2007

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October 6th,

This would be Matthew's last race in his King Taco Super Truck. It would also be his last race to try to win the points championship.

Matthew's truck was awesome in practice. Matthew would post the fastest times in both the 1st and 2nd practice sessions. Matthew ended up 2nd in qualifying after another driver picked up more than a half second from his practice times to beat Matthew by less than two hundredths of a second.

Unfortunately for Matthew, the fast qualifier rolled a 6 for the invert which put Pat Mintey on the outside of the front row as he qualified 6th with the same time as the 5th place qualifier but because Pat is the point leader they moved him to the 5th place qualifier. Matthew would have his work cut out because he needed to finish at least 3 positions ahead of Pat to win the championship. On the start of the main event, Pat got the lead. Matthew jumped to 3rd on the first lap but the truck went tight on him and he could never mount a charge for the lead.

Matthew would finish the race in 3rd. Pat won, giving him the championship. It was Pat's 2nd win of the season. Congratulations to the #35 racing team, Pat Mintey Jr., his father Pat Sr., Dan and Tom for a great season. It was a long, hard fought battle with Pat all season.

The one crash Matthew had in the 5th race of the season was his only non top 5 race of the season. It proved to be the reason for Matthew's 3rd straight 2nd place finish in the championship in the last 3 years. Matthew can hold his head high though. With Matthew's 7 wins (half of the seasons races), and 13 top 5 finishes it was a great year. Matthew's winning truck has been sold. He's moving up. The Matthew Hicks Racing Team has purchased a car to race next season at Irwindale Speedway. We will periodically post information about next year's racing as we move along.

To all of Matthew's fans, we hope you enjoyed watching Matthew race and thank you for standing by him. It was a fun season for us too!

To Lyle Hunter Tax Service, Oceanside Transmission, Dalenzie Torque Converters and J & M Auto Body, thank you for your continuing support with the race truck in 2007. To D & P Motorsports, thank you for your support of the Legends car.

To any new potential sponsors for the 2008 season, feel free to send us an email at matt@matthewhicksracing.com.

September 22nd,

The Matthew Hicks Racing Team took their King Taco Super Truck back to Irwindale Speedway with hopes of making it two in a row and seven wins for the season. We accomplished that and more. Matthew also set fast time again. There was only one practice because of the rain. Once the rain stopped we finally got to qualify. After Matthew set fast time, he pulled the number two pea which meant he would start on the outside of row one.

Matthew got a good jump in the main event and pulled away by several truck lengths. It wouldn't last. Point leader Pat Mintey closed in on Matthew fast after pole sitter and second fast qualifier Connor Cantrell hit the wall with his front end. Matthew and Mintey ended up running side by side for more than twenty laps. Matthew never was able to shake Pat the entire race. When the checkers flew, Matthew and Pat were side by side with Matthew narrowly winning by the slim margin of .08 of a second. It was Matthew's seventh win of the season and leaves him just 12 points behind Pat with one race to go. That race will be October 6th and it is a double points race. Matthew will need to finish 3 or more positions ahead of Pat to win the championship.

Hope to see you again October 6th at Irwindale Speedway. Thanks for stopping by.

September 8th,

In the first practice session Matthew posted the 2nd fastest time and he said the truck was good. In the second practice session Matthew was 3rd fastest. Matthew qualified 3rd with a good lap time of 19.92. Irwindale Speedway decided the invert would be six. That meant Matthew would start 4th in the main event.

Irwindale decided all classes would have trophy dashes. It was a four truck dash for four laps. Matthew started 2nd and took the lead early and cruised to the win. Next up was the main event.

Matthew got a good start and waited for an opening to move forward. Once Matthew got by former two-time Winston West champion and Craftsman Truck Series competitor Bill Sedgwick, it took him about eight laps to take the lead. It was no easy race from there. Matthew had to fight off Dana Higgins and Connor Cantrell the whole race. Because Matthew's truck was a little loose he couldn't get much of a lead. Each time Matthew would get a small lead, the yellow flag would come out for a spin or crash. That would bring the second place truck right on Matthew's bumper.

Matthew got decent restarts and was able to maintain the lead the rest of the race. Matthew won his six race of the season and ran the fastest lap of the race. Matthew also closed the point lead for the championship to only 14 points with two races remaining in the season. Thanks for stopping by and we hope to see you at Irwindale Speedway soon.

