{"id":9299,"date":"2012-03-21T07:28:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-21T11:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/?p=9299"},"modified":"2012-03-21T07:30:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-21T11:30:04","slug":"hattori-racing-makes-its-debut-at-bristol-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/hattori-racing-makes-its-debut-at-bristol-motor-speedway\/","title":{"rendered":"Hattori Racing Makes its Debut at Bristol Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NASCAR<\/a>Bristol, TN \u2013 Hattori Racing Enterprises drivers, Sergio Pena and Brett Moffitt, finished 18th and 32nd in the Widow Wax 125 Presented by SealWrap Repair Tape on Saturday, March 17, 2012, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East inaugural event .<\/p>\n

Winchester, VA native, Sergio Pena had issues during the second practice session on Friday and scraped the wall between turns one and two. A hung throttle was the source of the accident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe throttle felt different during the first practice, the 19-year old Pena stated. \u201cThe crew looked it over during the break, made an adjustment and thought they fixed it, but when I went on the track at full speed , the cowl flexed against the air box and caused the throttle to hang wide open. \u201c
\n
\nBecause Hattori Racing fields two cars, Pena was able to draw on help from teammate, Brett Moffitt whose # 11 Toyota Camry was 2nd and 5th in both respective practices.
\n\u201cWe were decent in practice,\u201d the 19-year old Moffitt explained. \u201cWe were one of the fastest cars and felt we had a solid set-up for the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pena qualified 16th and Grimes, IA native, Brett Moffitt qualified 8th but was not satisfied, \u201cOur car was good in practice and when we did our mock run we were too tight. Dave (McCarty, crew chief) loosened it up for qualifying but it wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both HRE cars took the green flag and fought a loose condition from the start. Pena pitted for a chassis adjustment on lap 18 and lap 34 but continued to fight an ill-handling race car.
\n\u201cWe just missed it this weekend,\u201d Pena explained. \u201cBut I am so proud of my guys. They fought hard the entire race to make the car better and at the half way point they made more adjustments. That got us in position to earn the lucky dog twice and got us back on the lead lap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moffitt was not as lucky in the #11. He too fought a loose race car most of the race and was confident the team would make the right changes at the break. \u201cI just stayed close to the top-10 until the break,\u201d Moffitt said. \u201cThey guys made the changes, but were having trouble in the left front. They found a broken oil line while they were changing the tire and tried to fix it before the break was over. However, it was not something we could fix on pit road and I had to pull it behind the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moffitt ended his day at lap 69 and finished 32nd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the start to the season that we wanted,\u201d Moffitt explained. \u201cBut I have faith in my team and their abilities and know we will win some races and be there in the points at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a tough weekend,\u201d Hattori confirmed. \u201cBut I am really proud of my crew and drivers. They overcame adversity and did the best they could do. We will be looking forward to Greenville in two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

One success Hattori Racing Enterprises had this weekend was the successful launch of their NASCAR Pit Crew Program. Each race, Japanese students and\/or mechanics will get a chance to come to the United States and spend a week in Mooresville, North Carolina at the race shop with the team and attend the races and be part of the pit crew.
\nAt Bristol, Hide Masiko, a 33-year old serviceman for Ibaraki Toyopet was in attendance and worked with the crew all week and spent the weekend learning about and enjoying American stock car auto racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis season, we will have 112 students, mechanics and serviceman from Japan come to gain this unique experience, HRE Owner, Shige Hattori explained. \u201cThis is a new program with Toyota Japan and one I have every reason to believe will be a great success.\u201d<\/p>\n

HRE will be back on March 31, 2012 at Greenville-Pickens Speedway for the 2nd race on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule.<\/p>\n

[adrotate block=”3″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bristol, TN \u2013 Hattori Racing Enterprises drivers, Sergio Pena and Brett Moffitt, finished 18th and 32nd in the Widow Wax 125 Presented by SealWrap Repair Tape on Saturday, March 17, 2012, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East inaugural event . Winchester, VA native, Sergio Pena had issues during the second practice session on Friday and […]<\/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":[45,4456,14972],"tags":[15003,15002],"class_list":["post-9299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-nascar-kn-pro-series","category-touring-series-news","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-hattori-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299","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=9299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}