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Improved Infineon ... | More >> | Recap Archives: 2005 | 2004 | 2003

Start - 11th | Competitors - 18 | High - 9th | Low - 13th | Finish - 9th | analyzer report-(not avail)
Race Report - June 28st, 2005 - Race 16 of 36

Three times during the year the NASS Lightning teams head out to the west to sunny California. In the first visit to the left coast they make only left turns at the California Speedway. During the early summer they diverge from left only as some right turns are in order at the Infineon Speedway. Right turns are not advisable when they return to the California Speedway in September. Staying with the theme, left-right-left was the demise last week in Michigan but this week left-right-left would be the key to staying on the blacktop and getting to the finish.

The AMSOIL team was looking to get out of California with a car that was in one piece and without digging a deep hole in the points. Kevin qualified mid pack in eleventh and held his own in the opening laps. He lost one position on the start but settled in and tried to find a rhythm. A small slip off of turn three on lap three caused the car to skid off the pavement and into the dirt. The car didn't hit the wall but was pointing in the wrong direction for a short period of time. Kevin righted the car and got up on the wheel for the rest of the race and made his way methodically to ninth place.

The first pit window came at lap fifteen. Kevin held out for a point of time and hoped to possibly lead a lap but on lap sixteen he dragged his left front tire in turn ten and the tire blew out. The pit entrance fortunately is along the straightaway to turn eleven and the driver scrambled off the track and to the attention of the pit crew.

Taking on four tires, Kevin started to get comfortable and set off to chase Norm Adkins who was occupying the eighth position. Kevin caught him and slipped past with about eight to go. The pass was in an awkward spot. That is to say that Infineon is a rhythm track and if you get out of synch in any part of the track, it takes until turn eleven to get back in synch. Not being fully on track allowed Norm to draw close and get a run on the inside of turn ten. Norm trying to reclaim the position dived low into turn eleven but locked up the brakes and didn't get the car slowed enough.

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Both cars came together as Norm's car shoved the AMSOIL Chevy sideways and into the fence in turn eleven. Norm was able to get away while Kevin had to right the car one more time and set off to contest the position again. During the confrontation one driver got by but Kevin caught him in short order and hustled the car to get back to Norm. Gaining considerably on each lap Kevin drew into striking distance for eight place but fate would intervene as the race would stop suddenly with two to go. Perhaps it's the Internet's version of rain and the race was called and the field frozen.

Kevin Inglin, the pilot of the AMSOIL Chevy had this to say after the run:

"As much as I'm not a huge fan off road racing I do find myself enjoying it. I don't think I'll ever have a shot at winning one of these things as there are always guys that are just amazingly fast but I must say that our program has improved. I felt comfortable this year and smooth enough to save the tires through a run and almost made it the whole race without an off track excursion.

I saw Norm coming and knew he wasn't going to get stopped in time. I caught him after running several seconds behind him and was faster so it's a bit disappointing to have that happen. I was really up on the wheel there at the end as all I wanted to do was get the position back. I guess these things happen and at least we equaled our best finish of ninth. Let's hope we have as promising a run in Watkins Glen later this year.

Until next week... "