By: Joe Burrage
Brainerd, MN. – (July 4, 2010) – The past couple of weeks has not been kind to Chad Kemenah. The four time All Star champion has had all sorts of bad luck from the start of the season and just can’t seem to catch a break. On Thursday night Kemenah made his way to Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, South Dakota, and the bad luck continued to haunt the CKR Team as he was unable to finish the feature due to a very bad vibration that shook the entire car making driving almost impossible.
The following day Kemenah and crew member Adam Brough inspected every inch of the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks, Hampshire Racing Engines, MS Motorsports, Maxim, No.63 machine to find what was causing the vibration. The work paid off and the problem was solved and off they to the North Central Speedway in Brainerd, Minnesota for more World of Outlaws action.
Feeling confident and ready to race on Saturday night Kemenah got his night going in the right direction by timing in fourth quick, but the vibration problem was not solved. After qualifying was completed Kemenah made the call to change the rear end on the No.63 sprinter hoping that would solve the problem, but time was a huge factor. Scheduled to start in the third position in the first heat race the team was unable to complete the change in time before heat race action began. Kemenah and the crew continued to work on the car and were able to complete the change in time for the B-Main.
Starting on the front row of the B-Main was perfect for the veteran driver. Kemenah took the green flag and immediately started to search the very unique racing surface. After the B-Main was completed Kemenah was able to finish in the second position and grab a transfer spot into the 35-Lap, A-Main.
After the B-Main was completed Kemenah felt very comfortable he could make his to the front in the feature event and he did just that. Starting in the 12th position, Kemenah knew he had plenty of time to make something happen and the Findlay, Ohio driver went to work right away. The first couple of laps Kemenah held his position as the field slowly settled into a nice racing rhythm.
From there Kemenah made his first pass of the race on lap three using the bottom of the speedway to perfection. Keeping to the bottom of the speedway Kemenah was able to hold off multiple challenges from Craig Dollansky and Jac Haudenschild who were running the middle and the top lines.
As the race continued Kemenah was unable to gain any ground on 11th place running Brooke Tatnell until the first caution flag of the night hit the speedway around Lap-13. Double file restarts have been a topic of conversation with Kemenah all year and this restart played out perfectly for Kemenah as he was able to get passed Tatnell and start to pressure Lucas Wolfe who was running in the 10th position. Kemenah continued to use the bottom of the speedway in turns one and two and the middle of the speedway in turns three and four.
Just past the halfway point of the race the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks No.63 was starting to show some mussel. Kemenah was able to find multiple racing lines on the very intense bullring and that enabled him into the eighth position. From there Kemenah continued to push his way to the front and was able to make a very nice pass on Tim Kaeding but the San Jose, California driver would have nothing of it and the two drivers battled very hard for nearly three laps until Kaeding got the advantage in traffic.
Running in the seventh position with ten laps to go, Kemenah was able to find another line where the car responded very well. Using this line during the final stages of the feature Kemenah was able to catch and pass sixth place running Tim Kaeding and pull even with fifth place runner Jason Sides before the caution flag hit the speedway. On the ensuing restart Kemenah was able to hold off a very determined Steve Kinser to finish in the seventh position just behind sixth place running Jason Sides.
“It has been a tough season for us so far,” said Kemenah. “Tonight we went out and timed in great and I thought we had that vibration problem fixed but we didn’t. The rear end change set us back a bit, but we were able to get back out there during the B-Main and finish in the seventh position in the feature. We really needed this run tonight, everyone that has supported this team has not given up on us and hopefully this is a sign of things to come for our team with the month of money just a couple of weeks away.”
The Sponsors: Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks, Hampshire Racing Engines, Maxim Chassis, MS Motorsports, Kears Speed Shop, Champion Racing XP Performance Lubricants, Bell, Awesome Racewear, Accu Force Shock Dyno, Banshee Graphics, SSE Helmet Designs, ButlerBuilt Motorsports Equipment, TP Wings, Winters Performance Products, Media Camping Center, Real Racing Wheels, All-Star Performance, KSE Racing Products, Inc., Chiappelli Motorsports.
