Congratulations to #16 Mike Steinman for his win March 17th at Thunder

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It was another close race for the win for the "ROYAL PURPLE" NASKART Pro Racing Series as Mike Steinman in his #16 Royal Purple/Austin Architectural Graphics kart just edged out Team ROCKHARD Racing's #29 Marty Kreis at the line, by a mere .018 of a second!

 

The race started off with Reagan Garner in his Garner A/C #10 jumping out to the lead with #1 Jason Marshall in his Affordable kart drafting right along with him. Sliding into third on the start was the Nic Zucca in his "Tribute to A.J Foyt" #14 kart. But being closely followed by the #27 of Chris Terry and the #16 Royal Purple/AAG kart of Mike Steinman. The order stayed this way til lap 4 when Terry and Steinman drafted past the #14 of Zucca in chase of the leading 2 karts. But by lap 6, #1 Marshall looked back to see that Terry and Steinman had caught them making it a 4 kart battle up front! The front 4 were nose to tail until lap 12 when the engine of the #27 of Chris Terry popped its top ending Chris's night early.

 

On the restart the duo of Garner and Marshall were out front again with Steinman getting a slow start but running the lead 2 down. What the leaders didn't know was that the #29 of Kreis had slowly clawed his way up to fourth after starting the race dead last. And just a few laps later, a near disaster hit the 2011 Champion as his kart started leaking oil a little at first, but then alot as the side cover bolts to the motor started coming out and the motor started losing rpm and power! This brought out the 2nd yellow of the night for the cleanup crews to check for oil as a couple of karts spun out in turns 3 and 4. And allowed Steinman who was drafting on the bumper of Jason Marshall to get his visor cleaned as he could not see at all from the oil that sprayed out onto him.

Luckily, no damage happened to Jason Marshall's motor and he will be able to race again next week.

 

On the restart with 10 laps to go, the #10 of Garner was once again back in the lead with the #16 of Steinman drafting along with him trying to make a 2 kart breakaway from the field. It was working until lap 19 when Steinman starting going to the outside to try and take the lead away from Garner. But this was the opening for the #29 of Marty Kreis to draft along with Garner and put Steinman back to 3rd.

 

Lap 22 saw Steinman get back past Kreis and try to draft with the #10 of Garner until lap 24 when Steinman bullied his way past Garner down the back straight into turn 3 and take the lead coming off of turn 4 but meanwhile getting Garner loose and sideways.

This allowed the #29 of Kreis to get by as well and draft with Steinman the last few laps. Steinman then started coming off of turn 2 tight to make sure no one got under him with Kreis right there on his bumper. On the White Flag lap, Kreis seeing that Steinman wasn't going to give up the low line went high down the back straight to get the momentum going thru turns 3 and 4. And coming off of turn 4 he did just that moving up beside Steinman as they came to the line...but came up just .018 of a second short at the line!! One more lap ...heck 2 more feet and Marty Kreis would have won!! What a great finish for both of these drivers though. But only .17 of a second back was the #10 of Reagan Garner who finished 3rd! You could have thrown a blanket over these 3 at the finish!

 

Nic zucca in the #14 took 4th in his first race of the season and Cade Terry in his Monster #4 took his 2nd top 5 finish of the season. Jim Kritikos in the #3 finished a close 6th with Kaleb Kreis in the Team ROCKHARD Racing #88 onle .5 of second back in 7th.

 

Lots of close racing and even more next week when the "ROYAL PURPLE" NASKART Pro Racing Series moves on to Houston Motorsports Park on March 24th for the 3rd race of the season!!

 

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!!

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Video of Mike Steinman's Win in the NPRS March 17, 2012