August 25th,

We headed back to Irwindale Speedway after four straight wins. The day started off great with Matthew posting the 3rd fastest time in the 1st practice session. Matthew was on top of the board after the 2nd practice session. Matthew then went out and qualified 1st. He then pulled the highest number pea for the invert. An eight. That would mean Matthew would start 8th for the main event. It would also put Pat Mintey whom Matthew is chasing for the points championship on the outside of the front row as Pat could only qualify 7th. It was a break for Pat for sure.

Matthew started the main event knowing he would have to be patient and wait for openings to start his move forward. Unfortunately, the breaks were few and far between. Matthew watched all the trucks in front of him run side by side for most of the race. Matthew didn't want to go three-wide. He waited for some of the trucks in front of him to make small mistakes which would open the door to move forward. Lap by lap went by and finally some of the trucks started getting loose. Each time Matthew had an opportunity to gain a spot he did.

In the end, Matthew was only able to make it to 4th place because he simply ran out of laps. It wasn't a bad night of racing and he knows he can't win them all. Pat finished one spot ahead of Matthew so he lost only 2 points to him. Matthew was happy the truck came home in one piece and he can try for another win on September 8th in the Super Truck. There are still three races to go in the championship for the Super Trucks with the last race being a double points race.

Matthew may race on September 1st in his Legends car. Thanks for stopping by and we hope to see you at Irwindale Speedway soon.

August 11th,

The Matthew Hicks Racing Team took their King Taco Super Truck back to Irwindale Speedway with hopes to make it four wins in a row.

Matthew said the truck was good in the first practice session after posting the 2nd fastest time. In the second practice session, Matthew was 3rd but stated the truck had more than he showed. He didn't want anything changed on the truck.

Matthew improved his time from practice and qualified 19.89 but that put him only 3rd fastest as rookie Conner Cantrell was the fast qualifier with a 19.86. Conner had a fast truck all day after installing a brand new Lizzard racing engine. Conner pulled a number 3 pea which put Matthew on the pole for the 2nd straight race.

For the 2nd straight race, Matthew lead all 40 laps and captured his 4th straight King Taco Super Truck race in a row and 5th overall race win. He also ran the fastest lap of the night with a 19.85. The win also shaved another 8 points off the championship lead. Matthew now sits only 20 points behind championship leader Pat Mintey.

We'll be off next week and return to Irwindale Speedway on August 25th. Hope to see you there.

July 28th,

The Matthew Hicks Racing Team took their King Taco Super Truck back to Irwindale Speedway with hopes to make it three wins in a row. Matthew and his crew (his entire family) didn't disappoint. Matthew was fast in the first practice posting the 3rd fastest time. He was the fastest in the second session.

Matthew qualified faster than he ran all day but ended up only qualifying 4th, still only .05 of a second off the fast time. The spin of the invert wheel would put him on the pole for the main event as the 5th fast qualifier was disqualified.

Matthew wasted no time in the main event gaining at least a truck length lead every lap. By the time the first caution came out, he had a 20 truck length lead on 2nd place and was in cruise control. There were 4 yellow flags total but Matthew never gave up the lead. He lead all 40 laps in route to his third straight King Taco Super Truck win. After the race was over the excitement didn't end. A power steering line on Matthew's truck broke just as the race ended and caught his truck on fire. He had to be towed to the tech area. Matthew said after the race, he lost his power steering with about 12 laps to go in the race.

The win was Matthew's 4th of the year and his 20th career win in just his 4th season of racing. Matthew knocked another 10 points out of Pat Mintey's point lead. The lead is down to 28 points with 5 races to go in the season.

We'll take a week off then get ready for the next King Taco Super Truck race at Irwindale Speedway. Hope to see you there.

July 21st,

We took both the Legends car and the King Taco Super Truck to Irwindale Speedway for the weekend races. The Truck was fast all day. We made no changes to the Truck after setting it up at home and it paid off. The Legend car was another story.

The Legend car had a push all day. We kept working on it but it got worse each practice and qualifying was a mess. Matthew qualified the Legends 11th! After qualifying, Matthew drove his Legends car over to his Truck which was ready to qualify and he wasn't very happy at all. We told Matthew to forget about the Legends car and concentrate on the Truck. He did. He went out in the last group and set fast time. He spun the invert wheel and it landed on the number nine. Now he had his work cut out for him in both the Legend car and Truck.

The Truck race was the first main event. Matthew started 9th and worked his way patiently up through the field. He finally was able to take the lead on lap 35. He ran his fastest lap on lap 39. Two late yellow flags brought the Trucks back together but they never were able to challenge Matthew for the lead. Matthew won his third Truck race of the season and second in a row.

