Long and winding road
James Gregait earned his Grundy ride by winning at go-karts. And now, a decade later? ‘We just keep plugging away.’
Former late model competitor Doug Kimber tells an enjoyable tale about the day he decided to step down and put crew member James Gregait behind the wheel.
It was the holiday season during the 2011 winter.
“When I was driving, every year between Christmas and New Year’s, I’d take the team out to an indoor go-kart racetrack,” Kimber said. “I’d treat them to a program, which was three heat races and a feature.”
Gregait, who had been with the Kimber team since he was a teen, won the event six years in a row.
“One of the times, I had a good friend from Texas who had his own electric go-kart,” Kimber said. “He came up and those two duked it out. But James still won over the guy who had his own kart.
“When I saw that, I thought,
‘Eh, maybe I have the wrong guy in my car.’ And I was ready to stop anyway. It’s a lot of work, trying to be the driver and maintain the car.”
More than a decade later, the
Kimber-Gregait team is still running near the front of the late model pack at Grundy County Speedway.
Going into Friday’s program, Gregait sat fifth in points. He had one heat win and a pair of top-six finishes.
“We’re getting points in the heat races and getting decent to strong finishes in the features,” Gregait said. “We just keep plugging away, trying to be consistent and get the points.”
It’s a breath of fresh air for Gregait after three turbulent previous seasons.
Gregait saw 2019 come to a sudden finish on July 5, when his car was badly damaged in a feature race wreck.
In 2020, he was in a practice session at Grundy when a car came out of the infield and caused another major accident.
In 2021, Gregait had his wildest wreck, flipping upside down and crashing into the Turn 1 wall. Fortunately, he was OK, but done for the season.
“You feel it go in slow motion and you’re like, ‘Gosh, this isn’t good,’ ” Gregait said. “I remember pushing the button on my radio to tell everybody that I was OK. The problem was, when the car rolled over, the radio got thrown out the window.
“Nobody could hear me for a good couple of minutes. It was not a fun situation, and I’ll be happy to never do it again.”
Top finishes are a different story.
“We really need to get some feature wins,” Gregait said. “We’re in the ballpark. We just need to find the right situation on the track — that one little thing in the setup that’ll give us that extra drive.” Baker’s double: Ricky Baker won both 25-lap late model features to capture the Illinois State Championship event.
Baker beat Jim Weber each time. The second was a real battle that wasn’t decided until the final few laps.
“I usually like the longer races, so I was really worried with the short stuff,” Baker said. “But it worked out.
“The pass on Jim at the end ... I tried to take it easy on him. We’ve been hanging out a lot, and I just wanted it to be clean. He raced me good. Everybody raced me pretty good.”
D.J. Weltmeyer finished third in both races, while Joe Vinachi finished fifth and fourth.
Locking it down: Kristi
Odom became the fourth different 4-cylinder feature winner in four races.
The Braidwood police officer gave chase to Danielle Dobczyk for much of the 25-lap event before making the pass just five laps from the finish.
“I had to earn it,” Odom said. “And I couldn’t have earned it against a better person. I love racing against Danielle. I love running against everybody here.
“She had it going for sure, even running on the outside after the pass, but I feel real good in this car. It’s brand new, with a new setup.”
Kevin Murphy claimed the Illinois State Championship in the sportsman division, winning the first feature over David Einhaus and finishing third in the second feature.
Vince Cooper won the second race over Sean Matthuis.
Scotty Gardner and his dad, Scott, split the victories in the two 25-lap street stock features. Scotty Gardner won the overall points title. Jacob Senerchia won both ends of the twin-25s for Super Cup cars.