8-27-10

The Keen Team get back to Victory Lane!

Tyler Walker wins first career Williams Grove sprint feature

by : Todd Heintzelman

Tyler Walker has won sprint-car races all over the country, but never at
Williams Grove Speedway.

The California native changed that on Friday night as he held off Lance
Dewease to score his first career Grove win in Jesse Keen’s sprinter.

Share He won $3,600, plus lap money. Steve Suchy, who helped Cody Darrah
last season, was turning the wrenches on the Walker machine for the
first time.

“We needed some help and lucky he offered it,” Walker said. “Hopefully,
we’ve got him for a while. It definitely helped out tonight.”

“We’ve been up and down all year,” Walker said. “We haven’t had the
consistency and we’ve been searching. I think we found something. Jesse
and Lorraine have stood behind me even though I haven’t given them the
wins that I told them I would. We’re getting there. We’ll keep working
at it.”

Walker is happy to be a regular in central Pennsylvania.

“They have the stiffest competition in the country and I’m glad to be a
part of it,” Walker said. “This kind of opportunity is what I worked for
the last couple of years. I have something strong and stable. We get to
go have fun and win races.”

Trevor Lewis spun in turn one on the initial start and collected Rick
Lafferty bringing out the yellow flag.

Cory Haas set the early pace as Walker shot from fifth to second on the
first lap. Dewease started ninth and was also on the move early as he
was into fourth in three laps.

Walker, a native of Los Angeles, began to close and looked low on Haas
for the lead in turn one. Haas was fast around the top and maintained
the lead off turn two.

Walker dove under Haas in turn one again and this time cleared the
slider and was the new leader on lap nine as Dewease drove by Mark
Coldren and into third.

Brian Montieth, who narrowly missed the first lap crash, took fourth on
lap 11. Walker led at the half-way point as Dewease and Montieth both
blasted by Haas.

Walker’s big lead was erased as the yellow flag flew for a three-car
crash involving Coldren, Justin Henderson and Derek Sell.

Walker got a great restart and drove away from the battle for second
between Dewease and Montieth. Mark Smith drove by Haas and into fourth.

The caution flag flew on lap 20 erasing Walker’s advantage again.

Dewease, of Fayetteville, tried a slider in turn one on the restart, but
Walker maintained the top spot. The red flag was displayed on lap 21 and
the race was stopped when Lewis flipped in turn two. Brent Marks, who
started 16th, was up to fifth.

Walker was better on the restart again as he got away and would go on to
the win over Dewease, Montieth, Marks and Fred Rahmer, who started 18th.
Smith, Todd Shaffer, Danny Dietrich, Steve Buckwalter and Chad Layton
completed the top 10.

“The start was everything because I think he had something for me,”
Walker said. “I thought ‘I’ve got to step it up on this restart.’ We got
a good restart and I knew we were good enough to stay out front.”

6-29-10

Tyler Wins night 3 of PA Speed week!

Photo's are posted. Please check the gallery page.

5-26-10

By Todd Heintzelman

May 26, 2010, 11:21PM

BECHTELSVILLE - Tyler Walker’s night didn’t’ start out very well, but it ended in victory lane.
Walker destroyed his sprint car in a warm-up flip, but the Keen Motorsports Team rolled out a new car and Walker would end up winning the 35-lap sprint car feature at Grandview Speedway on Wednesday night. It was the first race in the fourth annual Keystone Cup.
The series continues Thursday night at Hagerstown (Md) Speedway at 7:30.
Walker, who was hired a few weeks ago to drive for Carlisle’s Jesse Keen, took the lead from Greg Hodnett off turn four on lap 27 and went on to the $5,000 win; his second since joining Keen.
“We have one hell of a team to overcome that kind of adversity,” Keen said as he walked to victory lane.
Walker’s crew chief wasn’t even in attendance as he was attending his daughter’s graduation in California. Walker is a native of Los Angeles.
“I owe this to my guys, they did all the work,” Walker said. “We had a power steering pump break in hot laps and that put us behind. We pulled the other car down and busted tail. I had to get up and give them something for working so hard in the last four hours.”
Harrisburg’s Chad Layton got the jump on Hodnett on the initial start, but it was negated by a frontstretch crash. Layton had the lead on the second attempt, but another caution flew.
Hodnett, of Thomasville, got the lead on the third try, but they only raced two laps before Ryan Taylor’s third turn flip brought out the red flag.
Stevie Smith went after Layton on the restart, but fell back in line in third. Lance Dewease was on the move from ninth following a lap four restart as he drove by Mark Smith and Walker to take fourth.
Walker would drive back by Dewease following a lap 10 restart and was up to second when the caution flew on lap 15.
S. Smith appeared to have the fastest car on the restart as he drove from fourth to second. He nearly had the lead from Hodnett on lap 17 as Layton came to a stop on the frontstretch.
It was all Walker after this as he drove by Smith to second on the restart and began to reel Hodnett in using the top of the speedway. Walker would take the lead on lap 27.
“I couldn’t get the wing to go back any further,” Walker said. “I just drove the wheels off of it. We were running about the same pace as Greg and my opportunity came in lapped traffic. We got a shot and I thought that was going to be my chance.”
Walker negotiated heavy lapped traffic over the final eight laps to score the win over Hodnett, Dewease, Fred Rahmer, who started 12th, and Daryn Pittman.
Walker has an entertaining victory lane celebration.
“I hurt my leg in that crash, but I’ll do a back flip if everyone cheers,” Walker said.
S. Smith, Alan Krimes, Brian Leppo, Danny Dietrich and Doug Esh completed the top 10.
Pittman set fast time over the 22-car field with a lap of 11.889. Mark Smith, Dewease and Walker won the 10-lap heat races.

