Kerry Hitt prepares for final stretch of the season

September 17, 2014

(Team Release) Kerry Hitt prepares for the stretch drive of the 2014 Trans Championship with a full plate and added excitement to come.

Hitt came out of racing retirement in 2013 and 2014 is his first full time racing season in a very long time. He stands 5th in the TA class standings with a best race finish of 4th at Homestead Miami. With three races remaining in the season, Hitt is nipping at the heels of 4th place Cliff Ebben and still has a shot at making the final top three. The next chance to gain some points is at Lime Rock Park on September 20th.

The previous three events for Hitt were full of ups and downs. An early DNF at Road America created a points challenge for that stretch of three races. The next race at Mid Ohio had a 17 car TA class field and on the surface Hitt's 10th place finish did not seem inspiring, but it may have been his best drive of the season. "I passed a lot of cars that day. That is for sure," Hitt said. "We started 10th and struggled a bit. Tomy Drissi had started on the pole and had a problem early in the race. When he caught me, they guys told me to let him go and I did. I then just followed him through the field. It was great. We both slipped in some oil, though, and my car spun. I had to repass some cars to get back to tenth. It was fun racing."

Last in that group of races was Brainerd International Raceway. That race started with a bit of a bump in the road. "The oil light came on in practice. So, we added some to the tank and apparently overfilled it. The resulted was the car blowing out the excess oil early in the race. There was heavy smoke at the carousel which is also right at the pit entrance. So, I came in and they looked it over and sent me back out. As soon as I got back to the carousel the car blew out more oil and I came back in. Again they couldn't find anything and sent me back out. From then on the car ran well and we worked out way up to fifth," said Hitt.

While all this drama has been going on at the racetrack, Hitt has been filling his plate with more excitement. He has acquired Stahl Headers, one of the premiere header manufacturers in the country. Stahl built the headers for classic era Corvettes. "When Jere Stahl said he was going to retire and close down the business, I didn't want to lose access to those great headers for vintage Corvettes. So, I decided to buy the rights to those designs. At the end of the day we bought all of the manufacturing equipment and hired Jere's top technician, so we can continue building the best quality header in the world. Designs, equipment, everything," Kerry told me. "We are just finishing moving all the equipment from York, PA to our base here in Harrisburg, PA and will be building headers very soon. It's really exciting."

"I've learned a lot for Jere. He is a brilliant source of knowledge with experience of over 50 years. I am honored to be able to keep these great products going into the future." The company will now be known as Stahl Headers by ACP.

More on that to come.

Meanwhile, Hitt is geared up for Trans Am Series Round Nine at Lime Rock on Saturday September 20th.