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2004-08-28
Kenton Gray, Legends #1, wowed the crowd as he came from a rear-staring postion in tonight's race and passed over half of a 26 car field in a broken car to win "Hard Charger," confirming once again that Legends #1 and the FMG team are the ones to watch!
Kenton Gray has become the dominating force in the Legends class at Irwindale Speedway over the last several weeks as he's continued to prove himself to be one of the top performers on the track. Today's race was looking to be no exception until a car problem came up preventing him from finishing his qualifying run.
The damage do the car was bad enough that it looked like he wouldn't even be able to make the race. Special thanks to our good friend Gary Powell (Father of Rookie Evin Powell, Legends #71) who spent three hours helping us get the car up to being able to run at racetime.
Having missed qualifying, Kenton started at the back of the 26 car field, with a car barely able to turn laps. This was not looking to be a good day for the FMG team.
But what looked like a dark day for all of us and the fans soon turned into a story that will become perhaps a pivot point in "proving" that Kenton isn't just a "lucky Rookie" but a true sportsman who knows his craft and how to "pull things through" under pressure and in spite of unforseen difficulties.
The car was horribly bent out of shape by the freak accident during qualifying that broke both the front and back ends of the chasis, leaving the car so far off as to be impossible to set up correctly. Kenton later said that he was sure the car would break down at any moment during most of the race.
Tonight's race was unusual with not a single yellow (caution) for the entire 35 lap race. Without Kenton Gray leading the pack, it was an open race for Tom Landreth, who dominated the entire race. Meanwhile Kenton burned his way up through a cluttered field, with "parts falling of the car" the whole way. Kenton later reported, "at one point I backed off for a couple of laps because something happened with the steering - all of a sudden the wheel got really loose. I was sure something was about to happen and I didn't want the car going into a wall. After about three laps it stayed stable, so I said, 'what the heck' and went for it." Broken car or not, Kenton still turned a 17.147 in lap 29 and pulled all the way up to finish 13th, wining "Hard Charger" for the race.
A hard night for FMG racing and Kenton Gray turned into one of the most exciting spectacles of the season. We hope the fans enjoyed it!
We'll see you all at the track for the next big race on 18 Septemeber!
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