Carteret County Speedway Championship Race 10/08/22

This past Saturday the final Grand National Super Series presented by Engineered Components Co held their final race of the inaugural season. It was a wild night under the full moon. The day started with practice where local ace Chris Burns made sure everyone knew he was in his element. After two rounds of practice qualifying began. Points leader A.J. Henriksen took the final Chalew pole award of the season, giving him the most poles of the season. For the first race the entire field would be inverted.

 

Larry Wilcox and Mike Kurkowski lead the field to the green. Intense racing began right away. Joe Wilder quickly found his way to the second position behind Kurkowski. Within two laps the lead was his. Wilder pulled away. Obtaining a straightaway lead, however he knew it would not be long before Henriksen, Mayfield, Burns, and Kromer would be knocking on the door. Wilder held Henriksen off for several laps but Henriksen was on a mission. On lap sixteen the caution came out for Joe Wilder who had some mechanical problems leaving debris in turn one.

 

Under the caution Kevin Kromer came to the pits to make a track bar adjustment. When the green came out it would be Henriksen, Mayfield, and Burns as the top three. It did not take Burns but a few laps to make his way around Mayfield putting him in second. Burns quickly started applying pressure to Henriksen. On lap twenty-seven the caution would be shown again. This time for the 77 car of Kevin Kromer who was slow on the track. Kevin came to pit road and would be done for the first feature. The green would soon be out once again. By the time the field came back around it would be Chris Burns leading the field. It would be short lived as Henriksen was not ready to relinquish the race. The next lap it would be Henriksen again leading the way. The rest of the twenty-one laps went caution free. Henriksen would be the victor. Extending his point lead over second place points contender Marc Jones. Henriksen was also the Howe Racing Enterprises hard charger for race one.

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For the second feature the field would once again be inverted. This time Joe Wilder and Kevin Kromer who had bad luck in the first feature would be leading the field to green. A hungry Kevin Kromer would lead the first lap. Kevin's season was plagued by bad luck with his finishes not reflecting his runs. Before completing lap two there would be an accident in turn four involving several cars. Several cars were going for a spot and they all ran out of real estate. Involved were Jeremy Mayfield, Craig Osborne, and A.J. Henriksen. All three's night would be over. Mayfield who took two intense hits would walk away. All three drivers were able to be evaluated and cleared.

 

The red flag was shown for several minutes to clean up the incident. Once the green was out Kromer went back to work hitting his marks every lap. On lap nine his closest contender Joe Wilder would take his Mopar Mafia machine to the garage for the evening. This would leave the door open for Chris Burns to hunt Kromer down and do his best to take the lead from the veteran driver. The two battled for several laps as the fans were on their feet not knowing what the next turn would entail. On lap twenty-seven Burns made slight contact with Kromer. It was just enough to send Kromer Spinning across the front stretch. Burns had to spin himself to avoid hitting Kromer. The two simultaneously spun across the front stretch keeping their machines off of the wall and each other showing their skill levels. Burns would be sent to the back for being the one who made contact. The green came out once again and Burns was on a mission. He hustled through the field back to the front. However, Burns would not have enough laps to take the victory. Kevin Kromer lead every lap and took home his first win in the Grand National Super Series. Burns would have a podium finish of second but as a racer you are never happy with second. Burns did earn the Howe Racing Enterprises hard charger for the second race which was well deserved.

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Sunday morning GNSS held their awards ceremony at the Moonshiner's restaurant in the Carteret County Speedway infield. A.J. Henriksen was crowned champion. Both Eric Barber and Joe Wilder were co- rookies of the year. Arne Henriksen won car owner championship. The inaugural season for GNSS went fabulous. We would really like to thank all of our sponsors who make this a reality; Engineered Components Co, Howe Racing Enterprises, Chalew Performance, Circle Track Warehouse, and Dave Jensen Enterprises South. We would also like to thank all of the drivers and teams who worked so hard this season. Thank you to the fans who came out or watched online. We couldn't do this without you. Thank you to Race22.com and Racing America for covering our series. 

 

Race One Results 

1.A.J. Henriksen

2. Chris Burns

3. Jeremy Mayfield

4. Marc Jones

5. Mike Kurkowski

6. Larry Wilcox

7. Craig Osborne

8. Kevin Kromer

9. Joe Wilder

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Race Two results

1. Kevin Kromer

2. Chris Burns

3. Mike Kurkowski

4. Marc Jones

5. Larry Wilcox

6. Joe Wilder

7. Jeremy Mayfield

8. A.J. Henriksen

9. Craig Osborne

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Written by JD Bowsher