Kester Last Woman Standing at Pizza Ranch 100

NEWTON, July 11, 2009: Kristy Kester, 21, proved that consistency is the key to finishing in the top ten at tonight’s Pizza Ranch 100 at the Iowa Speedway, this season’s first and only night race event. Kester focused on executing strong restarts and recording solid lap times to ultimately improve eight positions from her qualifying position, finishing in tenth. Teammates Taylor Hacquard, 19, and brother, J.C. Kester, 23, did not find the Speedway to be as forgiving as it was to Kristy Kester. Both drivers were involved in collisions during the 100-lap race, ending their nights earlier than they had hoped.

Taylor Hacquard made a gutsy move early on in the race to overtake the #20 car of Gustavo Linares from JDC Motorsports. Unfortunately, Hacquard’s tires were not yet up to speed and temperature, causing him to lose control of his car and collide with both the walls between turns three and four and the #72 AIM Autosport car of Jorge Goncalvez. J.C. Kester was running a respectable race until he was caught by faster traffic wanting to overtake him. He allowed Alex Ardoin in the #51 JDC Motorsports car to do just that, but the two cars got too close for comfort and took each other out of the race. With no prior testing at the Iowa Speedway, the drivers of Kester 3G Racing found the 7/8 mile banked oval to be challenging, difficult, and much different than last month’s oval race at the Milwaukee Mile.

Kristy Kester on the race: “I started out this race at a disadvantage. We only turned about 60 laps before the race whereas other teams turned about 600 laps because of testing. With only about 40 minutes of track time today before the race, it was hard to get the car set up perfectly. I didn’t qualify well, but I had a decent racecar for the race, considering the circumstances. We worked hard to put the laps together, and I’m very happy to have finished in 10th tonight.”