By: Joe Burrage
Grand Forks, ND. (June 24, 2010) – This past weekend Chad Kemenah was in action at the River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Kemenah and his new crew member Cody Jacobs are starting to get things figured out and by Sunday evening Kemenah nearly capped off his weekend with a top ten finish.
“Anytime you make changes with the crew there is a learning curve,” said Kemenah. “Cody Jacobs comes from a very passionate sprint car family that has been around the sport for many years. I feel very confident with Cody and his abilities, hopefully we can get things figured out and start winning some races.”
Friday nights racing program was cancelled due to rain, but Saturday night came along very quick and Kemenah got things going right away by timing in seventh overall. The excellent qualifying effort put the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks, Hampshire Racing Engines, MS Motorsports, Maxim sprinter in a perfect position to grab a birth in Dash. After the very quick heat race was over Kemenah would finish in the fourth position, two spots short of getting a transfer spot in the dash later on during the program.
Kemenah and Jacobs went to work on the No.63 car for the 40-Lap, A-Main where they were starting in the 14th position. Kemenah would work his way up to the 11th position before the feature event turned into yellow flag frenzy. The double file restarts would squash Kemenahs hopes of finishing in the top ten, and the Findlay, Ohio driver would cross the finish line in the 14th position.
“We were pretty good in the feature,” said Kemenah. “The yellow flags and double file restarts hurt us; it was really tough to pass cars tonight because everyone was so hooked up and tight during the final stages of the feature. We learned a lot about the car tonight and we feel pretty confident about our chances on Sunday night.”
Sunday turned out to be a beautiful afternoon and the perfect weather conditions made the racing action even better. During the afternoon Kemenah and crew member Cody Jacobs kept a close eye on the track to make sure they started the night off in the right direction. Qualifying got underway and Kemenah went out about half way through the 36 car field. The ending results were not what they were looking for as Kemenah timed in 16th overall.
Scheduled to start in the fifth position in the second heat race time was a very big factor as multiple changes were made to the car. Kemenah would go out and finish in the fourth position and grab a transfer spot into the A-Main. The track was not as fast as it was on Saturday night, but Kemenah and Jacobs managed to get the job done.
The 40-Lap feature event quickly came for the CKR Team, making a few changes to the shocks and tires Kemenah took his position near the rear of field for the A-Main event. The green lights quickly came on around the high banked bullring and Kemenah started to make his way forward very patiently. Using both the bottom and the top of the speedway Kemenah was able to stay clear off trouble and finish in the 11th position after the feature was completed.
“Tonight we were better than last night,” said Kemenah. “I could see Sam Haferetepe right in front of me and if I would have had one more lap we might have had something for him. Cody and I are still getting this deal figured out but were getting close and hopefully next weekend we can bring home a top five finish and build from there.”
