From Inside Line Promotions
Cleveland, TX – (March 23, 2014) – Ray Allen Kulhanek accomplished a major mission on Saturday after making a late decision to race at Bronco Raceway Park.
“At 3 o’clock yesterday I got a text saying that it was paying $2,500 to win,” he said. “I had everything ready to go. We tried a couple of new things since it wasn’t a points race. I was extremely happy with the things we ended up trying.
“I’ve been struggling with the red clay, red sand type tracks. I’ve been always trying to find my little edge that I’ve needed to gain on those types of tracks. You never want to sling things at the car when you have a good baseline, especially when you’re running for points.”
While Kulhanek will return to action with the ASCS Gulf South Region on April 4-5 at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas, he used Saturday’s event as a competitive testing session.
“It worked out really, really, really well,” he said. “I was happy with everything on the car.”
Kulhanek charged from sixth to win his eight-lap heat race. He was then slated to line up on the outside of the fourth row for the 20-lap main event.
“If you haven’t been there, you basically start behind everybody who has been there and raced and has points,” he said. “They line everybody up how they are in the points standings. There were seven guys who had been there, but the two guys on the front row couldn’t start after crashing in heat races.”
After moving up a row to start the feature sixth, Kulhanek dropped to 11th on the opening lap when a driver in front of him got sideways.
“The guy in front of me was squirrely and all over the place,” he said. “That jockeyed me back to 11th. If the start had not gone the way it did, I felt like we had the car to beat. We were extremely, extremely fast. It just didn’t work out in our favor. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.”
The only caution came with a handful of laps remaining and Kulhanek was seventh on the restart.
“I could pretty much go anywhere on the track that I wanted,” he said. “In turns one and two I could run either through the middle, across the bottom or up top. But turns one and two was a lot better than turns three and four were. In turns three and four it was harder to pass somebody.”
Following the caution, Kulhanek made a late charge to pass four cars and end with a third-place result. It marked his first podium finish of the season and gives him momentum heading into the next ASCS Gulf South Region event in two weeks.
QUICK RESULTS –
March 14 – Bronco Raceway Park in Cleveland, Texas – Heat race: 1 (6); Feature: 3 (6).
SEASON STATS –
2 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 1 top 10, 2 top 15s, 2 top 20s
UP NEXT –
April 4-5 at Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas, with the ASCS Gulf South Region
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.