ROLLER COASTER SEASON FINALE AT ANGOLASeptember 16th, 2017: For the final time in 2017, Matt would strap into the number seventeen Hoffman Motorsports entry and race with the MCR Dwarf Car Series. Throughout practice, Matt made quite a few adjustments and was working to get the car right. After qualifying fifth, we made one more adjustment that we felt was going to dial the car in. But, just before the heat race, the car had a flat right rear tire and we were forced to put on an older one. After that, the car just wasn't the same. Matt brought it home sixth in the heat race after fighting a loose car. We didn't make any changes going into the feature, anticipating that the track was going to gain some grip. Matt would start from the outside front row, and got a great start. He raced side-by-side with the lead car into turn one, but with having the dis-advantage of starting on the outside sent him back to fourth. The car once again was just too free on exit, not allowing Matt to get the power down. He fell back to around sixth or seventh trying to get the car under him but kept getting put in a bad spot. He avoided a couple wrecks, had a few other close calls, and he worked his way back up to fourth toward the closing laps of the race. But once again, he was unlucky when a late restart put him to the outside. He would ultimately come home sixth.
"I was a little disappointed we didn't get the top-five I thought we deserved. I missed a shift on the last restart which ultimately lost us the fifth position, but I guess it's better to make those mistakes now and get em out of the way this year, right? Even though it wasn't a top-five, I still had a blast racing with these guys. I'm extremely grateful to have had this opportunity with Hoffman Motorsports this year and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can do with them next year. As always, I have to send a huge thank you out to Eric and Troy Hoffman for all of their help and the opportunity this season, along with my dad for everything he has done and all the support he has given me in all of my years racing. Without them, I wouldn't even have been able to touch a race car this year. On top of that, more thanks to Hawk Jr and Josh with Hawkeye Speed Shop, the Francis', and everybody involved with MCR. It's been a great learning experience and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to next year! See you in 2018!" 
ROUGH NIGHT ENDS WITH A BANG AT OWOSSOSeptember 9th, 2017: After missing Spartan because of a prior commitment, Matt would return to race with the MCR Dwarf Car Series at Owosso. This would not only mark his first start in his own car, this would also be his first time competing at Owosso. The day started with a few practice sessions, but Matt just couldn't get into a good spot away from slower traffic to really figure the car and track out. Qualifying gave Matt a better chance to get an idea of where the car was at. Unfortunately, he found that it was far too loose on corner exit and he just couldn't get the power down, resulting in a tenth place Qualifying effort. He made some adjustments in preparation for the heat race, and they were spot on. The car handled perfectly. Matt drove to the lead from fifth in just a few laps, learning the track at the same time. After grabbing the lead, he would come off of turn two and get a tire off into the dirt. When he tried to catch it, the car hooked, sending Matt off into the weeds down in turn three. Luckily, he would avoid any sort of contact. After jumping back on track, he would rebound from eighth to a second place result in the heat race. The car felt just about right in the heat race, and we decided not to make any adjustments for the feature. Unfortunately, just after taking the green there was a big check up going into turn one. Matt had just shifted into high gear when it happened, causing him to react quickly and jump on the brakes. He jumped on them just a little too hard and got turned around up in turn one, once again avoiding any major contact. But even with a push start the car wouldn't re-fire, ending our night there.
"I've been looking forward to this race for months, so it's really unfortunate that it had to end before it could even begin. It's crazy because I haven't spun a car out in about four years and tonight I went around twice. But, it's good that we got that out of the way. On the up side, we learned that our car is really fast, and once we got the handling right it felt really, really good. Angola is next on the schedule and I finished third there in my debut earlier this year, so I'm really excited about going back there. As always I have to send a huge thank you out to Eric and Troy Hoffman for the opportunity, and to my Dad for making this a possibility for me. We'll see you at Angola!" 
SCHEDULE CHANGE: SEE YOU AT OWOSSOAugust 30, 2017: Unfortunately, we will not be able to make the trip out to Spartan on Friday. However, we hope to be back in action at Owosso! See my updated schedule HERE.
