Kankakee Motorspeedway
August 10, 2007
What a great night for racing........ with it being in the high 90's and 100 degree mark all week it wasn't to bad at the track....
Cindy Snyder, Gennie Bare and I all met at Team #22's shop and headed for Kankakee about 2:30... a half hour behind the #22 hauler........... huh........ we caught up with them and honked as we went by...
We got to the track about 5:30...set up our seating and took off for the pit area.......
first person I ran into was cute little Heather Thomas.... what a doll she is.... Her hubby RYAN THOMAS was going to be in the pierce house car tonight instead of his own car.... it was designed to the image of Dan Hamstra's car..... ...........
I next came upon the #3L crew and went to find Pam Leka....... always love talking with her.. and said hello to Jeff..
I got interviews with Matt Boknecht #22....Matt Bachman #68...Jim Farris #69...Mike Roundtree #2..and Earl Plessinger #39 in modis ..........and Billy Wicker #55 in street stock and Axle Wicker #118 in hornets..
Was really nice seeing Dan Hamstra at the track... got to say hello to him....just didn't seem right not seeing him in the #23h out on the track...
Went to the #22 Kinder trailer to say hello to Chad and the crew....Ed Roley was there with the group..I like talking with Ed.... will be glad to see him back on the track.......he is still waiting on his motor.....
We went back to the grandstands so we could watch the qualifying.... when I got there my son Doug and grandson JD , my son-inlaw Mike Buddell and grandsons Jayson and Dylan, Mike's dad Mick and my grandaughter Kayla were all there to watch Chad Kinder race...... and boy..... he sure did not disappoint them.......
Out of 45 cars Chad Kinder qualified last putting him in heat 5 at the tail of 9 cars...fastest qualifier was Jeff Leka with 15.290...........there were 45 modifieds .........five heats... 2 consi's ...50 lap feature...
In heat 1 you had Leka and Bachman on front row, Boknecht and Murphy 2nd row, Haga and Francis 3rd row..#128 and Roundtree 4th row and Fuqua on the tail....... their were five cautions in this heat..the first one when #128 spun out ......second one came out when the #128 spun again collecting Rob Fuqua..I thought Rob was going to flip over when he came upon the #128 and had no where to go..he ran over the tire of the #128 lifting him into the air...... third caution comes out for the #2 of Roundtree when he spun out in going into turn four.... fourth caution came out for Matt Bachman who after leading the heat was running the high side and went over burm coming out of turn one... the last caution came when the #128, the #68 of Bachman, the #3f of Fuqua and the #2 of Roundtree all collided between turns three and four.... the #2 pulls off and the #128 got black flagged ..... **it was announced that this was the first race for Mike Roundtree since he had been out with knee surgery......................three going to the feature Jeff Leka took 1st, Tim Reynolds 2nd, JD Francis 3rd.........4th Fuqua, 5th Haga and 6th Bachman
heat 2 you had Tommy Burnside and McKay Wenger on front row, second row was Danny Schwartz and Dave Porth, third row was Tommy Kroll and #39, last row was #77 and #X.....this heat went by caution free with McKay Wenger getting out in front from start to finish , Tommy Burnside 2nd, Danny Schwartz 3rd.........4th was Tommy Kroll
heat 3 you had Spatola and Osterhoff on front row with Gabe Menser and Jason Lakey on second row, third row was John Demoss and Matt HUddleston, fourth row was Hastings and Laster..tail was the #22k..there was one caution in this heat when the #29L spun in turn 2 and at same time the #36 of Hastings spun in turn four.... Spatola got out to the lead and stayed to finish with Osterhoff 2nd and Menser 3rd...... Lakey crossed over fourth, Demoss fifth, Huddleston sixth, Hastings seventh, #22k eighth and Laster nineth...
