CLAREMONT, N.H. – At the end of a long day of practice at Thunder Road International Speedbowl two weeks ago, Luke Hinkley was noticeably frustrated.
The Claremont, N.H., driver had thrown everything he could think of at his No. 31 R.E. Hinkley Oil Dodge Charger to no avail. Nothing was making the car circle the peculiar quarter-mile any more efficiently. If Hinkley had a kitchen sink at his disposal, he probably would have thrown that at the ill-tempered car, too.
So, Hinkley made a phone call across the Green Mountains to Mitch Green, and in the middle of the night, Green offered up some advice. That advice turned Hinkley's team around 180 degrees – turning the No. 31 from a car that simply wouldn't go to one that most of the other ACT Late Model Tour teams couldn't keep up with when practice resumed the next morning.
“The knowledge level up there (at Crazy Horse Racing) is huge for us, especially now with this ACT Tour deal,” said Hinkley, 29, in his first full ACT season. “Look at that race at Thunder Road. We were 35th or 37th in practice all day on Saturday, and I called Mitch that night him and told him I'd done everything I could think of to do to it."