From KJ Motorsports
This weekend the KJ Motorsports Team continued their asphalt season with a race in DeSoto Super Speedway in Bradenton, FL. This is a TBARA sanctioned race.
Since this a winged race, the team prepared the car named “Geraldine” to be Keith’s primary for this event. Keith has driven this car in all the winged pavement events this year.
It is the middle of summer in Florida, but it was miserable hot at DeSoto. The thermometer said 97 degrees, but the heat index was between 104 and 107.
Keith went out for practice on worn-out tires to shake the car down. The car felt a little loose, but considering the tires, the team knew it would come in. Between the practice and the heat race the team bolted on 3 new tires and the car was ready.
A total of 19 cars showed up for the TBARA event. The 19 cars were then broken up into 3 heat races. Keith was in the third heat and started 4th. This heat was full of the fastest cars and Keith was finding the car a little tighter than his liking. The new tires had tightened the car up too much. The heat race went green to checker with no cautions. Keith was able to make his way by one car and another that had passed him early in the event to finish the heat in 3rd place.
Between the heat and feature the team added fuel and increased the stagger to get the car better for Keith. After the adjustments, the car was rolled out for the start of the race.
The 16 cars made it out for the start of the feature. As the cars lined up, Keith was 9th. The green flag flew and Keith started to move towards the front. The first caution was on lap 13, for a single car
spin off of turn 4. At this point Keith had made his way up to 6th place. The car was starting to give Keith some trouble. The car was getting tight in turns 1 and 2 and loose in turns 3 and 4. DeSoto is
not an egg shaped speedway with turns that are different from each other, so this condition is without explanation. The race continued on and the car only got worse.
In the final few laps, Keith was fighting the loose condition in 3-4 and the car came around. Keith was able to save it and continue on, but the caution flag flew, so Keith had to restart at the rear of the field. Under TBARA rules, inside 5 laps to go, the lap-down cars restart behind the lead lap cars. After the restart, with 2 laps to go, Keith was able to pass 4 cars to finish the race in 7th position.
David Steele won the race with Gary Gimmler second Troy DeCaire, Shane Butler and Larry Brazil rounding out the top 5. Keith finished the event in 7th place.
The next race for KJ Motorsports will be back with the TBARA again at DeSoto Super Speedway on August 20th.