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Kil-Kare Speedway 1166 Dayton-Xenia Road Xenia, Ohio 45385 937 429-2961 www.kilkare.com
Henes MSA master at Kil Kare, Stevens, Liquori, Carroll also Score
By Todd Ridgeway & Jerry Wahl
Xenia, OH (7/16) – It was a nearly packed house for the yearly visit of the open wheel cars as Kil-Kare Speedway presented Open Wheel Friday with the MAS supermodifieds, Buckeye Super Sprints, USAC Ford Focus Midgets, and the Kil-Kare modifieds. When the final checkers were waved it was Jon Henes, Talon Stevens, Joe Liguori, and Mike Carroll taking home the top money with feature wins.
A first time visit to a new playground for MAS turned fun for Jon Henes as he became the first repeat winner on the tour in 2010. Henes took his No. 36 family owned Supermodified to the front, battled all challengers, and hung on to get his second seasons victory on the 2010 Midwest Supermodified Association (MSA) campaign. Those challengers drove hard and fast lap after lap gunning for the determined veteran leader. It was the first time the MSA had ever visited Kil Kare Speedway in Xenia Ohio and 15 cars would take the green flag for the 30 lap feature race.
Randy Burch and Henes would bring the 15 car field to the drop of the green for the start only to see the caution fly before the first lap could be completed when Bobby Dawson spun in turn one scattering the field. In the confusion fast qualifier Charlie Schultz had some contact which caused front end damage ending his night before one lap could be scored. Realigned and in formation the field would once again take the start only to see another yellow flag before the first lap was in the books. This time it was a whole may lay of cars spinning on the back stretch ending with Matt Palmer against the outside wall ending his night. The third time was a charm as the field raced through the first lap with Henes getting to the point. Henes tried to stretch the lead out setting a blistering pace but the Stout team cars of Trent Stephens and Liquid Lou Cicconi would have nothing to do with it. Cicconi and Stephens both where coming fast from their eighth and tenth starting positions and by lap 15 were bearing down on the Henes 36. Tim Ice was also on the move swinging through cars and coming to the front in his May Motorsports No. 77 entree. At lap 20 Stephens would spin and a yellow flag was displayed. Coming to the restart with just ten laps to go it was Henes, Cicconi, and Ice. When the green dropped Cicconi instantly went to the inside and blasted past Henes under the flag stand to nab the lead for the first time. As fate would have it the yellow would once again be displayed as the new leader developed problems. Getting a push back to the pit area Cicconi’s night came to an end with a broken race car after leading just one lap. Giving the lead back to Henes the field would move into the final laps as Ice would now go to work. Ice would go the outside and challenge for a couple laps pushing his red racer a nose in front. However, Henes maintained the preferred line and was able to muscle the lead away from Ice as the two made contact and raced very close. At the checkered flag it was Henes over Ice, with Stephens coming from the tail to regain a third place finish followed by Gene Lee Gibson fourth and Denny Fisher rounding out the top five. Dawson was sixth, Rich Reid seventh, Cicconi settled for eighth, Brandon Fisher ninth, and Burch rounded out the top ten. The race was slowed by five cautions and heat winners included Schultz and Denny Fisher. Schultz set fast time with a lap of 11.136.
“We showed up here and never been here before,” stated Henes. “It’s a neat little track, and I knew the first time I got on it I’d like it. I couldn’t figure it out but, I knew once I did figure it out I would be ok. It was just getting seat time and finding a groove I was comfortable in. We really didn’t adjust the car all day. I told the guys earlier today I am not going fast enough to adjust the car, I can’t tell you what it is doing. We are not going fast enough to make it push or make it loose. We just thought we might hang around get a top five out of it and have a decent point’s night, put a little money in our pocket. It couldn’t have turned out any better. We got as much money in our whole car as ninety percent of these guys have in their engine. We put one tire on all day; the old tires just seemed to work out good. We didn’t want to spend a bunch of money and the right rear worked out good,” concluded the race winner.
Runner up Ice raced hard but for the second race in a row he came up just a little short. “I just missed all that stuff on those couple starts and just couldn’t get going very good,” noted Ice. “Once I got going the car was really good. I got to the outside of Henes for the lead two or three times and down the backstretch with just two or three laps to go his car quit and just hesitated, I hit him bending up my wing. Then I got tight in the front, I got up beside him all the way down the backstretch and he got up into me in the corner, I just couldn’t clear him. But, good job for everybody, it was great, we had a good car all day,” finished Ice.
“I had a real fast car, I know that,” said Stephens. “I started in the back and got all the way up to third battling my teammate on the outside for second and then just lost it. I think I just got the rear tires to hot and it just spun on me. So, I came back up through and I just lost the right rear. I was just driving it too hard for to long. Tim and Jon where going at it, I seen them up there hit each other a couple times. All in all a good night it’s all in one piece,” finished third place Stephens.
