Kemenah Gives Silver Crown a Go With Hampshire and Lamme

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Speedway, Indiana (January 22, 2019)………Six-time All Star Sprint Car champion Chad Kemenah will make his USAC Silver Crown debut in 2019 with plans to drive a champ car on the dirt for Father-In-Law Bob Hampshire and Clark Lamme.

Kemenah has been a standout on the wing sprint car circuit for more than two decades, winning the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions title in 2002, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’16 and ’17, plus the Ohio Sprint Speedweek championship in 2002 and 2016.  With 35 wins, he ranks 16^th on the All Star career wins list.

But 2019 will mark a new venture for the Findlay, Ohio driver as he plans to take the wheel of a Silver Crown car for the initial time.  However, Kemenah does have experience without the wing earlier in his career, making three USAC National Sprint Car appearances in the 1990s.  He did not make the field in his first attempt in the “4-Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway in 1994 but bounced back with a pair of top-ten runs - an 8^th at Ohio’s Attica Raceway Park in 1998 and a 10^th there in 1999.

The Hampshire/Lamme No. 15 will be a potent machine for Kemenah with initial plans to compete on the half-mile dirt tracks and in the “Hoosier Hundred” at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, with an appearance at Springfield and Du Quoin a possibility.  Hampshire was the owner of the famed white No. 63 that Jack Hewitt drove to back-to-back Silver Crown titles in 1986 and ’87.  More recently, he was the crew chief on the DePalma Motorsports team alongside ace wrench Lamme as they won an unprecedented five consecutive Silver Crown owner titles between 2014 and 2018.

“This deal just kind of came up when I was at Bob Hampshire’s shop,” Kemenah said.  “We were talking about Champ Car races and it just turned into ‘how about we run a few of the dirt races when you’re not racing the wing car.’”  Bob has been successful with the Champ Car the past few seasons and it will be fun racing out there.  I have never ran a Champ Car in a competitive race before, but I am more than confident Bob and Clark Lamme will have everything ready to go.”

2019 USAC SILVER CROWN SCHEDULE

Mar 22-23: (P#) Memphis International Raceway (Millington, TN)

Apr 14: (D) Terre Haute Action Track (Terre Haute, IN)

Apr 27: (P) Toledo Speedway (Toledo, OH)

May 23: (D) Indiana State Fairgrounds (Indianapolis, IN)

May 24: (P) Lucas Oil Raceway (Brownsburg, IN)

Jun 14: (D) Williams Grove Speedway (Mechanicsburg, PA)

Jun 28: (P) Madison International Speedway (Oregon, WI)

Aug 10: (P) Salem Speedway (Salem, IN)

Aug 17: (D#) Illinois State Fairgrounds (Springfield, IL)

Sep 1: (D) Du Quoin State Fairgrounds (Du Quoin, IL)

Sep 7: (P) Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis (Brownsburg, IN)

Sep 27-28: (D) Eldora Speedway (Rossburg, OH)

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(P) = Pavement Race

(D) = Dirt Race

# = Daytime Race