HOUSTON RACE REPORT FROM MARCH 27TH

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Our first race of the season saw perfect weather conditions at Houston Motorsports Park. There were 11 karts ready for the season opener and a couple of new paint schemes as well as new faces. Andy Taylor was back for his 2nd season of racing with a new number #14 and a Tony Stewart paint scheme on his kart and Mike Steinman returning for his 6th season with the new number and paint scheme of #16 Greg Biffle. New faces were Boomer Block driving the "ROCK HARD RACING" #48 and Kelly Garrett, a substitute driver for the "KIRK-n-STEIN" M&M's #18 kart. Cody Kelly was substitute driving for the #20 kart.

 

In the heat race numbers were drawn for grid and the rookies were put to the rear to learn the ways of the NASKARTS. On the pole for the heat was Frank Mena in the #12 and outside was Kelly Garrett in the "KIRK-n-STEIN" M&M's #18. As the Green flag dropped Frank Mena jumped out to lead the first 4 laps with kelly on his rear bumper, with the "ROCK HARD RACING" #29 of Marty Kreis in thrid followed by his son/teammate Kaleb Kreis in 4th in the #88. By lap 3 kaleb Kreis & Mike Steinman in the "KIRK-n-STEIN" 3M #16. By lap 5 Kaleb had work his way around Kelly Garrett and Frank Mena to take the lead. Kaleb Kreis then started pulling away from the field and led til lap 6 when carburator gremlins got him and he started to slow on the track, giving up the lead to the hard charging Steinman who was trying to chase down kaleb in the #88. But on the last lap Kelly Garrett with help from Cody Kelly #20, who started in the back and made his way to the front, drafted together past Steinman and Kelly Garrett took the heat win followed by Cody Kelly #20, Mike Steinman finished 3rd, Frank Mena #12 finished 4th and Megan Smith in the #07 finishing 5th. Gremlins for some of the racers had them scrambling after the heat race to get their karts fixed. Chris Terry in the "ROCK HARD RACING" #24 had to drop to the infield before the start because of bodywork dragging on the track and Andy Taylor and Jack Kelly slowed because of motor gremlins.

 

(more to come)

 

 

Now for the Feature:

 

For the Main, Kelly Garrett after winning the Heat race was on the pole, but outside pole changed as Cody Kelly gave up his ride in the #20 to Andy Taylor since Andy's Motor went south and Andy is racing the whole season. Where Cody was a fill in ride for the night. But that meant Andy had to start at the back of the grid. This put Mike Steinman in his "KIRK-n-STEIN" 3M #16 on outside pole and moved everyone up 1 position. Frank Mena in the 12 started inside row 2 and outside was Megan Smoith in the 07. On the start Kelly went right to lead taking Frank Mena right along with. Mike Steinman ha d a slow start and dropped to 5th on the first lap. Sneaking up from the back were the #4 of Jack Kelly and Andy Taylor driving the #20. On lap 2 Frank Mena made a move to the inside and was able to take the lead from Kelly Garrett, but she would'nt let him stay in the lead for long and retook the lead on lap 3 and held it for the next 22 laps!!! but the dicing was going on behind her as the ROCK HARD RACING" #29 of Marty Kreis was shadowing these 2 until lap 7 when he made his move into 2nd place. He stayed there until lap 12 when Frank Mena moved back up into 2nd and was able to stick to the bumper of kelly Garrett. Meanwhile, Andy Taylor made his way to the front in the #20 and was able to take over 3rd place on lap 14 in front of Marty Kreis and the race was on until the end! Mike Steinman was part of this group until he broke a rocker stud and the motor shut down ending his night on lap 10. Attrition was taking its toll on the ROCK HARD Racing #88 of Kayleb Kreis & #24 of Chris Terry. Kayleb was out early on the first lap with jetting problems....and Chris dopped out on lap 6 of a mechanical. The #4 of Jack Kelly also dropped out on lap 3 from a stripped out valve cover. Back at the front though it was a 4 kart race between the #18, #12, #20 & #29 for the last 13 laps. Frank Mena was trying to get a nose up on the inside of Kelly Garrett....but he couldn't quite make the move. And Andy Taylor and Marty Kreis were dicing with each other trying to be the next one in line to get past Frank to have their shot at Kelly. Finally on lap 25 Frank got a bump Draft from Andy Taylor getting him past the #18 of Kelly Garrett. But She was determined to fight back and retook the lead on the white flag lap! With one last shot at the win Andy Lined up behind Frank going into 1 and coming off of 2 they went 3 wide!! but they could only get to Kelly's back bumper and then then bumped each other and lost just enough momentum for Kelly to pull out a Kart lead and hold it to the Checkered flag!! This was Kelly's First win Ever in the NASKART Series and her first trip to the Houston Motorsports Park racetrack! And did the fans ever cheer when they knew a girl had beat the guys!!!! Great Job Kelly!!! You erned this win!!!

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