From Bill W
October 19, 2012 – It looked like it was in the cards last Saturday for Kerry Madsen, but it was not to be. Leading the Ironman 55 at the I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri on lap 47, he tangled with a lapped car and crashed. The disappointment overshadowed a solid fourth place finish in the full program completed Saturday evening. Kerry and the Keneric Racing #29 team have a few weeks off of racing until November’s World Finals in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Saturday’s events started with the make-up of the 55-lap “Ironman 55” originally scheduled for August. The feature was ready to take to the track when the rain came, and Kerry held the pole position. He would take the green and lead the first 21 laps, before moving back to the fore on lap 33.
He would lead through lap 46 before his tangle. “It was unfortunate,” says Kerry. “That car was seven laps down, and I was going down the front straightaway headed into turn one. He just took a hard right into me. I was absolutely in the worst spot for that to happen.”
The worst part was how good the car felt before the accident. “The car had been great,” says Kerry. “It’s a long race. We were a little tight early, but we had a good starting position that allowed for that. The last twenty laps it really came in and was really nice.”
Obviously, the $20,000 to win race would have been a prestigious one to conquer. “We tore a car up,” says Kerry. “At that point in the race, I thought our shot at winning it was very good. It was disappointing. The ‘Ironman 55’ would have been a really cool race to win. It just wasn’t to be. It’s not the first time that something like that has happened, and it won’t be the last.”
A full program was run in the evening. Kerry would qualify tenth, run second in his heat and ninth in the Dash. He would charge to a fourth place finish. “We pulled the back-up car down and did well,” he says. “You know we started ninth and ran fourth. It was really good racing all night. It was a good run, but it was overshadowed by what could have been.”
Right now, the team is looking forward to getting back on the track in Charlotte in two weeks. “It hurts, because it was worth $20,000 and we had to pull down a new car,” says Kerry. “We need to keep pushing on. We have Charlotte left, and then we’re getting ready for next year.”
Two weekends of racing off will not be spent idly. “Right now, we are prepping things to go to Australia,” says Kerry. “Unfortunately, we hurt the car at Pevely, so we will be as busy as ever. Instead of a little downtime, we will be pretty busy.
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/#!/
Twitter link = http://twitter.com/#!/kmr29
The Team
Kerry Madsen (KMR / Keneric Racing), Bob & Peter Gavranich (Keneric Racing), Earthex, Morrison Motors, KPC Chassis.