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Kathryne Minter Racing
Chassis -- J & J
Driver -- Kathryne Minter
Crew Chief – Sean McClelland
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Minter’s Knoxville Debut Climaxes in Brodix Event
KNOXVILLE
, IA (August 7) – Kathryne Minter capped her Knoxville Raceway debut with
an eye-catching performance in Sunday’s Brodix
Tournament of Champions.
Minter grabbed everybody’s attention
at “The Home of the Nationals,” especially when her #13m Concrete Crushing
Company J&J caught fire during the final lap of the Third Heat Race.
“It was really scary,” Kathryne said. “I could see the flames all around my
car. The oil filter broke and spilled oil on the headers. The car went up
in a puff of white smoke and caught on fire. I didn’t know what it was, so
I pulled my car out of gear, went up above the cushion in turn four, turned
my fuel off and turned the car off. I didn’t get burned, but it was very
scary. I’m glad I wear Carbon-X underwear under my Simpson uniform.”
Fans and World of Outlaws team
members in attendance were also amazed by Minter’s 109.19-MPH lap around
the legendary half-mile oval.
“Our new crew chief, Brad Sparks,
talked to (driver) Chuck Swenson before we went out for hot laps and asked
if he would get in front of me so I could see the lines he was running,” Kathryne said. “Our hot laps determined who we would
time trial with, so it actually mattered how we ran in hot laps. I followed
Chuck in hot laps and timed in third in my group. I was only two-tenths of
a second behind Chuck’s car. I time trialed with the sixth group and I
ended up timing 21st fastest (in the 49-car field).”
Ignoring the frightening conclusion
to the Third Heat Race, Minter finished fifth in the First “B” Feature,
accepted a provisional and raced into 23rd place in the Brodix Tournament of Champions main event.
“We barely missed qualifying for
the feature in the ‘B,’ but they gave us a provisional and I started 25th
in the ‘A,’” Kathryne said. “We were pretty fast
for a few laps, but the main thing was I learned a lot and found out how to
pace myself in a long (30-lap) race.”
Despite the illness that caused her
inflamed vocal cords to hurt whenever she spoke, Minter thoroughly enjoyed
her Knoxville Raceway debut.
“I met a lot of people, and we
talked to some about deals that might turn into something good,” Kathryne said. “I wish I had been able to stay another
week and participate in some activities I was invited to, but we had to go
back home.”
Minter was invited to a special
Knoxville Nationals autograph session, Stacy Ervin’s “Women in Racing”
forum at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and a couple of radio shows.
She was also wanted to accept an invitation to meet NASCAR Nextel Cup
drivers at Monday’s Front-Row Challenge at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa , IA.
“Kasey Kahne was supposed to be at the ‘Osky’
race,” Kathryne said. “I really wanted to
meet him.”
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