Week two at Laird not without issues
Friday, June 15, 2012 by: Brad Coccimiglio
A familiar face was looking to make a return to Laird International Raceway on Thursday night but was on the outside looking in when the race program started.
Keenan Spurway was looking to make his first appearance at LIR with his traditional No. 0 Modified car that had extensive work done over the winter in preparation for the 2012 racing season.
When Spurway arrived at the track on Thursday he was turned away at the gate.
The veteran driver parked his car near the main entrance prior to leaving the track.
Spurway declined comment on the situation when asked.
Laird Director of Raceday Operations Gerry Liscumb Jr. said that unsolved issues were the reason for Spurway being turned away.
“Keenan showed up tonight at the facility and at this point there are issues that need to be resolved between management and the driver,” said Liscumb. “It’s a simple situation that just hasn’t had any attention paid to it on the driver’s behalf. When he chooses to deal with the situation, we can get things expedited and moving forward to, if he so chooses, returning to compete at Laird.”
Liscumb added that Spurway has not been suspended by track officials.
On the track on Thursday night, the Factory Four division saw a double-feature evening after the divisional feature was postponed after a wreck on week one. Tyler Praysner was the big winner on the night. Praysner took home a pair of checkered flags on the night, both thanks to winning the two feature races run in the division. Praysner managed to hold off Leila Uhlman in both features to take to victories. Praysner also took a second-place finish in the lone divisional heat race. Praysner finished second to Taylor Crockford in the heat race.
The Late Model division wasn’t without some controversy on the night.
During the feature race, as the group is in the midst of the final lap, Keith King and Terry McClelland made contact coming out of turn two. McClelland spun out while King The caution flag did not come out and King finished the race in top spot, only to be black-flagged for the incident. Thanks to the black flag Paul McLean took home the feature win. McClelland was the heat race winner.
The Laird Modified division was the lone division with a pair of heat races on Thursday night and saw three different winners on the night. Chris Miller took home the checkered flag in the feature while Nick Kozak and Rick Ellis took the heat races,
In the Factory Stock division Kyle Jarrett took home the checkered flag in both the heat and feature races with Jamie Fox picking up a pair of second-place finished.
The Outlaw Modified division saw a low car count and Tristan Anderson took advantage of the situation by winning both the heat and feature races as well.
In the Xtreme Four division, Jakob Bourdage took on any and all comers and would win both the heat and the feature.
