Kuzma Survives Late Scare!!!
It was a beautiful night for racing and 11 cars rolled into the pits at Langley Speedway for action on Friday. Brandon Tiezzi made his first start of the season and was mega fast right off the hauler setting a Happy Hour fast time of 14.759. Charlie Kuzma posted the 2nd fastest time with a lap of 14.811. Qualifying was a reversal with Kuzma putting his #113 on pole with a lap of 14.793 and Tiezzi claimed the outside front row posting a lap of 14.817
When the green flag went in the air Kuzma jumped out front and Jay Harned was able to follow him and keep Tiezzi stuck on the high side and claim 2nd spot. Tiezzi settled into 3rd in front of the #55 machine of TJ Christ. Harned was able to keep the gap to Kuzma close as they settled into a race pace. Eric Nordhoff was able to get around Christ for 4th and bring the cars of Michael Allen and Clifton Cockrell with him as the time away to rebuild the #55 following a serious accident showed there was still work to do. Tiezzi's quick pace in practice was very promising but his chassis began to fade as the green flag laps wore on and he lost the handle on his car and faded back into the field until he ultimately made heavy contact on the front stretch wall and called it a night on lap #53 leaving dad Darryl to carry on the family pride in his #16.
Harned continued to hound Kuzma as the laps clicked off. Nordhoff was in 3rd, Allen in 4th and Cockrell in 5th. Jeff Dotson battled an ill handling car all night and opted to retire from the race on lap 70, pulling his #88 into the garage area. On lap 82 Allen's steady pursuit of Nordhoff's #22 paid off and he made a decisive pass for 3rd and Cockrell took advantage of the open door and staked his claim to the 4th spot in his #29. Cockrell then began to apply pressure on Allen and on lap 93 he moved underneath and took the 3rd spot. Kuzma maintained his lead over Harned but he had to push a little harder than expected to do so.
Allen kept the pressure on Cockrell and it nearly paid off on lap 117 when the #29 got loose off of turn 2 and Allen poured the coals down the backstraight to gain the spot. However heading into turn 3 he put all 4 tires on the apron and lost control on his worn tires. He punted the safety cone onto the track and the first caution of the night fell over the field.
Having nothing to lose Nordhoff hit pit road for 4 new shoes while the top 3 stayed out as there would be only 2 green laps at best to decide the race. When the green waved Harned was a sitting duck on the outside as Cockrell hung onto Kuzma's bumper. He was not able to mount a serious threat but he made Kuzma turn in 2 qualifying style laps to secure the win. Harned's excellent effort was relegated to a 4th place finish after getting hung on the outside.
1. #113 Charlie Kuzma
2. #29 Clifton Cockrell
3. #22 Eric Nordhoff
4. #44 Jay Harned
5. #59 Michael Allen
Next Friday night is the 10th and final week of the Langley Track Championship. I hope to see a great field for this event....