TYLER WALKER SCORES SECOND WIN @ PORT ROYAL May 16, 2010 Port Royal, PA

Tyler Walker scored his second Aumiller & Associate Insurance sprint car win of the season Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway. The Los Angeles, CA native started sixth and inherited the lead after Michael Heckman spun out in turn four while leading during lap 13. Greg Hodnett moved from 11TH starting spot into second position during lap 11. Hodnett continued to chase Walker during the closing laps of the event. A lap 22 caution flag for Mike Erdley gave Hodnett one final chance to catch Walker. Hodnett's efforts came up short and Walker became the winner. Hodnett settled for second with Chad Layton third. Justin Henderson and Mark Coldren completed the top five. Sixth through tenth were Ryan Taylor, Mike Wagner, Rick Lafferty, Cliff Brian and Dave Hahn. Heat races for the 24 car field were won by Heckman, Jimmy Seger and Hodnett.

Walker was warmly welcomed to the winners circle by happy fans and crew. It was car owner Jesse Keen's first victory at the track since returning to racing. Keen was not present to witness the win. " I wish Jesse was here.", said Walker, " He's at a wedding. I just got to thank everybody on this team, especially for this opportunity. They made it easy for me tonight. I just had to hold on to the wheel and the gas. I'm so excited about being here. I can't say it enough. I'm so happy and ecstatic to be in Pennsylvania with good competition. I've got a heavy schedule to race. I'm looking forward to it. It's all my team. I owe it all to them and Jesse Keen." Walker went on to discuss his return to sprint car racing after racing trucks and stock cars in NASCAR a few years back. " I'm passionate about what I'm doing again and that's what's important. I got lost in money and trying to do things I wasn't enjoying. You can't do that in life. You have to do what you like. I really just love driving sprint cars and there's nothing else I can say about it. I remember when I was driving a stock car and Kasey (Kahne) called me to drive his sprint car, I was so excited. I didn't want to get in a jet with leather recliners and all this good food to go race an hour away. But I didn't mind driving 18 hours to Knoxville, Iowa to run Kasey's sprint car. That's when I knew I wasn't doing the right sport. This isn't for me. I'm back doing what I love and when you do that, I think you are going to be successful at it."

**************************************************************

4/26/2010

Hello Fans,

We would like to take this opportunity to announce that Tyler Walker will be the new driver of the Keen Motorsports # 17 sprint car. Our schedule will be uninterrupted as Tyler will take the wheel of the 17 car this Friday April 30th for the All Star show at Williams Grove Speedway.

As a past champion of the World of Outlaw Gum Out series & 2009 King of California series, Tyler brings a lot to the table and we are both looking forward to the upcoming weeks of racing. Please continue to check back for update stats and news.

For up to date results, pictures, and stories stay tuned to www.keenmotorsports.net

Keen Motorsports would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support: Hunter Truck Sales, Peterbilt, and Shell Rotella T and also all of our product sponsors who play a very important role in all of our success.

Quick Stats

STARTS - 51

WINS - 4

TOP 5 - 17

TOP 10 - 24

Great News!

Keen Motorsports is very pleased and proud to welcome HUNTER Truck Sales & PETERBILT as the major sponsor of #17 driven by Tyler Walker. It is wonderful to have Hunter & Peterbilt back for the 2nd year in a row. The whole team is very excited to have the opportunity to represent both these companies every week at local race tracks in central Pa. in 2009.

Hunter Truck Sales is the largest commercial truck dealer in the Northeast with 9 locations in Pa., 2 in New Jersey & 1 in New York. The Hunter Family & team's mission is to build long-term relationships by providing excellent products and services that reflect value, integrity and teamwork. Visit www.hunterstrucksales.com to locate the dealership waiting to service your truck fleet no matter the size operation for new & used truck sales, parts, service or body shop needs.

Peterbilt ... "The Class of the Industry"
On highways, construction sites, city streets, logging roads - everywhere our customers earn their living - Peterbilt's red oval is a familiar symbol of performance, reliability and pride. With a full line of Class 6-8 trucks, proven array of TruckCare aftermarket support programs and respected network of independent North American dealerships, Peterbilt continues its legendary industry leadership. Peterbilt's dedication to deliver products and services focused on improving customers' performance, image, profitability and peace of mind truly makes Peterbilt the Class of the industry.

Jesse Keen & the Keen family of transportation companies thank both Peterbilt & Hunter and attribute them to be a Huge part of the success of our business since buying our 1st Peterbilt in 1974. For 35 years both Peterbilt & Hunter have been along for the drive & have succeeded in their mission.

Thank you for visiting our site. We are very pleased with the number of viewers we have checking back in on a regular basis. We hope you enjoy our website. We know viewers like up to date websites and that is what we hope to do for our viewers. We are fortunate to be able to update our site ourselves and plan to update the site after each event we attend. We know not every fan can attend every race, especially the out of town races, so we are going to post updates as often as possible. Please keep checking back as we plan to add to our site as time goes on with photos, scheduled events and possibly a guest book for our viewers to sign.