The USAC Ford Focus Midgets were well represented with nineteen cars starting the thirty lap feature event with former Legends car driver Toby Alfrey and Andy Nock setting the pace. Alfrey took the lead leaving Nock and fourth place starter Jake Blackhurst to battle for third while Joe Liguori held second. Nock nosed ahead of Blackhurst on lap four but the determined Blackhurst continued to nock on Nock’s rear bumper.
Liguori appeared to be a man on a mission as he closed in on leader Alfrey but Alfrey’s luck ceased on lap twenty when he had to drop out with problems with his machine. For the grandson of the well known driver Ralph Liguori it was a blessing in disguise as he inherited the lead to hold it all the way to the checker to claim his first Kil-Kare win. Blackhurst wasn’t far behind in second with Kyle Hamilton third while new track record holder Scotty Hunter (13.458) was fourth and Kyle O’Gara, brother-in-law to IRL driver Saraha Fisher was fifth.
Heat wins went to Tyler Cottingim, Nick Drake, Justin Hummel.
When the Buckeye Super Sprints hit the track the night could have well be named “Talon Stevens Night” as he definitely ruled with fast time, heat win, and then put the icing on the cake with the feature win. The feature no more than received the green flag when action was halted when Tommy Kunz came to a quick stop on turn two after losing fluid on the track which pitted him as well as Kevin Shirey.
Cody Gallogly enjoyed the lead the first few laps but Mike McVetta unseated him only to suffer mechanical problems on lap nine which dropped him from further competition. Second running Gallogly now had the front spot back but fast timer Talon Stevens was coming on strong and zipped past for the lead on lap eighteen which he held to the checker. Mike Shepeard was second with Gallogly third followed by Ryan Gillenwater, and Joey Weicoff. Heat winners were Stevens and Weicoff.
When the Kil-Kare modifieds hit the track it was rookie Brandon Oakley and Jason Mahaffey in the front row but Oakley’s machine dropped liquid on the track just after the green appeared causing a mix-up of cars. Oakley was sent to the back of the pack which moved Steve Foster up who took the lead and was enjoying the front spot until the timing clock caught him well under his qualifying time which sent him to the tail. Jerry Stapleton was now in command with Mike Carroll and Mahaffey right behind as Carroll moved to the outside of Stapleton as they ran wheel to wheel for the lead. Carroll in his McDonald’s special finally took the front spot and sailed to his second win of the year. Stapleton was second with Derek Barnette third, Jason Mahaffey fourth, and Brian Reeser fifth. Brad Williams was fast timer at 13.958.
MAS Supermodifieds Top qualifier; Charlie Schultz 11.136 Heat – Denny Fisher, Randy Burch, John Henes, Rich Reed Heat – Charlie Schultz, Gene Gibson, Lou Cicconi, Trent Stevens Feature (30 laps) – John Henes, Tim Ice, Trent Stevens, Gene Gibson, Denny Fisher, Bobby Dawson, Rick Reed, Lou Cicconi, Brandon Fisher, Randy Burch, Jack Smith, Jim Paler, Charlie Schultz, Matt Palmer
Buckeye Super Sprints Top qualifier: Talon Stevens 11.469 Heat – Talon Stevens, Brian Buchanon, Kevin Shirey, Cody Gallogly Heat – Joey Weicoff, Tommy Kurz, Mike Shepheard, Mike McVetta Feature (30laps) – Talon Stevens, Mike Shepeard, Cody Gallogly, Ryan Gillenwater, Joey Weicoff, Chris Midhael, Danny Shirey, Kurt Hube, Mike McVetta, Brian Buchanon, Tommy Kunz, Kevin Shirey
USAC Ford Focus Midgets Top qualifier: Scotty Hunter 13.458 (NTR) Heat – Tyler Cottingim, Joe Liguori, Kyle O’Gara, Scotty Hunter Heat – Nick Drake, Andy Nock, Ryan Fleming, Kyle Hamilton Heat – Justin Hommel, Rick Fedizzi, Jake Glackhurst, Toby Alfrey Feature (30 laps) – Joe Liguori, Jake Blckhurst, Kyle Hamilton, Scotty Hunte, Kyle O’Gara, Nick Drake, Justin Hummel, Andy Nock, Ryan Flemig, Rick Fedrizzi, Tyler Cottongim, Chris Lamb, Geoff Gerline, Jessica Bean, Tyler Corriher, KIent Kreigbaum, Katie Hargitt, Josh Staten, Toby Alfrey
Kil-Kare Modifieds Top qualifier: Brad Williams 13.958 Feature (30 laps) – Mike Carroll, Jerry Stapleton, Derek Barnette, Jason Mahaffey, Brian Reeser, Ryan Fleming, Josh Smith, Caleb Reschar, Joe Jennings, Grant Gamble, Brandon Oakley, Darrel Skaggs, Steve Foster, Chris Bailey, Brad Williams
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