Saturday, March 7, 2009..
What a perfect day for a race..... it was very windy but the weather was beautiful and to think it was the first week of March...
Dennis Waggle had called us friday to keep us informed about the racing... I was certainly expecting horror stories on how bad the track was because of it being the first race of the season.............boy... was I wrong.... Dennis said the track was in very good shape................
On the way down we saw all these trees with the tops twisted off and some laying down... it looked like a tornado went through...there were miles of trees like that...Howie finally figured it out.... it was from the ice storm they had go through there a few weeks ago...
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Saturday we got around and headed to Kentucky Lake Motor Speedway... We arrived later then I like to but............. we were there
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We parked .. got our seats marked off and headed for the bathroom....3 and 1/2 hour drive...much needed pit stop... lol....
I ran into Becky Robinson, Kent Robinson's mother on way to bathroom..ran into Dennis Waggle also..he was looking for Howard...
Becky and I headed to the pit area....I went to talk to Kent Robinson .. He told me about his race friday night.. said his car was really running good ..said he could race wherever he wanted .. high ..low or middle........after spending some time with Becky I then hunted up one of my other favorite drivers Joey Kramer... I told him he always makes me walk so far to find him..... he is such a cutie...
Becky and I then went to copy down the lineup sheets...when I got to heat six I realized Chad Kinders name was not among them.... I PANICKED.... I immediately went to Team #22 and asked what was going on.... they said that they had put down Matt Mevert's name instead of Chad's.........."whew"... It was really good to see Will Snyder back with Team #22... he has been missed by all.....
Becky headed back to her pit area and I got a couple of interviews...one with Kevin Claycomb and one with Steve Bigley.... both very nice guys ... enjoyed talking with them...
I then headed to the grandstand when the late model were lining up to go qualify... and.......wham..........the lights went out on the track..... I seen Sherri Heckenast with her walkie talkie.... she had it all under control in no time and the cars were headed for the track....
I ran into Chad Kinder and he asked me if I was ready.... I said I sure was and he said he was too..... AND BOY WAS HE....
During the modified heats Becky Robinson came up and sit with our group... man she is as nuts as me.... I LOVE IT....
Sherri uses the passing point system and I don't understand it at all.... I am going to have to study it more so I know what is going on.... it is different then what USMTS uses...
The track looked great ...was really fast...
In heat one Corky Thomas won passing 4 cars to take the win... Chad Kinder passed 7 cars to take 2nd................in this heat the first caution came out when the #7 of Ledford spins and hits the wall in turn one.....2nd caution came out for Lucas Lee who hit the wall in turn 4....Lee was taken off the track.....finish: Thomas, CHAD KINDER, Taylor, MICHAEL FOX, Houston, Wenger, Young, Mcdowell, Herndon, L Lee, Ledford
In heat two Darrell Nelson won starting on pole,,,Jason Thoennes was second passing 4 cars.....in this heat the #3 of Jamie Carter pulled out on lap three..no caution...the #C2 of Carpenter pulleded off in lap 4..... finish: Nelson, Thoennes, Rhodes, Worley, Crosby, Lenhardt, JIM SHIPMAN, Wilkerson, Gross, Carpenter, Carter
In heat three Gary Cook,jr won starting on pole...George Aimone took second passing three cars...finish: GARY COOK, Aimone, TOMMIE SEETS, Larson, Miller, Anderson, JOEY KRAMER, Peters, BJ DEAL, M. Lee, K Hastings..
In heat four Jamie Cobb starting outside front row, 2nd was taken by Scott Weber passing 7 cars....there was one caution for Brandon Dielam #BW3 who spun in turn 4..
finish: Cobb, SCOTT WEBER, Elliott, Miles, Asberry, Long, Copeland, Parks, Massey,Biswell, Dierlam
In heat five Mike Spatola wins starting outside front row, 2nd was taken by Randle Seeney who passed four cars..... a caution came out for the #18 of Jon Henry
finish: MIKE SPATOLA, RANDLE SWEENEY, Michaels, TIM HANCOCK, Lomax, Miller, Henry, Tatlow, Hull, Wildman, Bohm
In heat six Butch Weisser won passing 2 cars, 2nd was taken by JESSE SNYDER ....KENT ROBINSON too 3rd passing six cars...finish : Weisser, JESSE SNYDER, KENT ROBINSON, Robinson,jr, Mathison,Walker, Kostenbader, Lavasseur, Mcguins, Watson, Young..
There were three semi's with a lot of cautions......transferring to feature were:
Houston, Larson MICHAEL FOX,Miller, Wenger, Worley, Rhodes, TOMMIE SEETS,JR, Elliott, Anderson....
Now we are ready for the feature
line up
Corky Thomas/CHAD KINDER
Scott Weber/Butch Weisser
Jamie Cobb/Mike Spatola
Jason Thoennes/RANDLE SWEENEY
Darrell Nelson/GARY COOK,JR
George Aimone/Richard Michaels,jr
KENT ROBINSON/TIM HANCOCK
Guy Taylor/JESSE SNYDER
Justin Houston/Jason Miller
TOMMIE SEETS,JR/Jeff Larson
Mckay Wenger/Jeff Elliott
MICHAEL FOX/Brian Worley
Mark Anderson/Jack Young
Curt Rhodes/Jon Henry
Now this race was really hard to follow because of course my eyes were totally on Chad Kinder.... I had Becky Robinson on my right side watching her son Kent Robinson.... and the two of us were a nervous wreck....
Right at the start of the race Chad Kinder shot out like a bullet taking the commanding lead............... wow... what a beginning...
Now I am not sure there was a lap in or not.. had to be one of first laps recorded the #6T of Corky Thomas got sideways and went right into the turn four wall.... it looked awful... pieces of the car were flying all around... and here came Randle Sweeney around the turn with no where to go... he drove over the #6T car.... Becky kept screaming where was Kent ... we located him and then tried to figure out who the blue car was.... the cars were tore up really bad...........was good to see the guys get out of their cars...!!!
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On lap two the #4j of Scotty Weber got by Chad Kinder....
a caution comes out for the #52 who spins and hits the wall in lap 5..
on restart Kinder is on hot pursuit of Scotty.... in turn two they almost took each other out fighting for the same piece of track and Chad hitting the wall pretty good... by lap 9 it was Weber, Kinder, Spatola, Kent Robinson , Cobb, Cook....
The race was really exciting up front with Weber and Kinder and Spatola and Robinson...
on lap 16 a caution came out for Aimone....4 laps to go...... this brought Scotty and Chad closer together.... Chad got the better of Scotty and shot around him going into turn four...after Chad cleared him Spatola and Weber made contact two laps later causing Weber to spin out.........wow... what a tough break for Scotty... he had to go to the tail with only two laps to go...... the crowd went wild when Chad Kinder passed Scotty.... it was a well faught battle between the two drivers.....
On restart it was Chad Kinder out in front, Spatola Kent Robinson and Jamie Cobb and that is how they crossed the finish line.....
It was an awesome race.......
I can't wait til the next race !!!!
cj