Holliday Racing News

6/13/09  With thunderstorms surrounding the area and chances of rain very high, the Winchester Speedway got a downpour that lasted about 10 minutes.  The red clay soaked the moisture up and made for a very smooth and racy surface. With the slick track setup in place and the lack of crew to help switch over to the tacky track setup the #88 ended up finishing 3rd in the heat. After a few minor adjustments to the race car before the feature the car was fast but with 3 laps to go while passing for 4th, the #37 of James Harrison got turned by the #17S of Jeff Sweeney causing major right front damage resulting in a 15th place finish and the first DNF of 2009.


6/27/09  With two weeks off to regroup, the two man crew did some changing to get the MasterSbilt Ford Cobra back rolling again. With no chance of rain in the forecast the night of racing would roll along in what seemed like record time, the last feature race wrapping up before 11:30pm. The heat race looked to be somewhat interesting as far a line up point of view. Trever Feathers was making his first start in the Leo Nichols owned 11n while one time feature winner Moe Harden was in check behind him. on the last row were the number one and two place men in the points, Brian Buckler and Kris Holliday. As the green flag waved for the heat, Buckler started his assault that was short lived as he slid up the track tagging the outside wall with the right rear corner of his Lazer Chassis #2B. Kris took his time coming through the field and ended making it to third spot at the end of the heat. Trever Feathers won his first ever heat, Harden was second. Feathers pulled a number 10 pill which put Kris in the sixth starting position behind CJ Brown and Jimmy Richards. As the green flag waved for the feature it would start to get hairy for positions two through five. Scott Sweeney took the early lead, pulling out about a straight away ahead, Holliday was stuck behind the mess battling behind Sweeney. When the cars started sorting out Kris started picking them off one by one, getting beside and passing Richards only for him to tap CJ Brown and spin him bringing out the first caution. Richards would get the spot back in from of Holliday being in the 5th position. The running order at this time would be Sweeney, Holmes, Crouch, Richards, Holliday. On the restart a battle would begin to over take the #97 of Holmes, he would drop back to the 5th position when the second caution would fly. Holliday would end up taking the 2nd position away on the next restart, the battle between Richards and Crouch ended up causing a bottleneck in the mid pack taking out the fast cars of Tharp, Feathers and Harden. On the final restart of the race Sweeney took the green flag but was short lived as Holliday pushed his #88 past him for the lead by the middle of turns one and two. He would clear him completely leaving turn four and cruise to a straight away lead and his 2nd win of 2009.  Finishing second and with a great run was the 44S of Sweeey, third was Crouch, fourth was Jeff Sweeney and coming from the 16th starting spot to fifth was the current points leader Brain Buckler.

May 9th 2009 brought in a warm, breezy spring evening along with the 
O'Reilly All Star Late Model division running a 40 lap 5,000 to win 
feature race. With this special feature and the pure stocks, 4 
cylinders and ucars also running there was no doubt the track was 
gonna get black and slick. In the ASLS it was the Ford MastersBilt of 
Jamie "The Jet" Lathroum winning the 40 lap race. Could another Ford 
MastersBilt win in the Limited Late Models? only time would tell with 
LLM running dead last on the evening. Pulling the cars to intial green 
flag was the #1 of Buddy Tharp Jr. but his hold on the lead was short lived 
as the #14W of Bryan Wright would take command. Kris Holliday started 
in the fourth position and would make his way past the #7 of Jones and 
the #1 of Bubby Tharp Jr., and begin to challege Wright for the lead. 
Wright holding tight to low side of the track left no option for Kris 
but to try the outside. Many restarts would enable Kris to get along 
side of Wright but with the slick condition could never seal the deal 
and take the lead. The slick track enabled Wright to hold of Kris's 
hard charges to the outside and bring home his second win of the 
season. Holliday finished second on the evening and was very pleased 
with the efforts.

Holliday Racing would like to Congratulate the #14W team, Bryan drove 
a good race and was fun to see some close clean racing between the 
ford and chevy. Good luck throughout the 2009 season Bryan.

4/27/09 The valley brought extreme temperatures on April 25th, just in time for the spring championship for the Limited Late Models. The #88 was a fast car in the qualifying heat but after the #92 of Sam Crouch turned his machine in turns three and four Kris and the #27 of Trever Feathers made contact sending young Feathers to the pits and Kris to the back. After restarting in 8th with 4 laps to go, Kris brought the 
machine up to the 4th spot, which sealed him to the 8th starting spot of the feature.

Looking for a good outing in the feature, Kris and all the Limited drivers all filed out for a good start of the race. Brian Buckler, from his 6th starting spot, asserted himself early as the fast mover, Holliday on his heels moving up through the pack. At the halfway point the #2B of Buckler and #88 were running 1 and 2 when the caution flags would start to fall. At this point the fast mover was now the #27 of Trever Feathers, coming from his 18th starting spot to run third. With these three drivers in check the green would fly and Feathers would start the battle with Kris for the 2nd spot. Unfortunately the Holliday machine began overheating and driving more conservative to cool the motor Kris began to lose ground as another caution flag would fall. Getting the motor temp back in range Kris and Trever would again battle for 2nd with Kris coming out on top until the motor again overheated causing Kris to back off the throttle. Feathers would eventually pass Kris along with Sean Dawson relegating Kris to the 4th position. Brian Buckler would cruise to an easy victory late in the race with Feathers finishing 2nd, Dawson 3rd, Holliday 4th and the #00 of Coffey rounding out the top 5.

Holliday racing would like to congratulate the Buckler team on a great race and wishes him luck in the races to come. Another pat on the back goes to the #27 of Trever Feathers for an awesome run coming from the back to 2nd and getting hard charger for the night! Great job Trever and keep up the good driving!

Kris and the crew are taking off for the next weekend until some motor issues are resolved and hope to be back for the May 9th race at Winchester.

04/20/09: April 18th brought great weather to the Shenandoah Valley and a slick  but very racey track. The 88 machine missed the setup slightly for the heat races finishing 2nd for the third weekend in a row. As a result  of winning the previous week, the 12th position was the starting destiny for #88 Cobra Mustang. The Cobra Clan made a few adjustments  to the Ford Mastersbilt, and the car came to life in the feature, running 6th by lap six. After moving into the 4th spot the caution  flags would start to fly. On the 3rd attempt of the restart contact  with the 17S of Jeff Sweeney would cause both to slow and the 17S to  spin while the fast moving 2B of Brian Buckler was also caught up in  the fiasco. After a quick pit stop to change the flattened right front tire, Kris entered the race again but one lap down ending up in the  9th position. The spring championship race is this coming weekend and the 88 WILL be ready to roll again. Thanks for checking in!

04/13/09: A second place finish in the season opener was followed by a WIN this week at Winchester. Kris Holliday and Car #88 are second in points at Winchester.