Bandit Racing at Kalamazoo Speedway

Bandit racing arrives at Kalamazoo Speedway in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Saturday, August 17th. This is a paved 3/8s mile high-banked oval track that is untested by most of the Bandits.

Practice

After practice the qualifying laps were held. Morgan placed 9th in the time trials with a lap time of 18.491 sec; #27 was fastest with a lap time of 18.024 sec.

Heat Race 1 was won by #55, Craig Kruckeberg. Morgan placed 4th in Heat Race 2 which was won by #41, Marshall Davis. Heat Race 3 was won by #74, Mark Noble. The Shoot Out winner was #14 Ricky Proffitt.

Challenge Race 1 had a bad collision between #4 and #14 that ripped the right side pod off of #14 sending him to the pits for repairs. Still in his race suit, Ricky welded the side exclusion panel back on in time for the Main Race. Morgan's #88 placed 5th in the race which was won by #66, Austin Hoppe.

Challenge 1 slide

Challenge Race 2 was less exciting, although #55 left the track twice for power issues and did not finish. Mark Noble won in his #74.

The Main Race began with the three-wide salute to the fans lead by the winner of the truck show. Doug Hilson in the #8 choose to start at the back of the field since his truck was having some issues. In the first lap #41 hit the wall, then #13 hit the wall in separate incidents. The restart had everyone in their original positions. The #66 hit #41 and then #41 went into the wall again, but no restart. A few laps later (lap 9?) #51 came down on #69 then spun hitting the front of #69 while #27 was pushed against the inside wall loosing his right side panel in the process. The resulting damages caused #69 and #27 to not finish the race. The restart resulted in a race to the finish line 20 laps later with Mark Noble in #74 taking the win and our #88 finishing 7th.