Next came the Legends race. Matthew started 11th. He worked his way through the field until he got to 5th place. All the cars in front of him were running the same times so Matthew never was able to challenge for the lead. The four cars in front of him were all main event winners from this year. All good drivers with good cars. The bad qualifying effort hurt Matthew in this race which was a Regional Qualifier for Nationals to be held later this year in Las Vegas.

See you next week at Irwindale for another King Taco Super Truck race.

June 23rd,

This was a good weekend for the Matthew Hicks Racing Team. Matthew's Grandmother Carol, Aunt Colleen and his Sponsor Lyle Hunter got a chance to come up to Irwindale Speedway to watch Matthew win his second race of the season.

The truck was a little tight in the first practice session but Matthew was still the fastest truck. We changed tires for the second practice session and again he was the fastest truck. He bettered his practice times but ended up second in qualifying.

Matthew would start third in the main event. He wasted no time moving past the pole sitter who fell to second early on. Matthew ran behind points leader Pat Mintey Jr. for about twenty laps before he would make his move for the lead. After Matthew took the lead he never looked back. He was about 12 - 15 trucks ahead of Pat until the first and only caution came out for the fast qualifier who's motor blew up on lap 36.

Matthew got a good restart and was never challenged for the lead and ended up winning the race. He is the first repeat winner for the King Taco Super Trucks for the 2007 season. We only picked up two points on Pat but there are still plenty of races to go in the season.

We would like to thank all of our sponsors for their continued support including Oceanside Transmission/Dalenzie Torque Converters, J & M Autobody and especially Lyle Hunter Tax Service. Lyle got a break from his Super Late Model racing at Orange Show Speedway and decided to come watch Matthew race. He also pitched in and bought us four new tires and all the race fuel for the weekend. For those of you who know racing, that's a big expense every week.

See you at the next race.

June 9th,

Before we talk about how the truck was and how the race day went, we must first talk about the people who helped get it back together. To start with we must thank CMJ Racing. I must say if you are looking into a race series, look into the King Taco Super Trucks. After the bad crash last race we contacted CMJ Racing and asked if the truck could be fixed. Without hesitation they said, "Yes." Because they have the jigs to build them they can fix them. What a job they did in just two days. The entire front of the truck was cut off and replaced. We were concerned that the truck wouldn't be exactly like it was before. I can tell you it was put back together exactly how it was before the crash. We were pleasantly surprised. They also had every part we needed in stock to put the truck back together. CMJ Racing treated us just like family. They even allowed me to pick the truck up on a holiday. Both Charlie and Jameel met me at their shop on Memorial day knowing I had to get the truck back and get working on it.

Next we have to thank our good friend Dean Kuhn and his company Oceanside Transmission. Dean took my destroyed transmission and built another one for me in just 3 days. If you ever have a transmission problem, Oceanside Transmission and Dalenzie Torque Converters is the place to go. It's a family owned and operated business. They have been providing full transmission service since 1978. They have 17 employees with over 200 years of combined transmission experience.

LIZ-ZARD Racing Engines. Vince had to do a rush job for us on the motor. He was in the middle of building a new Super Late Model engine when we took our motor to him. Vince pulled the motor apart and made sure everything was working correctly. When Matthew crashed, he moved the motor back five inches and crushed the water pump and harmonic balancer. Vince completed the motor for us and had it back to us a week before the next race.

John at J & M Autobody. John mixed us the paint because his company originally painted the truck. This time though, because we only had to paint the hood and nose we chose not to bother him for such a small job. Instead, John Isabella our former Legend Car driver painted the hood and nose. John can do it all. He's always there when we need him.

Our sponsor Lyle Hunter and his Super Late Model Driver Rick Chavez. Lyle was there helping us tear the truck down to take it to CMJ Racing and Rick let us use his open car trailer to take the chassis to CMJ Racing and pick it up.

Lastly we would like to think our fellow competitor Joe Anderson. Joe had a complete Chevy body because he recently changed his truck to a Dodge. Joe and his dad graciously gave us their hood and nose.

Now to the race day. After shaking the truck down Friday night in practice (thank you Lester) we knew the truck would be fast on Saturday.

