By: Joe Burrage

The Knoxville Nationals is a race that every sprint car driver, team and car owner wants to win at least once in their career.  Last Wednesday night Chad Kemenahs night went from fifth quick in qualifying to horrible in a blink of an eye as the right rear axle broke sending Kemenah hard into the turn four wall.  Kemenah would climb out of the car unharmed but the race car was destroyed and the brand new motor was hurt as well.

“Everyone always says if you qualify well at the Knoxville Nationals and stay out of trouble you will get locked into the A-Main on Saturday night,” said Kemenah.  “We timed in fifth quick overall and the rear axle decides to break on us during our heat race and the end result is a lot of torn up equipment and disappointment.  We were able to get another car built on Thursday so I have to thank Adam Brough and Scott Euler for there hard work.”

Chad Kemenah was not the only driver that had a tough week during the 51^st Knoxville Nationals, Jason Sides, Jac Haudenschild and Tim Kaeding all struggled earlier in the week.  Kemenah was scheduled to start in the 15^th position in the C-Main and the track was very fast and narrow during the very cool evening. Read more »

By: Joe Burrage

So far the “Month of Money” has not been kind to Chad Kemenah and the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks, Hampshire Powered, Maxim, No.63.  Kemenah and Brough kicked things off at the Kings Royal and after qualifying and getting locked into the feature event it finally looked like Kemenah were going to get things back on track, unfortunately it did not work that way.

Kemenah started the $50,000 to win Kings Royal in the 12^th position, once the racing action got going the No.63 sprinter just could not find any grip on the racetrack in the early stages of the race.  Kemenah searched the track high and low but while he was doing this something in the steering was not working properly and Kemenah could barley turn the car around the high banked Eldora Speedway.  Kemenah took his car back to the pit area and he was credited with the 24^th position after the feature was complete.

Tuesday night Kemenah and Brough made the long trip to the Lernerville Speedway for the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup.  Tom and Fran Chiappelli of Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks were on hand to watch and help Kemenah through out the night and things didn’t go right at all.  Kemenah timed in 27^th quick overall, finished ninth in his heat race, and had to take a provisional to start the A-Main.  The feature got going and Kemenah again was forced to come from the rear of the field to try and make something happen.  Kemenah raced all the way up to the 15^th position before the set up went away on the No.63 sprinter and he would finish in 24^th for the first feature and 14^th for the second feature. Read more »

By: Joe Burrage

The CKR Team rolled into the Cedar Lake Speedway on Friday afternoon looking to improve on a tenth place finish at Dodge City Raceway last weekend.  Kemenah and crew member Adam Brough worked really hard on the car last week to have a good showing at the Cedar Lake Speedway and extra work paid off in qualifying with a lap time of 11.378 seconds good enough for sixth quick overall.

The high banked 3/8 mile was very fast in qualifying and during the first two heat races.  Passing during the heat races was very difficult and if any of the drivers starting in the second row wanted to get into the top two positions it was going to be done on the first lap.  Kemenah lined up in the third position for the final Heat Race of the evening with Joey Saldana starting alongside him.  Kemenah got a solid start but Saldana got a better one and immediately shut the door on Kemenah going into turns one and two.  Kemenah quickly settled into the fourth position and tried to run the cushion a few times to run down the leaders and then disaster struck, the motor had let go and Kemenah came to a stop on the front stretch.

Kemenah was pushed back to his trailer where Brough, Jason Sides, and Kraig Kinser were there waiting for him.    Time was a huge factor, and the hard work was completed 20 minutes later just in time for the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks No.63 sprinter to be in the staging area for the B-Main.  From there Kemenah went out and won the B-Main convincingly but there was still a lot of work to be done. Read more »