VanDoorn: Press Release of CRA Win at Winchester

VanDoorn Beats Hantz To The Checkered Flag At Winchester

Johnny VanDoorn’s last few trips to the Winchester Speedway have produced good runs without a win. Monday, VanDoorn entered his name on the winners list at the high banked half mile edging Scott Hantz at the line by half a car length.

After an optional day of practice on Saturday, the Kaos Motorsports team went to work on Sunday getting the #61 Jegs.com Impala ready to practice and qualify. After Sunday’s first practice session, the team was sixth on the speed chart, while using still using their tires from Saturday. In the final practice, Johnny put the #61 at the top of the charts with a time of 15.583. Feeling good about their chances for qualifying, the team went to work to get the car ready to time in for the Monday race.

Johnny drew a late number for qualifying and was the 22nd car to take time. His best lap was a time of 15.530 which was good enough for only 6th quick. The team was disappointed with that time and went right to work getting the car ready for the race. “We made a mistake when we went out to qualify. Our car is better than that. I wish we could do that lap over again, but we have to move on and get ready for the race. The only good thing that came out of that qualifying effort is the fact we are starting on the front row with the inversion” a dejected VanDoorn said.

Monday morning the team arrived to the track early and made some final adjustments to the #61 car. The teams were given a five lap warm up session and Johnny was at the top of the sheet when the session concluded. His only comment on the radio after those five laps: “mission accomplished”.

Starting on the outside of the front row is the preferred groove around Winchester. When the green flag dropped, Johnny and pole sitter TJ Reaid were door to door for a lap before Reaid took the lead going into turn one. Johnny rode close to his rear bumper for the next 35 laps. Johnny took the lead passing Reaid between turns three and four using a lapped car to his advantage. Johnny was setting a very fast race pace lapping up to 5th place. At one point Johnny had about a half lap lead on second place and about a three quarter lap lead on third place. A caution on lap 68 took Johnny’s lead away. On the radio under that caution, Johnny reported that he was feeling a vibration and that is was getting worse as the race went on.

When the green came back out, Johnny jumped back to a comfortable lead with Reaid and Scott Hantz rounding out the top three cars. Reaid’s strong run for the day ended on lap 93 with an engine failure that brought out the last caution of the day with seven laps to go. Johnny reported that the vibration was getting worse and he could ride it out, but the vibration was affecting the handling on his car. The race restarted with Hantz closing in on Johnny with five laps to go. Johnny and Hantz were nose to tail and door to door throughout the last five laps. Hantz actually had the nose of his car passed Johnny and Johnny fought back to get the lead. Coming out of turn four, the crowd was on their feet as Johnny and Hantz raced to the line. Johnny won by a fender. “I can’t believe what just happened!” Johnny screamed in the radio. “We won at Winchester!!!”

After all the Victory Lane hat dance and photos, Johnny talked about the great finish. “The last five laps was the hardest I have ever raced. I would not feel comfortable racing side by side like that with many guys going that fast here. But Scott Hantz is a great racer. Racing with him like that was fun. Hopefully the fans liked the ending. All I heard from my spotter off of turn four was “inside, inside, inside, at your door….we won”. I can’t thank my team enough for the work they put in this weekend either. I was pretty down after qualifying, but we came together and won at Winchester!” VanDoorn said.

“I also would like to thank JEGS.com, Magic Transportation, Baker Engineering, and Port City Racecars. Bringing JEGS to Victory Lane in their first race with us is great, especially since Jeg Jr. won at Indy this weekend too. And Magic, Baker and Port City helped us put this team together when many others thought we were crazy. Hopefully, we can get some more wins to thank them for believing in us” VanDoorn added.

Johnny and his team will be heading to the Auto City Speedway on September 11 with the outlaw late model. The next CRA race will be September 18th at ORP.