heat 4 you had Kevin Weaver and Gary Cook,jr on front row with Ryan Thomas and Derik Losh on second row, third row was #39 and Rob Pohlman, tail was #88...........Gary Cook,jr 1st, Kevin Weaver 2nd, and Derik Losh 3rd..........Pohlman 4th, Thomas 5th and #39
Heat 5 you had Denny Schwartz and #35 of Hastings on front row, 2nd row was Jim Farris and #f3, 3rd row was Vince Cooper and#36, 4th row was the #20 and #37n.......on tail was Chad Kinder....Hastings got out to the lead and finished 1st, Schwartz 2nd and Jim Farris 3rd...... Kinder took 4th, 5th was #36, 6th was Cooper, 7th f3 and tail was #37n...
consi three cars advance to feature
consi one front row Fuqua and Lakey, 2nd row Kinder and #39, 3rd row Thomas and Bachman, 4th row Huddleston and Cooper, 5th row the X and #22.....tail was #88..........Chad Kinder took the win, Rob Fuqua 2nd and Ryan Thomas 3rd.............
consi two was Kroll and Pohlman on front row, Haga and Demoss, then #36 and Porth, 4th row was Plessinger and Boknect..........three to advance were Kroll...Pohlman and Demoss
Feature
1..Cook,jr/Spatola
2..Leka/Wenger
3..Hastings/Reynolds
4..Burnside/Osterhoff
5..Weaver/De Schwartz
6..Francis/Da Schwartz
7..Menser/Losh
8..Farris/Kinder
9..Kroll/Fuqua
10..Pohlman/Thomas
11..Demoss/Bachman
12..#36 Hastings
Mike Spatola got out to the early lead but was not long before Jeff Leka took the bragging rights....3rd was Cook,jr........the first caution came out for a car that spun out in turn one and collected Rob Fuqua..both stayed in race............with nine laps in the line up was Leka in front, Spatola, Cook, Reynolds, Weaver, Wenger, De Schwartz, Hastings, Burnside, Da Schwartz, Osterhoff, Kinder who had moved up from 16th, Losh, Menser and Kroll..........2nd caution came out for the #75 of Losh and the #1k of Kroll....Kroll had a flat tire....
there was a lot of passing going on and a lot of real good racing.... once Leka got to the front he was there to stay... Chad Kinder just kept picking his way to the front...... there was a good battle going on with him and Osterhoff but Kinder finally got around him ..... he was flying on the high side.... he used up every bit of the outside track........Leka was also using the outside and Denny Schwartz was working the inside.......with 31 laps to go it was Leka, Cook, Schwartz, Spatola and Kinder..... by 24 to go Chad had taken 4th from Spatola, by 23 to go he had got around Cook,jr for third and was behind Schwartz and Leka who was still holding that lead.....a caution came out for the #69 of Jim Farris with 15 to go... line up was Leka, Schwartz, Kinder, Cook, Spatola, Pohlman, Wenger, Da Schwartz, Menser, Fuqua, Kroll, Osterhoff, Bachman, Demoss, Thomas and Hastings...
by lap ten to go Chad had overtaken Schwartz for the second spot...........
McKay Wenger who had been racing a very good race and was holding fifth spot got penalized for passing before the cone on a restart with five laps to go........... that was too bad....
on restart there was a crash that involved Losh, Farris, Fuqua and Demoss
End results were Leka ...Kinder...De Schwartz...Spatola...Pohlman...Cook,jr...Menser....#35 Hastings...Kroll...
Let me tell ya........... the racing was terribly exciting for us Kinder fans.... Chad put on a great show for us coming through the pack..........BUT NERVE RACKING...... he had wings last night.... he used every bit of that outside groove and squeezed himself up through the crowd.........several times it looked like he was going to go over the burm and I don't know how many times he escaped some pretty close calls with cars that had spun out in front of him............. Poor Fuqua.... I don't know how many times he got collected up in a wreck that he could not avoid........glad he made it out of there with his car in one piece......
Being three hours away and having two passengers we left right after the modified feature.... I know my good friend Paul Bayne will have the results on here for the rest of the divisions this week.....
I did get down into the pit area and interview two guys .. Billy Wicker from the street stock division and Axle Wicker in the hornets.... really nice guys... glad I got to meet you........
Will ad pictures to this post and will get interviews done this week..
cj