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Kemenah Wins All Star Feature on Opening Night at Fremont
Story by:
Scott Hall
04/28/2001:
FREMONT, OH - It was a hometown victory Saturday night at Fremont Speedway for Chad Kemenah in the All Star sprint 40-lap
Keller Chevrolet Shoot-out feature. Kemenah earned $6,000 in front of a standing room only crowd as Fremont opened its 2001
season. The win came over a hard charging Byron Reed and early leader Greg Wilson.
"That was a great race," Kemenah exclaimed from victory lane after high fiving his chassis builder Tommy Sanders. "I've always
wanted to win an All Star show here," Kemenah added. "We were close last year (to a win) but this is great. I need to thank John
from Underground Utilities, Hundai Construction, the Harble family, Kear's Speed shop, Kistler Engines, Tommy Sanders from
Gambler and Goodyear tires."
All Star points leader Kemenah started on the ButlerBuilt Hot Seat pole with Greg Wilson alongside. Mark Keegan and Brian
Ellenberger were in row two as Wilson went low to grab the initial lead over Kemenah and Ellenberger. Jerrod Hull snared third,
passing Ellenberger off turn four on lap three, as Wilson stretched out a huge lead. By lap seven, Wilson entered lapped traffic,
with Kemenah able to close in on the leader with Hull third, Ellenberger fourth and Danny Smith and Reed trading the next two
spots each lap.
With a quarter of the race in the books, Hull was on the move as the "Fury from Missouri" ducked under Kemenah in turn two for
the second spot on lap 12. Kemenah took over that spot again in the high groove the next lap, relegating Hull to third with
Ellenberger still fourth and Reed and Smith still battling for fifth.
Hull regained second on lap 14 and began reeling in the leader. Kemenah continued in third with Reed finally securing fourth and
Smith fifth. In heavy traffic, Wilson again pulled out to a two car length lead as Kemenah began pressuring Hull again for second.
Kemenah kept looking for a way around Hull as the laps ticked off the scoreboard. Lap 26 saw the top spot action really heat up
with Wilson in the lead and Hull diving under him at the flagstand with Kemenah high in turns one and two. The Kemenah moved
up and Kemenah and Hull made contact, with Kemenah taking the lead over Hull and Wilson.
Debris on the back stretch slowed the action for the first time on lap 28. Then Ed Lynch Jr. and John Ivy collided and both spun on
lap 30 for the evening's final caution. Kemenah led Hull on the final restart, but Wilson ducked under Hull for second again a lap
later. Reed was now really hooked up and took over third with Hull shuffling back to fourth. Kemenah was using the high groove
and Wilson the low one. Reed was close in third and Wilson made a last ditch effort for the win, diving under Kemenah after the
white flag flew. Wilson bumped Kemenah exiting turn two on the last lap, but the contact slowed his progress, allowing Reed to
snare second as Kemenah rode into victory lane.
Smith ended up fourth with Hull fifth. Sixth place Rodney Duncan earned the $100 TW Metals nightly cash bonus and Kelly Kinser
finished seventh, winning the Team Simpson Racing Lucky Seven award. Kenny Jacobs, Mark Keegan and Jason Johnson
completed the top ten.
"Everybody wanted to run the bottom, but there was only so much room," runner-up Reed recalled. "And a lot of lapped cars. It
was just one of those type of races. We were there at the end, we just needed a couple more laps," the Reebar Die Casting pilot
concluded.
"The lapped cars goofed me up," third place Wilson stated. "I had to try and slip around the outside of them," the pilot of Bob
Hampshire's machine concluded.
The K-T Equipment heat went to Mike Wagner, the JB Enterprise Racing Products heat to Ed Lynch, Jr., the Crown Battery heat to
Kenny Jacobs and the Engler Machine & Tool heat went to Todd Heller. Bob Lime won the Georgia Marketing & Promotions C
Main. Kelly Kinser won the B Main. Haulmark Dash winner Dean Jacobs set a new track record on the newly reclayed surface of
12.562 seconds, breaking Dale Blaney's 1997 mark of 12.618.
Time Trials: 1. Dean Jacobs, Daugherty 7, 12.562 (NTR); 2. Jerrod Hull, Webb 51, 12.705; 3. Brian Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20,
12.730; 4. Mark Keegan, Steinbrick 92, 12.738; 5. Greg Wilson, Hampshire 63, 12.777; 6. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 12.787; 7.
