By Ben Shelton – Seaford, Delaware (02/05/13) After a 2012 season that was plagued by unbelievably bad luck and struggles Austin Hubbard and Hubbard Motorsports are focused on a successful 2013 season.
“From hauler problems to eight motor failures to just about everything imaginable going wrong, I’m just glad to put 2012 in my rearview mirror,” the charismatic Hubbard comments. “Our plans for last year came together at the last minute, and I feel like we spent the whole season playing catch up. This year we are much more prepared, which gives us a lot of confidence and excitement as we prepare to head to Georgia and Florida later this week to get Speedweeks 2013 underway.”
Austin started the 2012 season with the intent of competing for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) Rookie of the Year title, but an exuberant number of equipment failures and other woes forced the team to withdraw from the tour by mid-season. For 2013 Hubbard plans to make a full-time return to the LOLMDS tour.
Hubbard notes, “I don’t like not following through with anything that I set out to do, but last year we had to head home to regroup. This year I’m really excited to take on the full Lucas Oil tour again. There are a lot of great competitors and staff with Lucas Oil, and we look forward to burning up the highways with them again. Hopefully we will be able to find success on a more frequent basis this season.”
Changes have been taking part on a wholesale basis at Hubbard Motorsports over the off-season. New crew members and even a chassis change have taken part within the team. Austin will be piloting his familiar #11 entries with Cornett Racing Engines once again, but he has made the change to Mastersbilt Chassis by Huey. The chassis are manufactured by racing veteran Huey Wilcox. Changes within the team include veteran racer and fabricator, Andy Anderson, joining the team as crew chief with Chris Edwardson, who joined the team last year, back on board as well.
“Sometimes you have to reshuffle the deck to get to where you need to be, and we’ve made some pretty big changes with the team,” says Hubbard. “We are really excited about making the move to Mastersbilt Chassis. Huey Wilcox is a legend in racing, and he’s actually going to Georgia and Florida with us to get the new cars dialed in. The new chassis along with the knowledge that Andy (Anderson) brings to the team really represents an exciting new start for us in 2013.”
Hubbard concludes by saying “I can only do this because of great supporters such as Trinity Transport, Salisbury Door and Hardware, Keyser Manufacturing, Sunoco Fuel, and Schaeffer Oil. The support from these great companies helps a lot, but I’m definitely looking to add more sponsors. It takes a lot of resources to follow a national tour like Lucas Oil, and we have several spots available on the car for sponsors, so hopefully we can line some more marketing partners out for this season.”
Austin plans to enter nine events during Georgia/Florida Speedweeks including a pair of World of Outlaws Late Model events at Screven Motor Speedway (Sylvania, Georgia), six Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (LOLMDS) events at East Bay Raceway Park (Gibsonton, Florida), and a final Sunday night event at Bubba Raceway Park (Ocala, Florida). For more information on the events, please visit www.WoOLMS.com and www.LucasDirt.com .
Austin Hubbard would like to thank their principal and associate sponsors including Trinity Transport, Salisbury Door and Hardware, Keyser Manufacturing, Mastersbilt by Huey, Cornett Racing Engines, Integra Shocks and Springs, Sunoco Race Fuels, Schaefer Oil, Team Peterson Fluid Systems, Ernie D’s Enterprises, Three Wide Clothing, ASI Wear, Jones Racing Products, WearWide.com, and MSR Mafia Marketing Services.
Please keep your browsers locked to www.AustinHubbard.com for the latest team news and information.