Chase Burda Rebounds from Mid-Race Incident to Win Master of the Pros 184

Special from Racing America – Before the halfway point of Saturday’s JEGA/CRA All-Stars Tour event at Owosso Speedway, Chase Burda was sliding through the grass and pointed directly at the infield after contact between Kyle Crump and Carson Hocevar.

So, for the 18-year-old driver to be standing in victory lane celebrating his victory in the Master of the Pros 184 indicates an impressive recovery over the course of the race’s final 110 circuits.

“It scared me. I was kind of worried, especially when we were on the grass,” Burda said about the incident. “I was trying to slow down before I go on the track, but, it was all slipping and sliding, hoping for the best and we were able to come out of it with minor damage and they fixed it all back in the pit and we were able to come out and put on a show.”

Maneuvering his way through the pack after the incident, it took Burda the next 40 laps or so to get in touch with race-leader Carson Hocevar, with the driver of the No. 18 making the final pass for the lead with 70 laps to go.

Then, despite several cautions and subsequent restarts, Burda was able to hold off the strong field behind him to capture the victory in the 184-lap contest, marking the Lapeer, Michigan native’s second win this year in the JEGS/CRA All-Stars Tour.

“This is awesome,” Burda said post-race. “Qualifying, I was kind of worried, didn’t know where we would start with how close the field was, but we were able to rip a fast lap and pull a two, so that was awesome. Gordon just had this thing hooked up, and I just had to turn the wheel and this thing was rolling.”

Dan Leeck, one of the most experienced drivers on this configuration of Owosso Speedway, finished in the runner-up position, 2.322 seconds behind race-winner Chase Burda.

“Yeah, we’ll take it definitely. Wish I would have qualified a little bit better, but being 184 laps like that, it doesn’t really matter where you start, it’s where you finish,” said Leeck. “The tire strategy deal – I don’t know if we went the right way there because we lost a bunch of spots after the 100-lap break, but I’ll take it. Got to race with my buddy Steve Dorer, don’t get much better than that, car in one piece, so we’ll take it home work on it, and take it to Birch Run.”

Steve Dorer, despite pitting several times in the final 84-lap segment of the event, came home in third place, after making some positive adjustments to his No. 7D entry.

“I didn’t have a good car. The first 100 laps was a little tight, so we made what we thought was a good adjustment, but I think we had a bum tire when we switched them at halfway and I was just garbage when the dropped the green. So, we pitted I guess three times and just kept making adjustments.”

“Fun to race with Dan [Leeck]. We were racing side-by-side a lot, we’re buddies, he raced really clean, it’s enjoyable. Some of the people got karma tonight that wanted to drive less respectfully, so it was enjoyable to watch some of the karma play itself out, and see them with torn-up cars and knocked out of the race. I kind of actually enjoyed that as I went by. They want to drive like that, then it’s nice to see karma come around and visit them.”

Michael Simko came home in fourth-place, while David Liaeff rounded out the top-five finishers. Kevin Cremonesi, Carson Hocevar, Nick Egan, Evan Shotko, and Austin Hull rounded out the top-10.

Kyle Crump, who led a solid portion of the race’s first 80 laps or so, was relegated to a DNF on the evening, after being involved in an incident while racing for the lead with Carson Hocevar and Chase Burda, damaging the No. 50.