Wednesday, June 20, 2001 - Fairmont Speedway (USMTS) (Fairmont, MN)
Heat - I'll give a disclaimer before starting this summary...I wasn't there, and to top it all off, the official results haven't been posted by USMTS yet, so I'm only going to report what John told me on the phone the night of the race at 11:30 while I was in bed. It was our first visit to the Minnesota facility. John was running third in his heat race when the throttle spring came loose, forcing him to manually lift off the throttle for the remainder of the heat race. Needless to say it affected his performance in the heat and he missed a transfer spot by one position in the heat.
B Feature - John started 3rd in the B and ran in that position most of the race. Kelly Shryrock who started on the front row ran away with that B. John lost the third position to nationally known modified hotshoe Mark Noble in the closing laps, and forfeited what would prove to be the final transfer spot on the last lap, when he messed up in the final corner to drop another position to 5th.
Kelly Shryrock went on to win the A main on a last lap pass by Mike Chasteen, another well-known USMTS competitor. Kelly's father had competed at Fairmont Speedway for a number of years before passing, and it was Kelly's son's 12th birthday. Much of his family was on hand for what proved to be an emotional victory. Congratulations to Kelly! |