Danny Smith, Baker 4, 12.887; 8. Rodney Duncan, Harrison 22, 12.982; 9. Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4k, 12.988; 10. Bruce Robenalt,
Robenalt 98, 13.043; 11. Kenny Jacobs, Jacobs/Honecker 6, 13.058; 12. Jason Johnson, Elden 22e, 13.088; 13. Byron Reed, B&S 5,
13.094; 14. Mike Lutz, Scott & Shaffer 45, 13.109; 15. Travis Rilat, Archer U2, 13.120; 16. Rob Chaney, Courtad 9x, 13.149; 17. Alvin
Roepke, Roepke 99, 13.174; 18. Ed Lynch, Jr., Lynch 2L, 13.176; 19. Jody Keegan, Keegan K60, 13.235; 20. Dustin Daggett,
Daggett 85, 13.271; 21. Mike Wagner, Wagner 55, 13.311; 22. Kevin Huntley, Ashworth 92, 13.312; 23. Aaron Call, Call C20, 13.334;
24. Todd Heller, Heller 14h, 13.356; 25. Paul Weaver, Nickles 31, 13.359; 26. John Ivy, Lucius 32, 13.360; 27. Jim Dayton, Dayton 2x,
13.375; 28. Barry Ruble, Ruble 63, 13.408; 29. Lee Jacobs, Jacobs/Honecker 2, 13.439; 30. Shawn Stidfole, Stidfole 37, 13.508; 31.
Jason Courtney, Courtney 9c, 13.582; 32. Troy Vacarro, Vacarro 7T, 13.637; 33. Chuck Wilson, Wilson 31, 13.658; 34. Todd Kane,
Kane 78, 13.684; 35. Bob Teeple, Teeple 8T, 13.686; 36. John Wisbon, Burmeister 16, 13.728; 37. Bob Lime, Lime 91, 13.746; 38.
David Harrison, Harrison 44, 13.850; 39. Bobby Clark, Miller 8, 13.892; 40. Roger Campbell, Jr., Campbell ZL1, 14.131; 41. Eric
Spencer, Spencer 3e, 14.242; 42. Eddie Smith, Smith 3x, 14.327; 43. Trent Walter, Walter 27, 14.901; 44. Bill Shaw, Shaw 48, 14.947;
45. Josh Keegan, Keegan 3, 15.113; 46. Dan Shaffer, Shaffer 04, 15.125; 47. Ricky Ferkel, Ferkel 0, NT; 48. Joe Laugherty,
Laugherty 21J, NT.
K-T Equipment Rental Heat (10 laps): 1. Wagner 2. D. Jacobs 3. Roepke 4. G. Wilson 5. Reed 6. Kinser 7. Weaver 8. L. Jacobs 9.
Lime 10. C. Wilson 11. Spencer 12. Josh Keegan.
JB Enterprise Racing Products Heat (10 laps): 1. Lynch 2. Huntley 3. Kemenah 4. Hull 5. Ivy 6. Harrison 7. Kane 8. Lutz 9. Robenalt
10. Stidfole 11. E. Smith 12. Shaffer.
Crown Battery Heat (10 laps): 1. K. Jacobs 2. Rilat 3. Ellenberger 4. D. Smith 5. Dayton 6. Call 7. Clark 8. Teeple 9. Jody Keegan 10.
Walter 11. Ferkel 12. Courtney.
Engler Machine & Tool Heat (10 laps): 1. Heller 2. Duncan 3. Johnson 4. M. Keegan 5. Chaney 6. Vacarro 7. Wisbon 8. Ruble 9.
Campbell 10. Shaw 11. Daggett.
Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. D. Jacobs 2. M. Keegan 3. Ellenberger 4. Kemenah 5. Hull 6. G. Wilson.
Georgia Marketing & Promotions C Main (10 laps): 1. Lime 2. Harrison 3. Clark 4. Spencer 5. Josh Keegan 6. Campbell 7. Walter 8.
Ferkel 9. E. Smith 10. Shaffer 11. Shaw.
B Main (12 laps): 1. Kinser 2. Lutz 3. L. Jacobs 4. Weaver 5. Kane 6. Jody Keegan 7. Teeple 8. Robenalt 9. Harrison 10. Clark 11. Call
12. Vacarro 13. Wisbon 14. Stidfole 15. Ruble 16. Spencer 17. Lime 18. C. Wilson.
A Main (40 laps): 1. Chad Kemenah 2. Byron Reed 3. Greg Wilson 4. Danny Smith 5. Jerrod Hull 6. Rodney Duncan 7. Kelly Kinser
8. Kenny Jacobs 9. Mark Keegan 10. Jason Johnson 11. Travis Rilat 12. Mike Wagner 13. Ed Lynch, Jr. 14. John Ivy 15. Dean
Jacobs 16. Kevin Huntley 17. Rob Chaney 18. Brian Ellenberger 19. Mike Lutz 20. Todd Heller 21. Alvin Roepke 22. Paul Weaver 23.
Lee Jacobs 24. Jim Dayton.
All Star Sprint Points: 1. Chad Kemenah 435; 2. Rodney Duncan 404; 3. Danny Smith 397; 4. Travis Rilat 385; 5. Greg Wilson 382; 6.
Kenny Jacobs 370; 7. Jason Johnson 360; 8. Jerrod Hull 357; 9. Mike Wagner 335; 10. Dean Jacobs 327.
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