We used some old tires that had several races on them because we flat spotted our tires from the race before. We we're 3rd on the board after the first practice. For the second session we put four new tires on. Unfortunately, we went out in the first group of the trucks right after the Super Stocks who evidently oiled down the track. Matthew drove in deep in turn one and the truck wouldn't turn. He only ran two laps and we actually went slower on the new tires. We knew there was a problem because everyone in the first group was slow. Of course the first group cleaned the track for the second group who went a little faster then the third group ended up with a clean track. They went the fastest. No worries though, we knew we had a good truck. Qualifying would prove that. Matthew ran a 19.88. Faster than he's run all year. Unfortunately he was only the 2nd fastest qualifier. He was beat by the fast qualifier who went 19.85.

The invert was 4. Matthew would start third. On the start, Matthew's truck appeared to run good but after about two or three laps it developed a bad push. He did run the fastest lap of the race but he fought with a truck that wouldn't turn. By the end of the race he was 5th. Disappointing to say the least. After pulling the truck into the tech area we found the problem. We lost stagger.

Overall it wasn't a bad night. After spending eleven straight days working on the truck to get it race ready, it can't be considered a bad race day. We'll fix the stagger problem and hope to get back into victory lane soon. See you next race.

May 21st,

We have received an outpouring of help from so many people that we thought it necessary to let all of you know how big peoples hearts are when the times get tough for a fellow racer.

Dean Kuhn of Oceanside Transmission let us know that he will take care of building us a new transmission and he'll have it ready for the next race even if the truck isn't. He's also offered to take time out of his busy work schedule to make sure the truck will be as fast as it was prior to the wreck by resetting all the front end geometry with his knowledge and front end geometry computer program.

Bill Coleman of BCSportsimages.com has sent all the photos he took of the accident and refused to charge us. He also printed up several 8X10's of Matthew's last win from May 5th.

Lyle Hunter took time from his busy schedule today to cut all the bent parts off the truck and he helped remove the engine and transmission and has made himself available for any future help that will be needed.

Our former Legend driver and good friend John Isabella will be at our house every night until we get the truck race ready again.

Joe Anderson the driver of the number 4 truck and his father has offered up any body parts we will need to get the truck back to it's race ready looks.

There has been many calls, emails and text messages asking how Matthew is doing. Except for a sore ankle he's doing good. He just can't wait to get back out there and race with his friends again.

May 19th,

A race day like this is the reason Matthew always wears his HANS device. His HANS device most likely saved Matthew from serious injury.

The truck was awesome all day long. In the practice sessions we were on top of the board and had the 2nd fastest truck covered by .24 seconds. Pat Mintey made some adjustments and beat Matthew in qualifying by .01 seconds. Matthew would start 7th as Pat's crew spun an 8 on the invert wheel.

The front of the pack was all bunched up at the beginning of the main event. Matthew tried to stay low as he started on the inside but everyone in front of him also stayed low. Matthew was stuck and couldn't move forward. As they came out of turn two Matthew was still on the inside. Someone on the outside lane slowed up and going into turn 3 Matthew got hit in his right rear quarter panel and was sent hard into the turn 3 wall at full speed.

Matthew was slightly hurt as his feet came off the pedals as he it the wall and got stuck behind the pedals, twisting his left ankle. He should be fine. His truck didn't fair so well. Look at the Gallery page for pictures of the truck.

A big Thank You to everyone who came to our pits to see how Matthew was doing and everyone else who talked to us after the crash. Another thank you to all the competitors who came to our aide and helped get the badly crashed truck into the trailer. It's nice to know that rivals on the track come to your assistance when things go bad. A very special thanks goes out to the Irwindale Safety Crew, Pat Mintey Sr. and Jr. and their crew, Team RA crew, Rip Michaels and his crew, Chad Schug, Darren Amidon, Jeff Williams and his crew, Joe Anderson and his crew and many others that helped us after the race.

It's

We'll get things fixed and get the truck back to Irwindale soon. Until then, we hope to have our Legend car back on the track again very shortly.

May 5th,

We worked on the truck during the off week to find a more neutral setup. It appears we may have found the right one. Matthew went out the 1st practice session on old tires. We were 5th on the board but confident when we bolted on new tires it would be better. We were right.

Matthew was at the top of the board in the 2nd practice session. He told us over the radio he felt the truck was back to where it was last season. We made a small adjustment for qualifying. That worked too. Matthew was the fast qualifier. He spun a 2 on the invert wheel.

