Some nights go your way, and other nights you just want to forget. Sunday night at Sunset Speedway for the KDR Motorsports team was one of the ones that they’d like to forget.
“Tough night tonight,” Kevin Cornelius said after the night. “Had a great car but I guess there’s just some guys you can’t race with. I really don’t have much to add; it was a bad race for us and for OSCAAR, in my opinion, too many cautions.
“Looking forward to putting this behind us and moving on to Peterborough.”
The night started off well for Cornelius as he finished second in both of his heats.
In the feature, he started fifth and battled side-by-side with fellow rookie of the year contender Andrew Gresel in the early laps. However, the battle would end on lap eight when Gresel made contact with Cornelius, causing Cornelius to hit the outside wall. Cornelius would fall back a couple spots as a result. That was only the beginning as on lap 10, Mike Beyore would make contact with Cornelius, causing Cornelius to spin around and draw the second caution of the feature. The spin would drop Cornelius back to the 15th position.
On the restart, Cornelius started his climb back through the field, moving into 11th on lap 12. He passed Ian Bourque for the 10th spot before the third caution on lap three for Rob Gibson spinning.
Cornelius got by Jesse Kennedy on the restart to move into the ninth spot. Cornelius would catch Wayne Issacs for the eighth position on lap 17 when Issacs would cut down across the front of Cornelius. The resulting contact between the pair caused the field to bunch up with Cory Jones spinning Bourque out to draw the fourth caution. Cornelius would come down pit road under the caution to fix the resulting fender damage, restarting in the 16thposition.
The fifth caution would fly on the restart for Gibson spinning, bumping Cornelius up to 15th.
The field would get five more laps in before the sixth caution for an incident involving Roy Passer, Jones and Gibson. The resulting incident bumped Cornelius up to the 14th position.
On the restart, Cornelius would continue to climb through the field, moving into 11th before the seventh caution for Jeff Hanley spinning Tyler Hawn.
On the restart, Cornelius would move his way into the ninth position and then into eighth on lap 38 after a pass on Jesse Kennedy before the caution flew with six laps to go for Hawn spinning.
On the restart, Brandon Watson and Gresel would make contact in turn two, drawing the caution and bumping Cornelius up to the sixth position.
Then on the restart, Derrike Tiemersma would have problems down the backstretch, bumping Cornelius up to fifth.
Though on the following restart, heck broke loose once again as Glenn Watson and Hanley made contact in front of Cornelius. Cornelius got on the brakes to avoid getting into Watson, causing Issacs to make contact with him from behind. As a result, Cornelius spun in turn three and would go back to the 11th spot.
On the restart, Cornelius was able to get by Passer to move into 10th before the next caution came out for Passer and Issacs making contact.
The final six laps would see Cornelius battle hard and finished 10th despite the damage to the car earlier in the feature.
“Outstanding effort put in by the guys and Mike McColl,” Cornelius said. “Cant thank them enough; just hate to see their hard work go to waste on a race like that.”
Photos are available on the KDR Motorsports website at . Keep up with KDR Motorsports by liking the facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/kdrmotorsports17 – and following KDR Motorsports on twitter – @KDR_Motorsports.
Thanks to Halton Crushed Stone, Lee Sand and Gravel, Hanson Concrete, Sandbox Tech Child Care, Alliston Transmission, Ed’s Automotive, Triple Concrete and MacMaster Buick GMC for their support.
Also, thanks to Mike McColl and Jeremy Noon from McColl Racing Enterprises for all of their help this weekend and support.
Lastly, thanks to the fans that came out to the track. We appreciate your support. We look forward to seeing you at Peterborough Speedway this coming weekend.
