(Photo by Ron Skinner Photos)
Inside Line Promotions – HIGHLANDS, Texas (July 6, 2014) – Ray Allen Kulhanek is putting his game face on.
“It’s getting toward the end of the year when everything is going to start mattering for points,” he said. “I generally don’t worry about points until midseason. It’s time to get down to business. We’re a championship contending team and I feel like we should be in the top three on a nightly basis.”
Kulhanek scored results of sixth and fifth place, respectively, last weekend with the ASCS Gulf South Region to cut the point leader’s advantage to 76 points with seven races remaining this season.
“It was a solid weekend for us, especially the way the year has been going for us,” he said. “But I’m not satisfied with not running in the top three.”
After Thursday’s event was rained out at Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige, Texas, Kulhanek kicked off the weekend on Friday at Shady Oaks Speedway in Goliad, Texas. Unfortunately, it got off to a rough start after he lined up on the outside of the front row for his heat race.
“On Friday night we got called for a jumped start in our heat race,” he said. “I took off when the polesitter did. His car just had a stumble on the start. They ended up docking us a row on the restart, so that put us back to fourth. Then I got into a tangle going into turn one and that backed me up a little bit.”
Kulhanek rebounded for a third-place result, which started him on the outside of the fifth row for the main event.
“Low and behold we go into turn one and a guy ran in there hot,” he said. “He hit me and it got all four wheels off the ground. The right front came down first and I steered into it and got the car to come back down on all fours.”
After the inauspicious start that brought out a caution on the opening lap, Kulhanek restarted at the tail of the field.
“I thought that had packed the right front tire full of mud,” he said. “Come to find out it bent the right front hub, so that was the real bad vibration we had in the car. It was disappointing because we had a real good start. We had got by about three guys by the time we were going into turn one. At the same time to rebound and still be able to get back toward the front was good.”
Kulhanek maneuvered from 20th into the top 10 within the first five laps before he ended with a sixth-place finish.
The weekend concluded on Saturday at Battleground Speedway, where Kulhanek started his heat race from outside the front row for the second straight night. This time he capitalized to pick up the win.
“I blew right around the top and we led that whole deal,” he said. “Then we went to the redraw and of course we drew the eight.”
Kulhanek pulled the highest number during the random feature redraw to line himself up on the outside of the fourth row for the main event.
“I never felt comfortable in the car all night long,” he said. “We ended up getting through the night. We got rolling really good after about halfway in the feature.”
Kulhanek advanced into third place on a late restart, but he dropped a couple of positions after nearly colliding with a lapped car to finish fifth – his fifth top five of the season.
After taking this coming weekend off, Kulhanek will return to action on July 18 at Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont, Texas, and on July 19 at Leesville 171 Speedway in Leesville, La., with the ASCS Gulf South Region.
QUICK RESULTS –
July 4 – Shady Oaks Speedway in Goliad, Texas – Heat race: 3 (2); Feature: 6 (10).
July 5 – Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas – Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 5 (8).
SEASON STATS –
18 races, 1 win, 5 top fives, 13 top 10s, 15 top 15s, 18 top 20s
UP NEXT –
July 18 at Golden Triangle Raceway Park in Beaumont, Texas, and July 19 at Leesville 171 Speedway in Leesville, La., with the ASCS Gulf South Region
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 – ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems
Based in Concord, N.C., ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems manufactures custom seats and distributes a variety of racing accessories, including seat mounts, padding, belts and restraints, steering wheels and helmets. For additional information, visit http://www.ButlerBuilt.net.
“ButlerBuilt Professional Seat Systems are definitely the safest seats on the market,” Kulhanek said. “I’ve had a couple of bad crashes and I definitely didn’t move because the seat did its job.”
Kulhanek would also like to thank Miller’s RV Park, Oilfield Equipment & Manufacturing, Texas Rotating Equipment, 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 Jul 06, 2014
- Article Date: 7/6/2014 by Inside Line Promotions