Welcome Back to Kevin Jr.'s website.  It's been a while but hopefully we will keep up a little better this season.  First, a quick overview of last season.  After finishing his junior year of high school, Jr. moved to Brownsburg, IN for the summer.  He was a roommate to fellow teenage hot shoe, Hunter Schuerenberg.  This was when Kevin's season began to change.  Hunter, having several more years racing experience, took Jr. under his wing so to speak.  Soon KT learned more about his maintenace routine, his shocks, different setups, and some great drivin tips that started paying off on the track.  Jr. was quick to implement alot of this newly found knowledge as much out of necessity as wanting to.  Kevin was a one man wrecking crew during the week.  He was his only help.  Each day Jr. would drive his truck and trailer to the car wash, unload his car, do his maintenance, load it back up in the trailer, then do it all again the next day.  His hard work paid off.  His new knowledge and his continued determination saw him beat Shane Cottle and Daron Clayton for his first heat win of the year.  Then at Kokomo, he passed Levi Jones at the line for his first top five.  By season's end he was 4th in points with the Midwest Sprint Car Series.

Now on to what's new for 2009.

Well folks let me start off by saying welcome back.  I am learning how to manipulate this website myself this year, so things may come a little slower than normal, but maybe I will get the hang of it soon.  Now on to the fun stuff.

Saturday was an event in the making all week long.  I'm gonna start with Saturday and work my way backwards.  The threat of rain all afternoon had everyone skeptical that this race would ever reach reality.  But I must say, the Helfrich's and their crew are extremely diligent, persistent, and relentless in their efforts to give the drivers and fans a show, which they did.  Next our adventure started.

As it was well documented last year, I (dad) am a little behind the eight ball when it comes to setting up these machines.  But JR. said he trusted me with the task, so I gave it a whirl.  We were pretty decent in hot laps, but couldn't get any forward bite.  As I was scratching my head as to what to do next, Hunter Shurenburg and his dad, Rick, came over and definitely got us going in the right direction.  We set out for our heat race when I realized that i forgot to set the shocks.  JR. didn't know and I just hoped for the best.  He took the lead on the start from his 3rd starting spot, but when he came out of two he had no grip and was passed back, then someone spun in front of him in 3 and 4 so he had to stop in order not to hit them, which then put him at the rear for the total restart.  We ended up 7th and headed to the "B" main.  When we got back to our pit, Alphonz Girard from Advanced Shocks, was there to lend a hand.  He tuned the shocks and made some minor adjustments to the car and we transferred from the "B" main to the feature.

FEATURE TIME.  We started at the rear of the field and began our chess game towards the front.  JR. had a solid run being smooth and avoiding all the wrecks and taking care of his equipment.  The reward was a 9th place finish and the HARD CHARGER of the race award for passing the most cars.  JR. said after the race, "This is what we needed, a solid race with a good race car to jumpstart some good luck."  I kind of agree with him, but I believe it was his determination to race this weekend that showed up in his results.  Let me explain a little.

The beginning of this past week I had to let JR. know that money was scarce and that we wouldn't be able to run Haubstadt on Saturday.  Without missing a beat, he let me know that, YES, we would be racing and that he would pay for it.  JR. has a little yard mowing business of his own, and told me that he had enough yards this week to pay our way up there, and that he would win enought to get us back home.  Well that's exactly what he did.  This is the part of last week that impresses me about this kid that I have the priviledge of calling my son.  See ya'll next week.  (if he cuts enough grass)

     Kevin Jr. and I worked all week trying to figure out what was wrong with the car that wouldn’t allow it to transfer weight properly.  We believed we fixed it and took off for Lawrenceburg Saturday morning for the biggest race of our season.  $10,000  goes to the winner.

     When we showed up it was early and not many cars around, but WOW did that change in a hurry.  71 sprint cars showed up to take their shot at the money.  J r. started in the 2nd heat (12 cars, 12 laps) where he took the lead on lap one and led through several cautions and restarts until lap 10.  He had a bobble in turn 3 that cost him the top spot and finished in 2nd.  Not bad considering he had the likes of Daron Clayton, Jerry Coon, Jr., Jon Stanbrough and MSCS points champion Kyle Cummins in his heat, and only the top 2 transferred to the money show.  So now we’re in the big one.  Kevin Jr. started 8th on the tacky ¼ mile and at the green he passed several cars, but the start was called off.  The second start found the top ten staying close and finding their spot of ground to call theirs.  Jr. and Casey Shuman ran side by side for what seemed like 15 laps, when the cushion in turn 2 grabbed his right rear for a split second that allowed Shuman and Coons to get by,  Jr. settled in and raced to a 10th place finish in the 50 lap event.  A top 10, with 71 cars on hand, in the biggest race of his short career, we’ll take it.  Thanks son for giving me something to do every week.

This weekend tried to throw everything at Kevin Jr., but nothing could deter his focus on the job at hand.  Friday night Jr. started 9th in his heat and in the first corner he drove under the car in front of him and the driver didn’t know he was there and came down the track which knocked his right front tire off the bead.  That put him in the pits and last in the “B” Main.  He battled his way to an impressive 2nd place finish.  That put him in the rear of the 24 car field in the “A” Main.  Jr. picked his way through on the slick track all the way up to 10th spot.  On the white flag lap he stepped out of the groove to try his “John Wayne” move to pass for ninth, but found out real quick all of the grip was gone outside the low groove and ended the night in 11th.

Saturday night was really a fun night.  As you know, the Bell Helmet Shootout uses passing points to set the “A” Main.  Kevin Jr. and A.J. Anderson started side by side at the rear of heat 2.  They put on a march to the front with A.J. getting the win and Jr. finishing second again.  This gave the duo top passing points for the night setting the front row for the 50 lap Bubby Jones Classic.  The first 10 laps Kevin Jr. was running 3rd behind eventual race winner Kyle Cummins, and Anderson.  Then the fun started.  Jr.’s rear brake rotor exploded which left him with absolutely no braking capabilities.  He fell back to 10th before he could figure out how to manipulate his way around without his left driving pedal.  He learned how to caress the cushion to keep him on the track and up to speed.  He worked his way methodically back up to 8th, then a red flag came out for fuel at lap 35.  I went out to the car to ask Jr. what in the world he was doing, when HE asked me to check his brakes.  My reply to him after I looked was, “Your brakes don’t exist, they’re gone rotor and all.”  So, at that point, I was rather pleased with what he had done so far, not only not wrecking, but racing at speed and using the track to help him.  Jr. asked where he was in the field and when I told him he was 8th, he said, “I can get those next two guys.”  Well that’s exactly what he did.  While in 6th place with two laps to go, someone tried to slide job Jr. and he was a sitting duck to a not very good attempt.  The car knocked him off the track and pushed him back to 18th when he got back on the track.  Jr. passed two cars back and it was over.  Just so you know, dad was impressed with Jr.’s poise under pressure and the ability to drive it home in one piece.  Good Job Kev!