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Photo's courtesy http://www.stevesracingphotos.com
Broken rear-end slows Andy Gregg's charge at 49th running of Johnny Key Classic in Watsonville
By Gary Thomas
Watsonville, CA – September 1, 2009…Carving his way through the pack with authority Placerville driver Andy Gregg looked to be on way to a strong run in the 49th Johnny Key Classic until a broken rear-end dashed his hopes at a solid finish with just 10 laps remaining at the prestigious race on Saturday night at the Ocean Speedway.
The event was Gregg's fourth appearance of the season at the Watsonville based quarter-mile clay oval, with his best finish of the prior three starts being a fifth place effort during a GLR Investments/California Sprint Car Civil War Series co-sanctioned show on July 17.
Going into the Johnny Key Classic a total of 14 drivers were already locked into the feature and despite not being one of them and having to start no better than the eighth row in the 50-lap contest, Gregg and the Guts Racing team decided to make the tow to take part in the history-packed event. "Ocean Speedway has been really good every time we've run there this year so we definitely wanted to support the show," Gregg said. "The track was great again tonight, but it definitely didn't end how we wanted it to."
The pre-qualified cars and non-qualified cars were split into two separate groups for time-trials and Gregg's fastest lap of 11.846 was good enough for fast-time of the nine drivers who took to the clocks that were not already qualified for the Key Classic. In fact his lap was also the quickest one turned by any driver in qualifying, including the locked-in competitors. With no heat races being held the b-main was next up and Gregg dominated the 12-lap contest from the pole to earn the 15th starting position in the 50-lap main event.
When the green lights came on Gregg began to pick his way forward as the Bill McLaren wrenched, Dale Miller Plumbing, Myers & Sons Drywall No. 16x sprinter was hooked-up and could be put anywhere on the speedway. With traffic coming into play early on it made for some hectic racing as drivers maneuvered through the slower cars on the well prepared Ocean Speedway surface. A lap 25 mandatory stop was then seen, which gave crews the opportunity to add fuel and make any necessary adjustments to their machines for the final 25-lap segment.
By the time of the "competition caution" Gregg had made his way up to eighth and when the field restarted he remained up on the wheel getting by Ricky Wright and Ronnie Day to move into sixth, before the yellow flag flew on lap 31. A number of cautions and reds would plague the final half of the main event, never letting drivers get back into a consistent rhythm, but Gregg didn't let it faze him and he would charge under Sean Becker on lap 34 to slice his way into fifth. "The Hurricane" would then put the heat on fourth running Brent Kaeding, but a caution followed by a red on lap 37 slowed things down considerably.
On the restart Gregg would lose a spot to Jason Statler, but kept at it and re-passed the former King of California a lap later to re-claim fifth by the time another yellow flew on lap 40. During the stoppage however, Gregg would pull off the speedway and return to his trailer as a broken rear-end put a frustrating end to the main event. "I'm pretty disappointed with how things ended tonight, because I just really wanted to give my guys a good finish and we were on way to that till some bad luck caught up to us," the 29 year-old driver said. "This car was so fast tonight and we should have had strong finish so this is going to be a tough one to swallow."
This Saturday night will see Gregg returning to his home track of Placerville Speedway for the final point race in the Red Hawk Casino Championship Series. So far this year he has made four weekly starts at the track and has scored three podium finishes with his best result being a runner-up on April 18. "We're hoping for a good run on Saturday to try and make up for this past weekend," Gregg said. "I really want nothing more than to get this car into victory lane for my team and all of our sponsors and supporters."
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After a tough end to the 49th Johnny Key Classic on Saturday night Team Guts Racing's Andy Gregg will look for redemption this coming weekend as he finishes off the 2009 Red Hawk Casino Championship 360 Series season at his home track of Placerville Speedway
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