LAPS LED AND A TOP 5 FINISH AT M40August 19th, 2017: Coming off of his third consecutive feature top five the week prior, Matt showed up at M40 Speedway ready for battle. Hoping to put the troubles of the previous race at M40 behind him, things didn’t exactly start the best way possible. Needing to fix a lost bolt would cause Matt to miss first practice, but he would still get plenty of on track time before racing began, including the second round of practice and qualifying soon after. Matt qualified just outside the top five, in sixth. For the first time, the invert would go his way and instead of starting at the back, he would get to start both the heat race and feature from the outside front row. Being his first time starting on the front row in the fast heat, a rookie mistake was nearly inevitable. While reaching for the shifter, Matt would miss and accidentally hit the kill switch causing a stack up on the start. After nearly being pushed back to the pits thinking he had blown the motor up, he diagnosed the problem and got rolling again. Restarting the heat race at the tail, he worked his way up two positions to finish fifth. Feature time rolled around and Matt would start in the same position. This time, nailing the start and grabbing the lead off of turn two. Matt would pull out to nearly a straightaway lead before a mid-race caution. Not long after the restart, he would jump on the binders a little too hard, somehow holding onto the car but falling back to second and eventually third with overheated rear tires. A caution would come out not long after giving his tires a chance to cool down. After the final restart, the top three battled hard back and forth for the remainder of the race, but Matt would wind up finishing third for his fourth consecutive feature top five.
"As always, I have to send a huge thank you out to Eric and Troy Hoffman for the opportunity, as well as Junior with Hawkeye Speed Shop and my dad for all of the help. I definitely wouldn't be able to be doing this, or have the opportunities I've had without all these great people supporting me. I also have to thank all of the people who came out to watch and support me tonight. M40 is kind of a home game for us so it was great to see so many friends and family in attendance. Thank you all for your support!" 
MATT COLLECTS SECOND HEAT RACE WIN IN DWARF CARAugust 12th, 2017: After a busy day at the Michigan International Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event, Matt and the crew headed about an hour to the Northwest to Springport Mid-Michigan Speedway for the MCR Dwarf Car Series race. Once again, Matt would be piloting the number four Hoffman Motorsports entry. The MKR team arrived just in time for Matt to go out and run a few practice laps. Qualifying came soon after, but the last car in the preceding class lost a motor during their qualifying run, leading to an extensive clean up and lots of speedy dry. Matt was sitting early in the qualifying order, and because of the speedy dry played it conservative during his run. Maybe a little too conservative, qualifying 9th. After that, Matt would start at the tail of his heat race, once again playing it conservative for the first few laps. Once things calmed down, Matt started his march forward. From the back, he quickly made his way to the front and took the lead coming to the white flag. He would go on to collect his second ever heat race win in the Dwarf Car! For the main event, Matt would start 8th, just missing the invert . But starting on the outside for the initial start set him back to about 11th. A few laps in, there was an early caution with a second wreck happening directly in front of him, but he luckily avoided any contact. After the restart, the remainder of the race went green with Matt climbing back up to 5th after a hard battle. Tracking down the top four, he just didn't have enough time. But once again, he would bring home yet another feature top five!
"I'm stoked with the night we had tonight, and really, this whole day has been great! We woke up at 5:30 this morning to drive to MIS for the truck race, and about twelve hours later we arrived here. In the race tonight though, I really needed a caution to come out there in the closing laps to get back the ground I lost making the pass for 5th. I think I was able to close the gap a little, but not as much as I'd have liked. As always, the competition is tough, and running these cars against that tough of competition has taught me a lot. On top of all that, it's been an absolute blast. So as always, I have to send a huge thank you out to Eric and Troy Hoffman for the opportunity to run the car once again. Without them, none of this would be possible. We'll be back next week at M40!" 
