Kuzma Dominates In Debut

The 2016 Sure Fire Langley Track Championship Series got kicked off Friday night with 14 cars in the pits to take on this tough .40 mile oval. This season all 10 points races in the SK Modified division will take place at Langley to determine a track champion.

Practice was paced by series new comer Charlie Kuzma in his #113 as he posted a lap of 14.807. Shane Gross made his return to the series in fine fashion and posted the 2nd fastest time late in the session with a 14.853.

Qualifying would see a familiar face on top of the leaderboard as past champion TJ Christ put his #55 on pole with a time of 14.860 while Gross would again be a close second and claim his spot on the front row with a lap of 14.868.

At the drop of the green flag Christ would grab the early lead but Kuzma made a power move from his 4th place starting spot clearing the #22 of Eric Nordhoff and filling the spot on the bottom of the track keeping Gross on the outside ultimately clearing him for the 2nd spot. On lap 9 Kuzma would work to the bottom of Christ and take over the lead of the race.

The first yellow of the night would fly as the #99 of Michael Palmer had a lazy slide off of turn 4 and came to rest against the inside wall just past the start/finish line. A few cars opted to hit pit road for adjustments at this early opportunity.

The lap 36 restart saw Kuzma inch away from the pack once again and hold a comfortable lead over Christ and the #29 of Clifton Cockrell. On lap 45 the #48 of Mark McFadden did a little agricultural racing through the grass after a half spin and a correction, he returned to the track but problems would follow him when on lap 56 he would again spin and contact the outside wall, and rolled into the path of Christ who had no place to go. Series winner Michael Allen would spin to avoid contact but suffered no damage. Christ would hit pit road for repairs.

Racing resumed briefly on lap 62 with Kuzma leading the #4 of Gross but action in the field would see defending series champion Jay Harned get hit on the front straight by the #22 of Nordhoff and sent spinning.

One the following restart Christ battling back from his earlier issues was able to climb back to 2nd place after getting around Cockrell and set his sights on the #113. Lap 82 would see issues for the #33 of Mark Koschik as he spun and his the outside wall. He was to limp back to the pits with a plume of smoke trailing his damaged machine.

Leaders took advantage of this late caution for fresh tires and a minor tweak for the final rush to the finish. The green flag flew on lap 90 but miscommunication from the flag man resulted in the pace car being slow to exit the track and resulted in some bumping and jockeying for position in the field but everyone kept their cool and sorted it out. On lap 97 the #51 of Paul Cohen made contact with the #55 of Christ sending Christ spinning and into the line of Russell Duquette making his debut in the #804. Christ suffered heavy damage and was finished for the night.

The final restart would see Nordhoff lead the field to green on older tires and was quickly dispatched by Kuzma, Allen and Cockrell. The top 3 would run nose to tail the final 21 laps and but no one put a wheel wrong to give the driver behind a chance to capitalize. At the end Charlie Kuzma took home the checkers in his Sure Fire debut.

1. #113 Charlie Kuzma

2. #59 Michael Allen

3. #29 Clifton Cockrell

4. #22 Eric Nordhoff

5. #404 John Gablinske

I want to thank everyone for coming out and making week 1 of the Langley Track Championship a success, I hope to see everyone out again next Friday night.

Race you there.......