Photo Credit: Ashley McCubbin
Each day of the week, the column will highlight a division from Sunset Speedway, highlighting five drivers and mentioning things that you should know going into the next week of racing.
Three-wide, sometimes four and five-wide. Three-wide and a couple rows deep, only running inches apart and nowhere to go in traffic. That’s the definition of the Graham Landscape Mini Stock division for the second week in a row. Given the depth of talent, it’s going to be a very competitive season.
Andy Kamrath had the honor of gracing victory lane on the second week of competition. He started near the front and battled back and forth with young Jordan Howse for the lead, before taking it and running away with the win.
Surprise? Nah as Kamrath was quick last year, sweeping the Mini Stock Nationals at Kawartha Speedway while winning the Frequent Flyer 50 presented by SL Promotions at Sunset Speedway and Autumn Colors Classic at Peterborough Speedway. He’s someone that you will need to watch all year simply based on that fact. He’s also started off the year strong, as the victory goes along nice with a fourth place finish from the first week of competition.
Last week’s winner Brandon McFerran is also off to a great start this year as he has a win and a fifth place finish to his credit. Starting deep in the field on Saturday night, he found himself stuck in heavy traffic through the first half. He was able to bust out during the second half, cracking the top-five before the checkered fell.
McFerran won the championship last year with eight victories and solid consistency over the course of the season. While he may not get those eight wins again with the level of competition, he is already showing that solid consistency once again early in the season. Keep an eye on McFerran all year long as there’s a good chance that he will repeat.
With two different winners in the first two weeks, discussion has already started about the amount of variety that may be seen in victory lane this season. Given the talent in the division, there could be seven or eight different faces before September.
Past Mini Stock Champion Warren Paxton is perhaps the strongest choice for the next winner this year. He visited victory lane a couple times last year, and has started this year off with a second and a third in the pair of features. Paxton has been quick since he hit the Mini Stock scene and shows no signs of slowing down. That speed, combined with his experience, should lead to success.
Danny Benedict bounced back after a 12th place finish on the first night to finish fourth on the second night. Benedict showed a ton of speed when he debuted the car last year, winning three races in the span of eight days at three different tracks – Peterborough Speedway, Capital City Speedway and Sunset Speedway. Now that he has the mustang working like he wants, he may be the driver to keep an eye on during the second half of May.
While these four drivers are off to the perfect start for the season, Kendra Adams isn’t having the start to the season that she would’ve hoped for. The sophomore driver finished 16th on opening night, and was unable to compete last Saturday due to a wreck in practice. The hub would break on her car, sending her into the wall. After a strong finish to her rookie campaign, this isn’t the prettiest sight but thankfully, she was okay after the ordeal. The car is just about fixed, too, as the Kendra Adams Motorsports team has been hard at work in getting the car ready for Spring Velocity. Hopefully the young lady can turn her season around and get back on track.
