For the second time this season, Austin Hill is out to build his road course resume with an appearance in the ARCA Menards Series at Watkins Glen International (WGI). The driver of the No. 1 ARCO Design/Build Industrial Toyota Camry returns to ARCA competition in search for his first-career road course victory, and to gear up for the final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season event, the United Rentals 176 on Saturday afternoon.
Road Race Runner … In the 10-year span that Hill has been involved in ARCA competition, he has made six road course starts at four different venues. The Winston, Ga. product has delivered top-10 finishes in all but one of those events and captured his best-career road course finish at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in June of this season with a runner-up result. Hill has led 11 laps on road courses, all of which came at Virginia International Raceway in 2015 and looks to tap into HRE’s recent success at WGI as the organization has won its last two starts on the 2.45-mile track with Max McLaughlin (2019) and Brett Moffitt (2018).
Season to Date … After 14 races on the Camping World Trucks side of the garage, Hill is well-positioned for a run at his first title, currently sitting in third position in the championship standings. Hill claims an average finish of 9.4 and is currently listed fourth on the provisional playoff grid. He scored his first-career dirt track victory in his most recent outing at Knoxville Raceway and looks to follow that up with his first-career road course victory on Friday afternoon at “The Glen”.
Chassis Selection … Chassis No. 008 is extremely familiar with WGI and will make yet another appearance in the Finger Lakes region on Friday. Hill most recently drove this Toyota Camry to a second-place finish at Mid-Ohio eight weeks prior. Moffitt and McLaughlin both drove this Camry to victory lane at WGI in 2018 and 2019, respectively, with the old-style steel body.
Tune In … FOX Sports 1 will carry coverage of the Clean Harbors 100 at 6:00 p.m. ET on Friday evening. Stay connected with the No. 1 ARCO Design/Build Industrial team by following @Hattori_Racing on Twitter, @hattoriracing on Instagram, and Hattori Racing Enterprises on Facebook.
Austin Hill Quote:On making his second ARCA start of the 2021 season:“I always enjoy running the ARCA races, especially on road courses when we can get some extra seat time. We had a good run back at Mid-Ohio, so we’re hoping to carry what we learned there over to our ARCO Design/Build Industrial Camry this weekend at ‘The Glen’. This was a race circled on our calendar because we’ve never raced there with the truck, and without practice and qualifying, that track time is going to be extremely valuable for us this weekend. Even though it’s a road course, it’s a momentum racetrack. You have to be able to commit and stay in the gas in a lot of sections that lead onto long straightaways to make lap time. It’s been a few years since I last raced there, but we’re looking forward to the challenge, running double duty again, and hopefully come away with a trophy both days.”
HRE PR
