From K.J. Motorsports
This weekend the KJ Motorsports Team competed in a Top Gun Sprint Car Series sanctioned event at the Ocala Speedway in Ocala, Florida. This was Amanda’s third race at Ocala, in the last 2 years. Due to his work schedule, Keith did not race this weekend. This was the season finally race for the Top Gun Series. Going into the event, Amanda was 10th in series points.
A field of 19 cars took to the dirt at Ocala Speedway Saturday evening. The night started out slowly as Amanda had a problem in the practice session. A fitting on the power steering hose broke. With a face shield full of power steering fluid and no power steering, Amanda was able to safely slow her car down and come off the track. After replacing the broken fitting, the car was ready for the heat race.
Amanda was in the third heat race. The car handled alright during the heat, but the engine was running a little rich. Amanda finished 6th in the heat race.
Between the heat and the feature, no handling adjustments needed to be made. But changes were made to lean out the engine.
For the feature, Amanda lined up in the 17th position. The field made a clean start to the race and it was rather competitive. The field ran 9 laps until the first caution. This caution was for Jeanette Burnett spinning in turn 2. Burnett’s car was undamaged and rejoined at the tail of the field. The cars once again took the green and ran until lap 16 until the next caution came out. This caution was for Troy Knowles spinning in turn 4. Amanda was picking her way forward as these other cars were spinning. Avoiding the accidents was coming easy as Amanda’s car was handling well and her confidence on this track was good.
The field restarted, but the race was quickly back under caution on lap 18 as Mark Ruel Jr. spun coming out of turn 4. Ruel hit the tire barrier and was done for the night. Right before the caution, Amanda was passing the 5th place car. When the officials lined up the restart, they placed Amanda back in the 6th position. The field again took the green and ran for a while until the final caution of the night came out on lap 23 with only 2 laps to go. This caution was caused by 2 cars spinning in turn 4 and one other car stopped on the track to avoid hitting the spinning cars. All three cars were re-fired and rejoined the race. Gene Lasker held on to the lead for the final 2 laps and took the feature win.
Amanda held on to take home a 6th place finish. This finish also moved her up in the series points to end the season in 8th place in championship standings.
KJ Motorsports will next compete with the Checkered Flag Sprint Series race on December 5th, back at the Charlotte County Motorsports Park. This will be the season finally race where the championship and Rookie of the Year titles will be determined.