By Keith Butler
This weekend the KJ Motorsports Team competed in a Top Gun Sprint Car Series sanctioned event at the East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, Florida.
In practice the car was a little loose. Keith saw that the track was sloppy and that the loose condition was most likely from this. Instead of making changes to the car, the team let the track dry up and loose condition went away.
A total of 27 cars showed up for the event. Keith started outside of the front row in the second heat. He had no problem taking the lead early in the race. Keith led every lap. With one lap to go, a single car spin brought the field under caution. When restarted, the field went to a green-white-checker. Managing the restart correctly, Keith once again jumped out to a lead and won the heat.
In the final laps of the heat race, Keith noticed a miss in the engine. So between the heat and the feature, the KJ Motorsports crew examined the engine to find out where the miss was coming from. Narrowing it down to one cylinder, the valve cover was removed to find an exhaust valve was stuck in the cast iron heads. With time running out, the decision was made to pull the push-rod, on the hurt valve, and let Keith run the race with only 7 cylinders. The push-rod was pulled, the spark plug was made not to fire and the car was rolled out on the front-stretch for the start of the feature.
The crew found it unnecessary to ask Keith to take it easy on a 7 cylinder engine. Keith was at East Bay to race and with 8, 7 or 6 cylinders, he knows the green flag is still the same color and how it feels to stand in victory lane.
Keith lined up 3rd and for the start of the 25 lap feature. The feature was lost a car even during the parade laps. There were 2 cautions before the field even completed 2 laps. As the field settled out, Keith was running 5th. Keith was battling for 4th as the next caution came out. After the restart, the 4th place runner spun unassisted and that moved Keith to 4th. During this caution the 3rd place runner stopped on the backstretch and that moved Keith to 3rd for the restart. The final 15 laps of the race run without a caution and Keith is able to hold his position. Keith brought the car home in 3rd place.
In the final finishing order Danny Martin ended up winning the race with Sport Allen, Keith Butler, Gene Lasker and Tim George finishing out the top 5.
KJ Motorsports will next compete back on the asphalt, with the Checkered Flag Sprint Series on October 16th at Punta Gorda Speedway in Punta Gorda, FL.
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.
Based in Riverview, FL, KJ Motorsports fields the No. 19, 20 and 19T Chevrolet Sprint Cars. With Sponsorship from JB Banta Enterprises, Eagle Jet International, K&N Engineering, Gulf American Contracting, Four Star Products, Maverick Concrete Cutting and Core Drilling, Ram Engineering, Atlantic Powder Coating and Red Line Oil, the team will run a select schedule in Florida and the Southeast and and compete in national sprint car events. The program now in its 10th year utilizes racecars developed in-house and in conjunction with Shaw Racing Products.