From Inside Line Promotions
Beaumont, TX — (March 16, 2014) — Year after year, Ray Allen Kulhanek is used to his season-opening race going one of two directions.
“To be honest, every year me and my car owner talk about it, my first night to start a season has always went one of two ways,” he said. “I either win opening night or have a DNF.”
Seeking his sixth ASCS Gulf South Region championship and fifth in a row, Kulhanek opened his season last Friday at Golden Triangle Raceway Park with a sour finish after a strong start.
Kulhanek started the night by charging from seventh to a third-place finish in his heat race, which gave him the third-most points and a trip to the feature redraw.
“Then of course I drew the eight, picking up where I left off last year,” he said.
After pulling the highest number in the redraw, Kulhanek started the main event on the outside of the fourth row.
“On the initial start that we had we went from eighth to fourth,” he said. “We ran a lap and a half and had a caution come out. They ended up making us do a complete restart again.”
Kulhanek battled just outside the top five for most of the feature until disaster struck in the closing laps.
“Me and Christopher Bell were going back and forth,” he said. “With a couple of laps to go I had a residual valve stick on us. I guess a piece of trash got in that residual valve. It ended up spinning us out.”
As Kulhanek drove into turn three, his brakes locked up and he spun out. Although he was able to restart, Kulhanek didn’t have brakes for the remainder of the race and he finished with a 15th-place result.
“That’s probably the fourth or fifth time it’s happened in 10 or 11 years of racing,” he said. “I chalked that up as a DNF. I just rode around the last couple of laps with no brakes.”
Saturday’s ASCS Gulf South Region race at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, Texas, was cancelled because of rain.
The next ASCS Gulf South Region event is April 4-5 at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas. Kulhanek and his team are in the process of determining if and where they will compete before that weekend.
QUICK RESULTS –
March 14 – Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont, Texas – Heat race: 3 (7); Feature: 15 (8).
SEASON STATS –
1 race, 0 wins, 0 top fives, 0 top 10s, 1 top 15, 1 top 20
UP NEXT –
TBD
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.RayAllenKulhanek.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dork.
APPAREL –
Kulhanek will have apparel available for sale at his race trailer throughout the season. For a list of his scheduled events, visit http://www.RayAllenKulhanek.