UPDATED: Race report for Red River Speedway

[n2racing2]

The NASKARTS rolled into Wichita Falls on Friday night. But all the Fun was Saturday Night!!! I will put up the race report tomorrow...as it was a BARN Burner for sure! And that's not including the 105 degree heat we were in!!!

 

Sorry all...been real busy but making time to do the race reports.

 

Well...The NASKARTS got to Wichita Falls on Friday evening and set up the pits for Saturdays events. But we had rolled in alittle late to get in any practice. Team ROCKHARD Racing went to get rooms. But Steinman stayed to work on the karts and put a couple of local "HOT SHOES" into the #20 and the #18 for a quick practice at the end of the night. Josh Cournoyer and Brad Queen were filling in for a couple of the NASKART regulars and looking forward to having some fun!!

 

Saturday when we woke up...it was already hot as H... well you know! By the time we got to the track for practice in the afternoon, you could cook and egg almost anywhere you wanted. Most decided to just do 1 run of practice in order to stay cool and relaxed and save their energy for later in the evening when qualifying would start.

 

Qualifying started around 6:00pm and saw Team ROCKHARD Racing's Kevin Hummell set the pace for qualifying. His time stood until Team ROCKHARD Racing's #88 Kaleb Kreis took over the pole with a low 16 second lap time. Until Team Rockhard's Chris Terry came out and set pole with a High 15.90 Lap time. Team Rockhard Racings #29 Marty Kreis came out and tried to knock him off pole but came up just a little short. Next up was Pearland Car care's #14 Andy Taylor, but once again came up a little short but was settling into 3rd for qualifying. Until the 3M/Austin Architectural Graphics #16 came out and ran 15.74 and took pole position and the bonus point for qualifying. Last 2 to qualify were Brad and Josh but neither matched the times of the top 3.

 

With only a short time between qualifying and the 12 Lap Heat race...changes for setup were hard to complete. With the NASKARTS Inverting the starts, this put #48 Kevin Hummell up front with #29 Marty Kreis outside on row 1. Andy Taylor in the #14 on inside of row 2 and #88 Kaleb Kreis on the outside. On row 3 was #24 Chris Terry with the #16 of Steinman right beside him. Row 4 saw the locals of Josh Cournoyer on the inside in the #20 and Brad Queen on the outside in the M&M #18 kart.

 

When the green flew Chris Terry #24 and Mike Steinman #16 made their way through Taylor #14 and the other Team ROCKHARD Racing Teammates of terry #48, #29, & #88 and went to dicing for the lead by lap 2. Steinman had the lead but then on the next lap Chris Terry took over the lead and started to stretch out his lead leaving Steinman about 6 karts behind him at the finish. Kaleb Kreis, Kevin Hummell and Andy Taylor raced hard with each other with Kaleb finishing just ahead of the other 2 for 3rd. Taylor 4th and Hummell 5th. Followed by Marty Kreis and Josh Cournoyer. Brad slowed and stopped on the infield with a motor issue but was credited with 8th.

 

For the 40-lap Main, After giving the fans a preview of the race to come, we all lined in inverted again. Putting Terry and Steinman on row 3 after Josh and Brad asked to start in the back. When the green flew, it was a good dice up front as once again Terry and Steinman worked their way through the field. Once the #24 of Chris tery got to the front he started to pull out a lead over Steinman again.Opening up a 6 to 7 kart lead. But 10 laps into the race Steinman started making a charge on Terry gaining ground every lap. By lap 19 Steinman was within a kart length of Terry. And by lap 21 as they were coming out of turn 4 Steinman had moved to the inside of Terry to try and take the lead. As they came to the line the yellow flag started to fly and Steinman seeing what line Terry liked running, the high line, eased out of the gas and came to the line in 2nd in order to make Terry have to start the race on the inside line. Once everyone had settled into their re-start position and everyone was coming out of turn 4 the green flag flew. And Steinman's strategy worked allowing him to take the lead from Terry on the outside going into turn 3. Steinman held onto the lead for a few laps until Terry was able to fend off Kaleb Kreis and mount his charge back to the front. Once Terry had made it back to Steinman the racing really heated up. Passing each other multiple times a lap and each leading several of the final laps back and forth...it was gonna be anyone's race. With the hard racing going on up front and the battle for 3rd going on between #88 Kaleb Kreis, #14 Andy Taylor and #29 Marty Kreis...the flag man almost forgot to throw the white flag!

As Steinman and Terry came out of turn 4, Terry was able to take the lead by a bumper at the line and was holding his own on the inside line...but as they went thru turns 1 and 2...Steinman made his move early going a little lower than terry and as they came off of turn 4 Steinman caught his front bumper on the back inside bumper of Terry and ended up spinning himself sideways and down into the infield. Allowing Chris Terry to take the checkers and falling to 6th as the other racers passed him. #88 Kaleb Kreis was elevated to 2nd place and Andy Taylor came home in 3rd. Josh Cournoyer made a stron showing passing the #29 of Marty Kreis on the last lap for 4th. Marty Kreis finished 5th after almost parking it 2 laps before from exhaustion but held on to 5th. 7th was Kevin Hummell who blew a motor during the race and 8th went to Brad Queen who once again was having engine troubles.

 

From my personal view point...this was one of the funnest races of the season as Chris and I had a great battle rubbing at times but always making sure we both had room on the track. I have nver had to look right so much during a race on a oval to make sure we were clear or not!!! I just wanna say again..Chris, Great Job and thanks for the kudos in the winner's circle!!

[chris24]

Thanks Mike Always a pleasure to race two wide and know it will be clean so we can have a shootout.

 

 

Also thanks to rock hard racing and marty kreis, kaleb kreis, and kevin hummel for the help and support