MILLVILLE – On Sunday, a 21-year-old amateur driver nearly beat one of the top race car drivers in North America on a high-speed course
modeled after Daytona. He fell behind by a mere six-tenths of a second by the second lap, and he would have won, too, if only he hadn’t have collided violently into a wall at 200-plus mph. Who says video games are good for nothing T.J. Kenny shook hands with 2009 Daytona Rolex 24 winner David Donohue after facing off against the latter’s best time in a simulated run of the Daytona 500, the main event at the New Jersey Motorsports Park’s charity luncheon that went on to raise more than $3,000 for its children’s charity. “He came over and congratulated me. I’m not sure if he was watching my run or not – I was paying too much attention to the screen,” said Kenny on Monday of Donohue, a Vineland resident. “I joked around with him, said I would have beat him – if only I didn’t, you know, crash. “I took a split second to look at my time instead of the wall.” Classic mistake.
He went on to win the event, finishing closest to Donohue’s fastest lap – 1 minute, 45.95 seconds to Donohue’s 1:45.316.