![\"Stafford\"](\"\/images\/stafford.jpg\")
\n(Stafford Springs, CT)—Like most teams during the off-season, the #41
\nTicketNetwork.com Late Model team of J.J. Hill has been hard at work
\npreparing for the 2012 Late Model season at Stafford. The team has been
\npreparing a brand new Late Model for the 2012 season, which has Hill excited
\nabout his prospects for the upcoming season, where he is looking to be a
\nchampionship contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started from the ground up putting a new car together,\u201d said Hill. \u201cWe\u2019
\nve been running some ancient equipment, so it\u2019s nice to be building a new
\ncar from the ground up. The car has everything we want in it, so we\u2019re very
\nexcited about the season.\u201d
\n
\nAfter finishing no higher than 26th in the Late Model points standings for
\nthe first 4 years of his career, Hill fortunes took a turn for the better
\nbeginning with the 2009 season. He finished 7th in the points standings to
\nearn Most Improved Driver honors, and he followed that up with his first
\nvictory in the prestigious Late Model 100 in 2010. Last season saw Hill
\ngrab his second career feature victory and he also cracked the top-5 in the
\npoints standings for the first time. With a new car and a great crew, he is
\nlooking to continue the upward trend and be a contender for the track
\nchampionship this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that I\u2019m going into my 8th season,\u201d said Hill. We
\nreally struggled a lot for the first four years, but we\u2019ve slowly changed
\nthe face of the crew, and when you get the right people around you, better
\nthings start to happen and we\u2019ve had some success the last couple of years.
\nThe championship is definitely on our minds. We\u2019re trying to win races
\nevery time we come to the track, and I feel like that if we can do what we
\ndo every week, then we can be one of the contenders this year. We\u2019ve
\ndefinitely talked about it in the shop and part of the plan this year is to
\nrun for points.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the 2009 season may have been Hill\u2019s breakout season, he still feels
\nlike he hasn\u2019t quite reached his full potential and he is primed for a
\nbreak-through year in Stafford\u2019s Late Model division this season.
\n\u201cWe were up front for a lot of races last year, we just had small stuff
\nhappen that kept us from getting the results that I would consider to be a
\nbreakout season,\u201d said Hill. \u201cI think that if we can take a couple of small
\nsteps forward this year, we can achieve breakout results. I feel like we
\nshowed people that we\u2019re there, we just have to take that next step
\n forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the new car that the TicketNetwork team has put together, Hill
\nwill have his car from last season as a backup just in case a backup car
\nwould be needed during the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling to have a solid backup car,\u201d said Hill. \u201cKnowing that
\nthis is a car that we have won twice with before and that it\u2019s a good top-5
\ncar is a good feeling. Look at a guy like Tom Butler. Last year he had to
\nrun in another car for part of the season and he did pretty well in that
\ncar, so it\u2019s comforting for us to know we have that backup car if we should
\nneed it during the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a new car, a solid backup car, and a good team, Hill seems to have all
\nthe piece of the puzzle in place to become a weekly contender as well as a
\nchampionship contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really excited about the season, we can\u2019t wait to get started,\u201d said
\nHill. \u201cWe feel like we have a good plan to start off with on the new car,
\nand we have plenty of time to get things ready if we\u2019re not there right
\naway. I have a great crew with Rob Russell, Billy Johnson, Alex Salony,
\nR.J. Surdell, Josh Zwinklestein, Eric Drew, Steve Spallacci, Dave McGuire,
\nand Neil Jewl, and we have a great sponsor in TicketNetwork.com. It\u2019s great
\nto have some financial support and I can\u2019t thank TicketNetwork.com enough
\nfor all of their support. I also have to thank my Mom the car owner, my
\nDad, Lifecare Family Chiropractic, and Gold & Diamond Exchange for all of
\ntheir support as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hill and the Late Model division will kick off the 2012 season with the 41st
\nAnnual CARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler on April 27-29. Tickets for the
\nCARQUEST Tech-Net Spring Sizzler are available and on sale now through the
\nSMS Box Office. Tickets are priced at $38.50 for adult general admission
\ntickets, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and children ages 5 and under are
\nadmitted free of charge when accompanied by an adult. Reserved seating will
\nbe priced at $42.00 for all ages. All ticket prices include 10% CT
\nAdmission Tax. As always, Stafford Motor Speedway offers free parking with
\novernight parking available.<\/p>\n
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(Stafford Springs, CT)—Like most teams during the off-season, the #41 TicketNetwork.com Late Model team of J.J. Hill has been hard at work preparing for the 2012 Late Model season at Stafford. The team has been preparing a brand new Late Model for the 2012 season, which has Hill excited about his prospects for the upcoming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[196,126,197],"tags":[6795],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connecticut","category-new-england","category-stafford-connecticut","tag-stafford-motor-speedway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}