It was a beautiful day for racing at KilKare Speedway as the Main Event Racing Series and 3 other local track divisions took to the track. The Aluma Trailers, Amsoil, Impact Racing, Mid America Properties, D C Racing Dodge Charger had been gone over from one end to the other. The motor made a trip to Rhyne Engines and was confirmed to be in as good a condition as the day we started the season. The car got a new radiator without the internal cooler. We felt as ready as ever to tackle the tricky KilKare Speedway.

Drew took to KilKare like he had raced there many times before and by midway through the first practice session he was tracking times that would put him in the top 20 in qualifying that was to come. The nose of the car was not down on the track like we wanted so we made some spring changes up front and went back out gaining a couple valuable tenths. We only took on new right side tires and put scuffs on the lefts that were left over from the last race’s early finish. They hardly were even scuffed in! We taped off the nose, freed up the car a bit and away he went out 6th to qualify. Bingo, Drew was on top of the speed charts at this point with a 12.9 second lap, .1 off the eventual pole and .3 off the track record. We would eventually end up eighth in the qualifying order. Now we would hear whether the pill draw would be an 8, which would put us on the pole, or 10 which would put us third. It was an eight and Drew would start third.

At the start of the race Drew fell into third place and ran there till the yellow flag would fall. At the restart the motor sputtered and Drew got freight trained to 11th. He was picking his way to the front in tight traffic with some lap cars now a factor. Someone up front nearly spun, the pack hit the brakes and Drew went high to avoid the mess and ended up spinning putting him to the rear of the lead lap in 17th place. The last 60 or so laps saw Drew steadily move up and maneuvered around lap traffic. Drew passed the 6th place car with ten to go and a straightaway behind the 5th place car. He caught the pack with 2 to go and settled to finish the 100 lap feature in 6th right on the rear bumper of the 3rd, 4th and 5th place cars. This moved Drew into the 8th place in points and well within reach of third place.

Our next race will be $10,000 to win special at Angola Speedway on Thursday June 11. This is the same track Drew sat on the pole in a field of 44 of the best Super Late Models in the Midwest, and ran top 3 till he fell out with a broken transmission on lap 30 in the first race of the year. We feel we have found a few things that will give us speed and now Drew has finally experienced making it to the end of one of these 100 lap features.

For more information you can go to www.drewcharlson.com. A special thanks to Aluma Trailers, Elmer Schaeffer and his fine Amsoil Products, Impact Racing Safety Products, and Mid America Properties.