Tim Kerr Ready To Build On Season-Best Finish Throughout Busy July

Story By: CLAYTON JOHNS / KERR MOTORSPORTS – PICTON, ONT – Tim Kerr has fought an uphill battle through the first six weeks of his Big-Block Modified season, but last Friday night Kerr finally saw the fruits of his labour when he earned a second-place finish at Brewerton Speedway. He followed it up the next night with a satisfying drive from 18th to 13th in a caution-free race at Land of Legends Raceway in Canandaigua, NY.

“It was definitely a good weekend to turn things around with some good finishes,” Kerr acknowledged.

Friday night started with a lackluster although purposeful heat race where Kerr brought his Village Variety/Home Hardware Picton No.07 to a sixth-place finish.

“We had to run in some new tires, so the heat race is what it is,” Kerr said. “It takes a while to get a new set of tires going, so you just have to hold your own and stay in the top six to keep your handicap. We did that.”

The handicap proved key as Kerr lined-up on the front row for the main event and immediately took the lead. He held the point position for the first 28 laps of the 35-lap main event. Then, current track point leader Jimmy Phelps was able to run him down.

“Obviously starting up front helps, but we had a good car,” Kerr explained. “We had some good guys behind us the whole race. The car got a little tight in the middle of the race, which hurt me through the middle of the corner a little bit. That’s where Jimmy (Phelps) got to me. It sucks getting passed that late in the race.”

“I tried to run it a little harder when he got underneath me and it started to get tighter when I was running it in harder,” he added.

While Kerr certainly would have preferred to take the win, he was happy to race up front and earn his best finish of the season. He followed the effort with another strong race the following night at Land of Legends. The 13th-place result wasn’t necessarily indicative of how strong his car was at the big half-mile.

“We took it to Land of Legends the same way we ran at Brewerton and we took it to 13th with no cautions,” Kerr said. “I think the car was pretty good, so it’s just a matter of being able to qualify and run up front.”

Feeling the same speed in the car on back-to-back nights is the result Kerr has been searching for over the opening months of this season. He has worked primarily to find the feel that he knows results in a fast racecar.

“We’re into July, so we have to get good and we have to get consistent,” Kerr said. “We’ve made a bunch of changes over the last couple of weeks and we’ve been tweaking with some lead placement. We haven’t changed much chassis wise, we haven’t changed much shock wise, we’ve just been moving some lead around to get the car balanced. We found something pretty good the last week or two and I think we can build on it now.”

Kerr will look to add to his recent success over the remainder of the month, which he plans to fill with doubleheaders. He’ll continue to run at Brewerton on Fridays and hopes to make continued appearances at Land of Legends on Saturdays.

“As long as I have help on Saturdays, we’re going to run at Canandaigua,” Kerr explained. “I think probably the next few weeks we’ll be running Fridays and Saturdays. We’ll hit and miss some tour races when they’re close by as well.”

Kerr will be back in action on Friday, July 13 at Brewerton Speedway in Brewerton, NY where he currently sits 13th in the standings with one top-five and three top-10 finishes to his credit.