Jesse Kennedy – Big Game Hunter Strikes Again
With just three laps to go, Jesse Kennedy (#10) of Southwold, powered to the bottom of Andrew Gresel (#81) of Hepworth, and raced to the checkers in the APC Canada Day Shootout at Delaware Speedway on Wednesday night. The event would feature NASCAR Sprint Cup stars Kurt and Kyle Busch, as well as a full field of the top FT Garage Late Model drivers in Ontario.
The tenacious veteran used savvy and skill to move through the field during the 60-lap feature, and took advantage of the wounded point leader in one of the many tremendous battles throughout the affair.
With a Maple City 100 under his belt, as well as a pair of Great Canadian 200’s, Kennedy has shown that he knows how to win ‘the big one’, and Wednesday night he outlasted everyone to cash in another. He talked about his race with Gresel for the lead, “I was sitting in third and watching the #4 [Urlin], and the #81 [Gresel] starting to rub each other, and I thought we might be able to get it by default. We’ve got them like that before. Then the #4 pitted and I didn’t think we had enough to get the #81. Then we started going again our car was turning better, and I was able to put a crossover move on him to take the lead.”
Kennedy was fast in practice, but in qualifying a broken clutch would lead to slow times against the clock, leading to a fifth-place starting position in his heat race. He could only get to fourth, sending him to the B-Main.
In that 25-lap event, Kennedy was the class of the field, leading wire-to-wire, and holding off J.R. Fitzpatrick (#84), who finished second in the final qualifying race. Mat Box (#27) of Milton, filling out the podium.
The night started with qualifying and it was Steven Mathews (#15) of New Liskard, taking the pole with a run of 18.954 seconds. Mark Watson (#78) was second, with Jon Urlin (#4) of London, third. Kyle Busch qualified fifth, with Kurt checking in seventh. The top 14 were separated by a mere 3/10ths of a second.
Kyle brought the crowd to their feet with his heat race win in the first qualifying race after taking the lead from Mathews after a physical battle before setting sail to the victory.
In heat race number two, Watson won from the pole, getting away from 2011 Maple City 100 winner D.J. Kennington (#3) of St. Thomas.
Kurt Busch was in the next heat, starting on the outside of the front row, with Urlin on the pole. Urlin checked out as Jay Doerr (#43) of London, put the heat on Busch. On lap three, Doerr moved to second, but he couldn’t catch Urlin, as Kurt finished third. Doerr exclaimed afterwards, “I passed Kurt Busch!”
In the final heat, Fitzpatrick started on the pole, but he was struggling with brake problems all night and couldn’t keep Gresel behind him. Gresel won, with Kirk Hooker (#38) of Chatham, and Powerade Modified driver Justin Demelo (#82) of London, finishing third in just his second career start in the division.
The inversion would put Doerr on the pole in the feature, with Kennington alongside him, while Kyle started seventh, and Kurt 11th.
The night would end on a sour note for Kyle Busch almost as soon as the green dropped when contact led to a broken shock mount. He explained the incident, “The guy two rows in front of me missed a shift, and I ramped over the guy in front of me.” He would be scored 29th.
Like his brother, Kurt would fail to see the checkered flag, as he was involved in some contact early on, adjusting the body panels on his Charger. He would eventually tap out on lap 44, with a 21st-place result as he broke a clutch. We were in one little fracas and I dumped the clutch to get us out of there. It’s not the result I wanted, but we had a great time, you have a great track, and it was nice to see a guy that came out of the B-Main win the whole deal.”
Kennington lead early, but Doerr was able to race his way out front on lap 13. Gresel took the lead, while Kennington had carb problems, leading to a 26th-place result.
Mathews was able to get to second, and for a number of restarts hit Gresel while the pair were coming to the green, but after a few laps, Andrew would be able to pull away. Finally, after one restart, Mathews passed Gresel, only to have Gresel beat his way past Steve and back into the front. Gresel talked about the contact, “Coming to the restarts he was lifting us up off the ground. After we got going, it took about three laps for us to pull away. Then he hit me and passed me, so I returned the favour and we knocked the toe out. After that I couldn’t keep the car down in the corners.”
Urlin was gaining on the leaders, and found himself in second, and with Gresel’s car not getting in the corners well, it was only a matter of time before he was able to pass the point leader. That’s when the left rear of Urlin’s went down forcing him to visit his crew.
When Kennedy gained the inside lane, Matt Pritiko (#21) of London also came with him, to move to a second-place finish. He said, “I I knew the 10 was going to be able to open a hole for me, and I tried to follow him through that hole. I know I was faster than the guy behind me, so I would be fine. It feels great to finish second, because I thought I was going to get stick at the back all night.”
Kirk Hooker (#38) of Chatham also moved past Gresel, and rounded out the podium. He was pleased with the result, all things considered. ‘The Joker’ said, “We decided to do this two weeks ago, and have worked solid at it. Our car would go away, and then come back again, and then I could get back at it. It was also nice to see Jesse win, and we have to thank Mike McColl for so much.”
Gresel finished fourth, while Dion Verhoeven (#77) of Kerwood rounded out the top-five.
Box worked his way to a sixth-place finish, while Demelo recorded his second top-ten in as many starts, finishing seventh.
Brad Cocoran (#05) of Milton would up eighth, with Trevor Monohan (#13) of Hamilton ninth, and ‘Canada’s Fastest School Teacher’ Doug Stewart (#2) of London tenth.
The event played to arguably the largest crowd in Canadian oval track stock car racing since Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, and four other NASCAR drivers came to play at Cayuga Speedway in a CASCAR Super Series race in 2002.
Delaware Speedway through fundraising was able to present cheques to the Kyle Busch Foundation in the amount of $3,308, and to the Kurt Busch Foundation in the amount of $1,000 to support worthwhile charities.
As for Kennedy, the ‘Big Game Hunter’ at Delaware, maybe he can line up a ride for the ISMA weekend, or in a Whelen Modified on Labour Day. Any car owners need a driver for Delaware?
