- Race Coverage
- Meet David Hance
Hance's business savvy paying off at Shakedown at E-Town
He had no shame, running around Old Bridge Township Raceway Park wearing that goofy hat.
It's a welder's-style cap, Dave Hance explained. Honestly, though, it looked like a cross between a football helmet Knute Rockne would've worn and some silly bonnet available only on the carnival midway, with its printed header flames licking his head.
But hey -- this was the fifth annual Shakedown at E-Town, the one-day Outlaw doorslammer spectacle that Hance established and organized. It was the perfect time to think out of the box, to be bold, to take calculated risks. If Hance hadn't dared to dream and dreamed of daring, the racing rigs would not have rolled by the dozens through the Pension Road gates in the cold blackness under an orange sliver of moonlight. Drivers wouldn't be coming up in force from Georgia and Maryland or over from Illinois and Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania or down from Connecticut and New York. Fans wouldn't flock to Raceway Park like it was the National Hot Rod Association's Summernationals.
The fact is that Dave Hance is always wearing his thinking cap, always analyzing a fresh approach to this heads-up drag-racing event that just this year added a fourth 16-car field and posted $60,000 in earnings. For the second straight year, the event (presented by Scotty's Racing Technology in memory of Adam Landolfi) sold more than 100 tech cards, the only "entry fee" teams must pay.
With a stout crowd of about 5,000 watching, The Shakedown at E-Town unquestionably had hit its stride Sunday, Oct. 14. John Nobile (Pro Outlaw), Tim Lynch (Outlaw 10.5), "Mustang Mike" Modeste (Drag Radial), and Bill Lutz (Heavy Street) stood together in the winners circle.