Matthew wasted no time taking the lead from pole sitter Pat Mintey. Matthew lead the first 29 laps with no pressure on him, pulling out to about an 8 truck length lead on Pat and almost a full half-lap on 3rd place until a yellow came out for a spinning truck. On the restart Matthew got real loose in the middle of turn 2. Pat made a move and pulled even with Matthew but he never could get ahead of him. Another yellow flag came out for a crashed truck in turn 2. It appeared the 3rd place truck had been leaking rear end oil for several laps. He was black flagged.

On the restart, Matthew got a good jump on Pat and he pulled about 2 truck lengths ahead of Pat. Unfortunately, either the rear end oil was still on the track or another truck's transmission was now oiling down the track. Matthew was slipping and sliding all over and Pat stayed right on his bumper.

At the end of the race Pat made one last attempt to pass Matthew but fell short by almost a full truck length. It is Matthew's first win of the season. He was able to lead all 40 laps. Matthew stated he hadn't felt his truck handle that good all year. Hopefully we'll be able to duplicate that for the next race on May 19th. Hope to see you there.

The Matthew Hicks Racing Team would like to thank its sponsors for their continued support:

Lyle Hunter of Lyle Hunter Tax Service

Dean Kuhn from Oceanside Transmission and Dalenzi Torque Converters

John Tyczki of J & M Auto Body

April 21st,

We made some changes to the truck and headed back to Irwindale Speedway. After running a loose truck the first two races now we tried something different to tighten it up. We probably went a little too far. Matthew said the truck was good going into the corners, a little tight in the middle and good off the corners.

We were 5th or so after the first practice session. We made some adjustments and we 5th or so after the 2nd session. More changes, same results in qualifying. Now Matthew said the truck was just too tight and he ended up qualifying 6th. The fast qualifier spun a two on the invert wheel so Matthew had his work cut out for him in the main event.

We made a small adjustment and sent Matthew out for the main. Matthew said the truck was still a little tight to start. He moved up into 4th place but because the truck was too tight he had to wait a little too long to get back on the throttle in the middle of the corners. He ran 4th the rest of the race. It went 40 laps caution free.

Congratulations to Logan Henson on his 1st Super Truck Main Event win. We'll keep working on the truck to make it better. See you in two weeks at Irwindale Speedway.

April 7th,

After searching for what caused the bad vibration from the first race and having our transmission re-built by our sponsor Oceanside Transmission, we were ready for race number two of the Irwindale season. We found out right away the vibration was gone but Matthew still complained the front end had a chatter. We found another issue and replaced a steering component and the chatter went away.

We were about 5 or 6th on the board after the first session and 3rd after the second session so we were confident Matthew would have a good qualifying attempt. Matthew drove in deep on his first lap and caused the truck to push bad in turn 2. He settled down on lap two and ended up qualifying 4th only a couple hundredths out of 2nd but way off Pat Mintey's fast lap of 19.78. The Mintey's had their truck hooked up and it was going to be a fun main event because Pat spun a 7 on the invert wheel.

Matthew started 4th and moved his way to second early in the race. About half way through the race the truck started to get loose off the corners again. Matthew challenged for the lead with Joe Herold several times but couldn't ever get a good run to complete a pass. Once the truck got loose he had his hands full. A yellow flag bunched the trucks up. On the restart Matthew hung on to 2nd for a couple laps but was passed. He was now in 3rd. He ran there until another yellow came out. After the second caution, Pat Mintey was all over Matthew and he made a clean pass for 3rd putting Matthew in 4th where he finished the race. Pat ended up taking the lead late in the race and ended a year long winless streak. Congratulations to the entire Mintey team.

We'll keep working on the truck to make it run better at the end of the races. Although Matthew is frustrated at his first two race finishes, he knows we'll get the truck handling better for him and he'll be back in victory lane soon. See you in two weeks at Irwindale Speedway.

March 24, 2007,

We started off the 2007 season just where we left off the 2006 season, fast. After being the fastest truck in the 1st practice session then 2nd fast in the 2nd practice session, Matthew asked for a minor adjustment for his qualifying session. Unfortunately, we had practiced in the cold and it was a cloudy day and now the sun had come out and it was hot.

We decided to leave the truck alone because it had been a little tight so we figured the sun on the track would help. It didn't. Matthew qualified 2nd but complained the truck was still too tight. We loosened it up for the main event. Bad move again. The truck was just too loose for Matthew to make it work on the bottom of the track to pass anyone. He started 3rd and never moved forward from there. In fact, the truck developed a bad vibration almost midway through the main and he was only able to hold on to a 5th place finish.

We'll find the problem and try again in two weeks at Irwindale Speedway. Hope to see you there.