(Photo Courtesy of Dork Racing)
Inside Line Promotions – WILLIS, Texas (June 8, 2014) – Ray Allen Kulhanek literally chucked the monkey off his back on Saturday at Gator Motorplex.
“Saturday afternoon I was talking to a buddy about the monkey on my back,” he said. “He went to go do a couple of things while I was servicing the car. When he showed up at the track, he had bought a stuffed monkey and he put it down the back of my shirt. I walked around the track with that down my shirt before the races.”
As the figurative monkey on Kulhanek’s back turned literal prior to the ASCS Gulf South Region event, it didn’t last long. Later that night Kulhanek led all 25 laps of the main event to earn his first victory of the season.
“The biggest deal is we’ve been fast on a lot of nights and it’s been like something has dragged us down,” he said. “It’s a huge relief off my shoulders.”
And the stuffed monkey?
“Some little kid ended up with it,” he said. “It was a cool toy anyway.”
The night opened with Kulhanek charging from last to a fourth-place finish in his heat race, which earned enough points to advance into the feature redraw. Kulhanek pulled the No. 1 in the random draw to start on the pole of the main event.
“To get fortunate to get a front row spot on Saturday is a nice change of pace,” he said. “Fortunately we got on the pole and that’s all it took. I told myself before I started the race that it was a long way around the outside of the track and with the bottom being decent I was going to run the bottom until somebody showed me something else.”
Kulhanek maintained the top spot with ease throughout the first half of the race.
“We got a caution with 10 laps to go and we took back off and went about five or six laps,” he said. “All of a sudden here came Kevin Ramey on the outside of me. I changed my entry into the corners a little bit after I saw him. (My crew members) said he was still there, but I never saw him or heard him again.”
It was Kulhanek’s first ASCS win since the season opener last year.
The weekend began on Friday at Heart O’Texas Speedway in Waco, Texas, where Kulhanek rallied from sixth to second place in his heat race. He then pulled the No. 7 in the feature redraw to start the main event on the inside of the fourth row.
“We took off and the car that started in front of me got sideways,” he said. “I had to get on the binders to keep from hitting him. It knocked me back to 11th. I went from there up into the top five within the first five laps.”
However, a miscue entering turn three later in the race sent Kulhanek flying off the track to trigger a caution.
“I had moved into fifth place and was running fourth down and there’s no wall on the turns there,” he said. “Going into turn three when I went to set the car I was next to the wall. My right rear tire barely bumped it and it straightened me up and sent me off the track.”
Kulhanek was able to rebound from the back to sixth place before being involved in a crash with a handful of laps remaining. He was credited with a 16th-place result.
Kulhanek is slated to compete with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour this Saturday at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, for the opening round of the Bob Westphal Memorial Cup Speedweek.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 6 – Heart O’Texas Speedway in Waco, Texas – Heat race: 2 (6); Feature: 16 (7).
June 7 – Gator Motorplex in Willis, Texas – Heat race: 4 (8); Feature: 1 (1).
SEASON STATS –
13 races, 1 win, 3 top fives, 9 top 10s, 11 top 15s, 13 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas, with the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.RayAllenKulhanek.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dork.racing.9?fref=ts
APPAREL –
Kulhanek will have apparel available for sale at his race trailer throughout the season. For a list of his scheduled events, visit http://www.RayAllenKulhanek.com.
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Oilfield Equipment & Manufacturing
Based in Shawnee, Okla., Oilfield Equipment & Manufacturing is a business within the oil industry.
“This is the second year Dennis Marshala and Oilfield Equipment & Manufacturing are on board with me,” Kulhanek said. “He’s a great asset to our team. We can’t thank Dennis and everybody at Oilfield Equipment & Manufacturing enough for helping us get up and down the road.”
Kulhanek would also like to thank Miller’s RV Park, Texas Rotating Equipment, ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems, J&J Auto Racing, Smiley’s Racing Products, Engler Machine & Tool, Outlaw Wings, Hoosier Racing Tire Southwest, Penske Shocks, Don Ott Racing Engines, Snap Graphics, Frazier and Son Laser Cutting and Simpson Race Products for their support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program and to join Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or InsideLinePromotions@gmail.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Jun 08, 2014
- Article Date: 6/8/2014 by Inside Line Promotions