though Hallyburton has confirmed his team will seek action at other facilities throughout the province to stay sharp. To keeb tabs on where Thayne will compete next, be sure to follow him on Twitter @THallyburton.
Thayne Hallyburton’s 2014 campaign is made possible thanks to Hillsdale Service Centre and Thompson Enterprises. Additional packages are still available.
–30–
By Spencer Lewis (@itsspencerlewis)
Discussion about this post