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WoO: Kemenah Building Own Foundation
Chad Kemenah is taking matters into his own rugged hands in an attempt to again compete full-time with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in 2010.
Jim Chiappelli  |  Posted December 03, 2009   Charlotte, NC
Chad Kemenah has been working hard to establish his own program for some time, and those efforts now look to be paying off. (Justin Leedy/SPEED)
Chad Kemenah is taking matters into his own rugged hands in an attempt to again compete full-time with the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series in 2010.

Following several years of uncertainty driving for a number of different owners, the Findlay, Ohio resident has landed primary sponsorship to provide the foundation on which to campaign his own team.

Pennsylvania 410 sprint car owners Tom and Fran Chiappelli are supporting Kemenah’s effort through their Cairnbrook-based snack-food manufacturing company.

Chad Kemenah Racing will campaign a number-63 with the familiar colors of the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks brand which has adorned the Chiappelli Motorsports number-98 in recent years.

However, Kemenah emphasizes that his grass-roots operation has plenty of room to grow.

“This is a great start, but we can use a lot more help,” admitted Kemenah, who will lead the effort alongside his devoted wife Tracy.

“The perfect scenario is that we win the lottery and sit on the beach with drinks in our hands while someone else does the work—but that ain’t happening,” he joked.

Instead, this blue-collar approach will be a family affair.

CKR will field Maxim chassis powered by Hampshire Racing Engines built by his father-in-law, National Sprint Car Hall of Fame car owner/builder Bob Hampshire, who prepared cars for hall-of-fame drivers Jack Hewitt, Jac Haudenschild, Rick Ferkel and Keith Kauffman, among others.

The crew chief, and for that matter, lone crew member, is Kemenah’s nephew A.J. Havens, the son of Chad’s sister.

“It’s really just me and A.J.,” said Kemenah with a sigh during a work-break in his garage, where he was taking inventory to begin preparations for the new season.

When he is not minding the shop, Kemenah is putting in additional time behind the wheel this off-season to earn money, working part-time as a truck driver.

“Whatever it takes,” he emphatically declares.

Kemenah was the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Rookie of the Year in 2006, the same season he finished a career-best seventh in the series points standings.

He made the transition to the Outlaws from the All-Star Circuit of Champions, where he was a 27-time A-feature winner and captured four consecutive titles starting in 2002.

The 38-year-old father of two has posted a trio of victories with the Outlaws: July 2005 at I-55 Raceway in Pevely, Missouri; February 2006 at Florida’s Volusia Speedway Park; and this past March in the series’ final appearance at the now-closed historic Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix.

However, in the days following his triumph at Manzy, car owner Jon Kantor informed Kemenah he was dissolving the team because of financial reasons.

The Buckeye State driver temporarily left the national tour to regroup and competed in selected events for other teams, including the Sorokach Motorsports number-35, in which he won a pair of races during Pennsylvania Speedweek.

However, a permanent deal never materialized, and Kemenah returned to the cockpit of his own 63-car to close out the 2009 season.

Enter the Chiappelli couple, which Kemenah met several years ago while both of their teams competed with the All Stars.

“It has been our longtime goal to compete full-time with the World of Outlaws,” said Tom Chiappelli, whose team has won multiple track championships in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

“Fran (his wife) and I see this sponsorship deal as a way to get Chad back on the road and possibly lay the groundwork for bigger things in the future,” added the former driver, who is undecided about whether they will continue to field their number-98 in 2010.

“Tom and Fran Chiappelli truly love sprint car racing and have been a tremendous help to our family,” said Kemenah.

“To gain support from people so passionate about this sport is huge,” he added.

In addition to help from Hampshire Racing Engines and Maxim, CKR has obtained associate sponsorship from MS Motorsports in Milwaukee and Kears Speed Shop in Tiffin, Ohio.

Kemenah is confident that his family’s experience, persistence and solid work ethic will pay off and attract others willing to invest their time and money toward an underdog effort to compete with the high-dollar World of Outlaws teams.





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