William Hellinger and Hate Maker II will take to the track for rough truck contest
ZANESVILLE - Tuesday at the Muskingum County Fair, you can see William Hellinger and his truck Hater Maker II racing at the rough truck event.
Hater Maker II is a modified, Ford Ranger truck, but Hellinger’s start with Hater Maker I was a simpler and more dangerous ride.
“This all started in a stock Jeep. I raced stock Jeep for two years. I flipped with no cage, no nothing, and I tore my rotator cuff. The next day I was out in the junk yard, bought another one and caged it,” Hellinger said.
His 4-year-old daughter made sure Hellinger remembered to mention the Jeep had flipped. Hellinger’s family is always at his side while racing.
“It’s usually me, her and my wife for the most part. No matter if we’re wrenching on it, doing whatever we’re doing, we’re all three there,” said the Dresden resident, who's been racing since 2018.
The differences between Hater Maker I and Hater Maker II are more than just the make and model. Several investments have been made in modifying Hater Maker II for both performance and safety.
“I realized ‘well you better cage it’ cause when I flipped the one at Perry (County Fair), it smashed it flat, put my driver’s seat through the floorboards. Then I was like ‘oh we need to take safety a little more seriously,’” Hellinger said.
Now with a roll cage protecting him, his wife and daughter can enjoy the race with more peace of mind and, of course, enjoy all the various county fairs have to offer before each race.
“Usually, I’ll leave around one to three o’clock no matter where it’s at. I’ll get there four or five hours early. We’ll let her ride rides and she’s spoiled, she gets to go to all the fairs. How many kids get to say that?” Hellinger said.
While his daughter has fun riding rides, and they all enjoy the fair food, Hellinger enjoys the rush he gets at every fair performing in rough truck.
“I like the adrenaline rush. I do a little bit of everything. This was something that was like cheap to get into at first. Started like the Jeep, you know, used to be able to borrow it for a couple hundred bucks so it wasn’t nothing,” he said.
Though cheap at first, Hellinger spent $12,000 to make Hater Maker II a competitor on the track, regularly placing in the top 10 at every event he has been in this year.
You can watch Hellinger and Hater Maker along side other rough truck racers at 8 p.m. tonight. For information about the fair, visit muskingumcofair.com.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: William Hellinger adds Muskingum County Fair to rough truck schedule
