By Keith Butler
This weekend the KJ Motorsports Team began their asphalt season by competing in a Checkered Flag Sprint Series sanctioned race at Charlotte County Motorsports Park in Punta Gorda, FL.
This is the first race for the KJ Motorsports team this season as the first scheduled race was on January 30th was canceled due to rain. This season the KJ Motorsports will again consist of Keith Butler driving the #19 Shaw Chassis named “Ms Liberty”, Amanda Ferguson driving a KJ Motorsports built chassis named “Geraldine”. Joining Keith and Amanda this season for select shows will be Mickey Kempgens driving the #19T chassis named “Foxie”. All three drivers were ready to compete at the January race and returned for this event at Charlotte County.
The day at Charlotte County was a great Florida spring day. The sun was out and the day time temperature was 70 degrees and cooled off to the low 60’s as the sun set that night.
A total of 16 cars showed up for the Checkered Flag Sprint Series event. The 16 cars were broken up into 2 heat races. Keith, Amanda and Mickey were in the first heat and started 2nd, 4th and 6th respectively. On the initial start, Keith got a better start than the pole sitter Robbie Hackett and beat him into turn one. Keith led every lap of the heat and took the win. Amanda was fighting a loose condition in the heat and did not get a great initial start. Amanda was following Keith, on the high side, around the pole sitter, as Gary Gimmler, who had started 3rd, came up to make it 3 wide. While running 3 wide, Gary got on the gas and broke his tires loose and clicked wheels with Amanda. Amanda, to avoid being in an accident, slowed up and got behind Gary. Amanda was gaining on Gary as the laps were winding down, but she had run out of time. Amanda finished 3rd. Mickey finished in 5th.
Between the heat and the feature, the KJ Motorsports crew worked on all three cars to get them ready for the feature. Keith’s car needed wholesale changes to be ready for the feature. He changed the left front, left rear and right rear springs. They also made a gear change, adjusted the wheel spacing, adjusted the right front shock and changed the ride heights. Amanda’s car needed a stagger change to fix the loose condition. Mickey’s car needed a stagger change and cross weight adjustment. With all the changes that Keith’s car needed, they were working on it the whole time. In fact Keith was the last of the CFSS cars to roll out for the autograph session. But all three cars did make it out to meet the fans. Also during the autograph session, Keith and Amanda took time to walk through the grandstands and handed out some autographed K&N Filters Hats.
All 16 cars made it out for the 30 lap feature race. As the cars were scheduled to take the green flag, Mark Gimmler and his brother Gary made up the front row. Keith lined up in the 11th starting position, Amanda started in the 8th and Mickey started in the 3rd starting position. All of the cars got a good start and the race was green for the first 16 laps. Keith had moved his way up to 7th place and was going around the car of Jimmy Alvis. Jimmy got sideways and Keith ran up and over Jimmy’s right rear tire. This sent Keith up the track into the loose stuff and he spun out. This brought out the caution. Keith sustained no damage and restarted at the rear of the field. By this point, Amanda had moved from her 8th starting position to 6th and chased down the #31 car to move into 5th position. She was moving on the 4th and 3rd place cars when the caution came out. Mickey, from his 3rd place starting position, had been holding his position by holding off Scotty Adema in 4th place.
As the cars were lined for the restart, Keith was at the tail of the field, Amanda was in 5th and Mickey was in 3rd. On the restart, Amanda made her move on the 67 car of Scotty Adema and was able to make the pass for 4th. Although she was able to make the pass Amanda was already starting to feel the car going away. Every time she would get on the gas, the car would break loose. But Amanda would not have to wait long before she would get another chance to cool her tires. On lap 18, the red flag came out as Mike Tharp spun into the track entrance opening in turn 3. This was a one car accident, but quite a hit into the wall and tire barrier.
The track was cleaned up and the cars lined up for the restart. Keith was inside the top 10, Amanda was 4th and Mickey was 3rd. Amanda’s handling problem was only getting worse, she wanted to make a move on Mickey, but the car wouldn’t stick anywhere. She had no immediate threat from behind her but still could move any further forward. Keith was picking cars off lap by lap and with 2 laps to go was able to get up beside Amanda. They raced side by side for a lap and Keith was able to clear her. On the final lap Keith was able to get up to Mickey’s right rear, but was never able to complete the pass.
In the final standings, Mark Gimmler won the event followed by Gary Gimmler, Mickey Kempgens, Keith Butler and Amanda Ferguson in 5th.
A big thank you goes out to everyone that helps make the KJ Motorsports program what it is. This weekend Dawn Flinn of EarEverything was down from Indiana and was able to come to the track and enjoy the races. We would like to invite any and all of our supporters and friends to come out to one of our scheduled races this season.
The next event for the KJ Motorsports team is back the Charlotte County Motorsports Park on March 13th for another Checkered Flag Sprint Series race.
Media Kits, Head shots and Car Shots are all available on request. Please Email Jenn at KJMotorsports@aol.com
KJ Motorsports race schedule please visit our web site at KeithButler.Homestead.com.