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Kosiski Records a Pair of Third-Place finishes in Malvern Bank Action

Friday night Andrew Kosiski and Team 53 put together their best complete race program of the 2020 race season as the Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing (SLMR) Series returned to the I-80 Speedway. Kosiski capped off the beautiful August evening with a 3rd place finish in the 25 lap main event. (Todd Boyd photo)
Qualifying time trials kicked off the nights festivities with Kosiski laying down a lap of 17.863 seconds which was good for fifth quick overall. Starting third row inside in the heat race Andrew jumped into the fourth position on lap three and was in the tire tracks of second place Jason O’Brien and third place Ben Schaller. The three would race in close corridors for the remains hand full of laps until AK made a last lap, last corner pass on Schaller to secure a third place finish. That pass would give Andrew enough qualifying points to line him up on the pole for the 25 lap main event.

At the drop of the green the All Makes Collision Center, Certified Transmission, Kosiski Auto Parts, Super Clean, Select Auto Omaha, Omni Inventive Care, We'll Smoke U BBQ No. 53 would fall into second place as outside poll sitter Bill Leighton Jr. got the advantage. Kosiski held the second position early on until lap nine when Tad Pospisil began to challenge him for it. Andrew and Tad raced side by side for many laps swapping the runner up spot as the two split lap traffic that had come into play. Kosiski gained the full advantage back on lap 16 right before the caution flag flew on lap 17 for race leader Leighton. This put AK at the top of the leaderboard for a eight lap shootout. Kosiski kept the lead through turns one and two after the restart, but the tricky part of the track was turns three and four and Pospisil would get underneath him coming off to take the lead at the line. Andrew continued to have trouble getting the car to rotate in three and four allowing Schaller to get by for the runner up position on lap 20. A late race restart with a few laps remaining wouldn’t play a factor in the finish and Andrew Kosiski brought home his best series finish of the year in 3rd place.

Saturday night Andrew Kosiski and Team 53 visited the Off Road Speedway where they finished up the back side of a Malvern Bank Super Late Model Racing (SLMR) Series doubleheader weekend. Kosiski would see the same result as the first night at I-80 Speedway and come home with another 3rd place finish in the main event.

Qualifying time trials seen Andrew have another strong run clocking in with a time of 15.323 seconds around the 1/4 mile speedway. That was good for eighth quickest and lined Kosiski up third row inside in the heat race. The All Makes Collision Center, Certified Transmission, Kosiski Auto Parts, Super Clean, Select Auto Omaha, Omni Inventive Care, We'll Smoke U BBQ No. 53 then advanced two positions in the eight lap heat race to line it up second row outside in the 35 A feature.

With the track prep crew doing a farming session right before the main event the field took the green flag with a fresh racing surface. On lap one Andrew tried to stay even with inside row two starter Zach Zeitner entering turns three and four but got too high allowing fifth place runner Tad Pospisil to get by. Getting back in line Kosiski caught back up to Zeitner, who had fallen to fourth, and was racing in his tire tracks by lap ten. Lap 14 almost proved to be disastrous for the top five as second place runner Charlie McKenna spun entering turn one. Both Zach and Andrew took evasive maneuvers to not cause a pile up narrowly missing the No. 22, and with the caution flag coming out that allowed AK to reset to the fourth position. When the race resumed the bottom groove of the track finally came into play and after a handful of laps Kosiski finally made the pass for third on lap 21. Andrew then went to work cutting the over two second deficit to second place Bill Leighton Jr. to under one second in just eight laps. Lap traffic was tough on the leaders and that proved to be the same for Kosiski as almost all the ground he made up was lost just two laps later until the yellow waved with just four laps remaining. This set up one last double file restart where Andrew sailed it off into the first turn on the outside of Leighton, but unfortunately at this point in the race the bottom had become the dominant groove so he had to tuck back in line down the back straightaway. The remaining laps were calm and Kosiski took the checkered flag in third position behind Pospisil and Leighton and ahead of Kyle Berck and Jim Johnson.

For more results from these events, please visit www.SLMRSeries.com.

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