Race report from Thunderhill's Stock Car Spectacular!

[n2racing2]

The NASKART Series returned to Thunderhill Raceway for their last race of the season at the Stock Car Spectacular and race 14 of 20 for the NASKART Series. Since so many classes were running this weekend, our schedule saw us racing on a Friday night instead of a Saturday night. And what a show it was for the fans that showed up on Friday night!

 

So far this season we had 5 races with 5 different winners at Thunderhill and for the 6th race....it was anybody's guess as to who would win it. Qualifying order as usual was set by points inverted and with a returning kart to the series...the Budweiser #8 driven by Chris Birmingham, he was due to start qualifying for the NASKARTS. But a last minute carburator problem kept him from qualifying thus putting the returning kart of Robert Carr #27 up first. Robert, just returning from his National Guard duty, went out for the single car qualifying and set the time to beat with a 18.814. Next up was the #12 of Frank Mena. Frank settled in with a time of 19.118. Out next to try his hand at the pole point was Team ROCKHARD Racing's #48 Kevin Hummell. But Kevin seemed off his qualifying game and ended up qualfying 8th with a time of 19.412. Next out was 2010 Sportmod Rookie-of-the-Year driver Lyndon "Captain" Kirk in the NASKRT #20. But running 2 classes for the night saw Lyndon with a slow time in his kart at a 19.943 qualifying 9th. But qualifying 3rd in his Sportmod for his race later. Thunderhill fan Favorite and winner of the last Thunderhill race, Megan Smith #07 went out to try her hand at getting the pole. But settled in to the 7th slot with a time of 19.111. Team ROCKHARD Racing's #88 Kaleb Kreis, a 2-time pole winner at Thunderhill went out next and almost wrangled the pole position away from Robert Carr....but came up just short at a 18.892 to settle into the outside pole position. With Andy Taylor missing the race from health reasons up next was the #29 of Team ROCKHARD Racing's Marty Kreis. Marty was just off the pace of his son and qualified 5th with a time of 19.037. Next up was the last of the ROCKHARD Racing's driver's, Chris Terry #24. Chris was also on the pace to take pole but again came up a little short and qualified between his teammates in 4th position with a 18.999. Last up was points leader Mike Steinman in his 3M/Austin Architectural Graphics #16. The times seemed slower with a green track from rain earlier in the week and high humidity but Steinman went out and blistered the field by half a second with a 18.314. Thus taking the pole away from Robert Carr and winning the bonus point that goes with it. Delegating Carr to 2nd and Kaleb Kreis to 3rd in qualifying.

 

So with qualifying done and the grid set...it was time to invert the field putting the pole winner at the back of the grid to start the race. (to be cont.)

[n2racing2]

Sorry its taken so long to finish...but here goes.

 

So starting on the pole was 2009 NASKART Champion Lyndon Kirk #20 with Team ROCKHARD Racing's #48 Kevin hummell outside pole. Row 2 had the #12 of Frank Mena inside and the the #07 of Megan Smith, the winner of the last race at Thunderhill. Row 3 found

Team ROCKHARD Racing's teammates of the #29 Marty Kreis and #24 Chris Terry side-by-side. Row 4 had the last ROCKHARD Racing Teammate, #88 Kaleb Kreis inside and #27 Robert Carr outside. With the #16 3M/Austin architecural Graphics kart of Mike Steinman starting last.

 

When the green flew coming threw turns 3 and 4 everyone was nose to tail except for the #27 of Robert Carr who had mechanical difficulties and could not start the race. When the first lap was finished, it was Team ROCKHARD Racings #48 Kevin Hummell leading the way followed closely by the #20 of Kirk and the #29 of Marty Kreis and #24 of Chris Terry. The order styed this way until lap 3 when the #12 of Mena started making his move, moving from 5th to 3rd and bringing the #16 of Steinman along with him up to 4th. Dropping the #29 and the #24 back to 5th and 6th. The order was again unchanged until lap 6 when #29 Kreis made his move back into 3rd moving around Steinman #16 and Mena #12 and moving up to the #20 of Kirk to try aand get around to his teammate, Hummell #48 who was still leading the way. Lap 7 saw Steinman #16 and Terry #24 get past his teammate of Kreis #29 and now on the bumper of the #20. but so far during this race...only the #8 of Chris Birmingham was off the pace. Everyone else were still drafting nose to tail and side by side...with no clear cut advantage to anyone. Lap 9 saw Kirk #20 and Steinman #16 team up like old times to go past Hummell #48 and into 1st and 2nd. Dropping Hummell to 3rd...but now having picked up his teammate #24 Terry. Next lap saw Team ROCKHARD Racing all in line from 3rd to 6th and getting ready to make a run on the leaders when the competition yellow waved. When the green flew again...it was Marty Kreis #29 pushing his teammate #48 Hummell back to the lead and dropping #20 Kirk from 1st back to 4th as Steinman made his way to 3rd. On lap 15 Steinman worked past Kreis #29 with a big push and help for the #07 of Megan Smith who seemed to come out of nowhere to help and follow Steinman. On lap 18 Stienman made his way past Hummell for the lead and brought Megan #07 along with him followed by the #29 and #24 of Kreis and Terry. Dropping Hummel back behind them in 5th. Steinman #16 and Smith #07 started to pull a lead out over the ROCKHARD Racing guys when on lap 21, #29 Marty Kreis's motor let go and he was not able to coast to the pits bringing out a yellow with 4 laps to go. On the restart Steinman held the lead with Megan right on his bumper followed by Terry and Hummell. But gremlins struck the ROCKHARD team again when #24 Chris Terry's motor spun a rod and dropped him out of the race. This put Hummell up to 3rd and Mena #12 up to 4th followed by #88 Kaleb Kreis. No one was able to make a move on the last few laps and so it was Steinman holding onto the lead and taking his 4th win of the season...2nd WIN at Thunderhill for the season. Fan Favorite Megan Smith #07 finished 2nd. Team Rockhard Racing's Hummell #48 and Kreis #88 finished 3rd and 5th with Frank Mena coming home in 4th.

 

This opened up the points chase a little to allow Steinman to have a 13 point lead over 2nd Chris Terry after Terry had closed dow the points lead to 2 with a good string of results.

 

Next up...the double header weekend at Houston. HMP on Saturday night...and GCKI on Sunday.