ANOTHER FEATURE TOP-5 AT AUTO CITYAugust 5th, 2017: The Midwest Classic Racers Dwarf Car Series headed to the Auto City Speedway for the 19th Annual Tommy Bowles Memorial Race. Matt's day started with a loose car in practice, but with anticipation of the track gaining grip later in the day, no adjustments were made. Qualifying came next, and the car was fast. Matt over-drove turn four a little, but was surprised to come back to the pits to find he had qualified 3rd; only six-hundredths of a second off the pole! With the stellar qualifying run, Matt would go on to finish fifth in the fast heat with a very loose car. But once again, we made no adjustments. Come feature time, the sun had set and the car ran just about perfect. After starting 7th, Matt would drop back to 9th avoiding an early wreck on lap two. But on the restart, he worked his way up to third, trailing second. Matt would move up to second, but only for a moment, falling back to fourth after getting stuck on the low line in turns one and two. After going back and forth for second and third, Matt would end up finishing fourth, missing third by about a half a car-length in only his second feature in the Dwarf Car.
"It was a great race with lots of back-and-forth and side-by-side racing. I just needed the car to grab a little better off the corner to have made the pass for second and get clear. I feel like if I could have done that, I might have even had something to say about who won the race. But we're really happy with the result tonight, and hopefully we'll carry this momentum into the next one and keep the consistency rolling. As always, I have to thank Eric and Troy Hoffman for the great opportunity to come out and drive their car again. It's always a pleasure. We're happy with the consistency, but I think a feature win is close!" 
MATT CAPTURES FIRST DWARF CAR HEAT RACE WINJuly 15th, 2017: Matt Kemp made his second career start with the MCR Dwarf Car Series at the M40 Speedway. At least, that was the plan. The car was way too loose in practice, but after a few adjustments it was dialed in. Qualifying was next on the agenda, but just before going out to attempt a lap, the car refused to start. After a push back to the pits, we diagnosed the problem as a wiring issue. At this point, we believed to have had the issue resolved, but because Matt was not able to attempt a qualifying lap, he would be forced to start in the rear of the field for both the heat race and the feature. In the heat race, the car fired up beautifully. From the last place starting position, Matt would work his way up into the lead just before the half way point. From there, he didn't look back as he went on collect his first heat race win in the Dwarf Car! Come feature time, Matt fired up the car and rolled off toward the grid. About half way there, the car died, and once again refused to start. The team worked tirelessly trying to get the car to start, and didn't give up until the battery died. Unfortunately, our night ended there.
"It was a little rough for the team as a whole, but I'm grateful to be standing here with the car in one piece. Even though we couldn't get it fired up for the feature, i'm extremely proud of the effort everyone put in on the car tonight, and I have a ton of people to thank. First of all, I have to thank Eric and Troy Hoffman once again for the great opportunity to be here racing again, Junior and Josh for all of their help, and to the nearly 20 people who came out to support us tonight. I wish we could have brought home a better result for them, but nonetheless I learned a lot and I'm looking forward to Auto City!" On the final lap of the feature, Triston Francis experienced a vicious hit with the outside wall. Triston was able to get out and walk away under his own power, but is not expected to be back in a car any time soon. All of us at Matt Kemp Racing wish him a speedy recovery! 
TOP 5 FINISH IN DWARF CAR DEBUTOn June 17th, 2017 Matt Kemp made his debut with the MCR Dwarf Car Series at Angola Motorsport Speedway. In his first official race day with the series, Matt qualified the car inside the top five (fourth) and would go on to finish 5th in the fast heat race, missing fourth by .001. Because it was his first official start with the series, Matt was asked to start in the rear of the field for the feature. The 25-lap main event went green, flag-to-flag, and after a long, hard-fought battle Matt would bring the number 1A Hoffman Motorsports entry home 3rd in his Dwarf Car Debut.
"I just want to send a huge thank you out to Eric and Troy Hoffman for giving me this opportunity to go out and run the car for them this weekend. It was a really great experience, and I learned a lot. There's a lot of great drivers and tough competition with MCR and I hope to be back racing with them again soon." 
MATT KEMP RACING IS CURRENTLY SEEKING SPONSORSHIP!From this point forward, we're focused 100% on moving up. But in order to do so, we need partners. Matt Kemp Racing is currently seeking potential sponsorship opportunities for the 2017 Racing Season and beyond. If you have, or have ever had any interest in sponsoring a race car, don't be afraid to ask questions, contact us here!
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