By Bill W
July 17, 2012 – Kerry Madsen and the Keneric Racing #29 team put themselves in the record books last Wednesday night with a prestigious win in the Brad Doty Classic held at Limaland Motorsports Park in Lima, Ohio. The St. Mary’s, New South Wales driver backed it up with a close second place finish in the King’s Royal at Eldora Speedway on Saturday. The “Month of Money” continues tonight with twin features at the Don Martin Silver Cup at the Lernerville Speedway in Pennsylvania, and this weekend with the two-night Summer Nationals at the Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg.
Kerry put himself in good position by qualifying second quick in the 50-car field on Wednesday at Lima. “We qualified well, but weren’t great in the heat (5th),” he says. “On the start of the Dash, we were able to run the low side, and pass Steve Kinser. Running second there put us in a good spot. Honestly, I was hoping for a top five out of it.”
Despite the front row start, Kerry yielded when the green dropped for the main event. “We dropped back to third,” he says. “Then there was a restart, and I was able to get into second. Stevie Smith was leading and we were heading into traffic. We were running well, and he was struggling a bit. I thought I had a good shot at him, but a yellow came out.”
After a good battle with Smith, Kerry would take the lead for good. “We got a good restart, and Stevie and I exchanged slide jobs for a couple of laps,” he says. “I ended up getting the upper hand, and got the lead at that point. There were a couple of late restarts, and Stevie was able to throw a couple of big slide jobs at me. Fortunately, I was able to drive around them and get the Victory.”
The win meant a lot to the team. “It was good,” says Kerry. “With all the All Star guys and Ohio guys, it’s tough. I really thought getting out of there with any kind of result would be good. I wasn’t expecting to be that good and win the race. It was a bit of a shock. That race gets bigger every year, and Brad Doty is such a great ambassador of the sport.”
Riding momentum, the team headed to Eldora Speedway near Rossburg for Friday’s “Knight Before the King’s Royal”. “We qualified late, which at Eldora can be a good thing,” says Kerry. “The track really lost a lot of time on Friday. We qualified 18th, and that put us starting in row nine in the feature.”
Kerry began moving forward, but was caught up in an incident. “We struggled early, but after the first caution, we came on strong,” he says. “On another restart, someone spun in front of us, and we ‘T-boned’ him. Unfortunately, the race we won the Brad Doty race with…we killed. The guys did a good job putting a car together for Saturday.”
With 50+ cars signing in for the King’s Royal Saturday, Kerry timed in tenth quick and finished second in his heat. “Ironically, that wasn’t the best place to qualify,” he says. “Starting third in the heat at Eldora is usually not a good thing. We got a good start falling behind Sammy (Swindell) and getting around Brian Brown. We were closing on Sammy…we just needed more time.”
Starting tenth in the 40-lap $50,000 to win main event, things slowly came to Kerry on the high-banked half-mile oval. “I actually dropped a couple of spots at the beginning,” he says. “I was racing high, and then I changed my line. I got back up to fifth, and there was a restart. I was racing with (Daryn) Pittman and a couple more cars and we got into second.”
At that point, he set his sights on Swindell, who was leading. “I was chasing him down in traffic pretty close,” says Kerry. “The yellow came out with twelve to go, and I messed the restart up. I was on top and the motor had a little stumble. I lost a lot of ground, and had to regain second. I was closing on Sammy. I was struggling coming out of two. I was tight. I couldn’t get the ground I thought I needed to make a slide job work in three and four. I tried the middle, because it had worked earlier, and I ended up losing a ton of ground with about three laps to go. We didn’t have quite enough in the end.”
Follow Kerry Madsen on his Website and on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter!
Follow Kerry Madsen at his website located at www.KenericRacing.com! Also keep up with him on Facebook and Twitter (which also can be accessed at the website) at the following links…
Facebook link = http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Official-Fan-Page-for-Kerry-Madsen/101145169933686
Twitter link = http://twitter.com/#!/kmr29
Kerry’s Releases
To receive Kerry’s Releases, send an e-mail to sprntcar@hotmail.com with “Madsen” in the subject line!
The Team
Kerry Madsen (KMR / Keneric Racing), Bob & Peter Gavranich (Keneric Racing), Earthex, Morrison Motors, KPC Chassis.