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| 2001 Race Results |
| Monday, July 9, 2001 - Crawford County Speedway (Denison, IA) UMP Summer Nationals/NKF Special Heat - John started 3rd in his heat race that included a number of strong cars including, Jason Weatherton, Dean Palmer, Mike Johnson, Gary March, and Kelly Shryrock. With the top 6 advancing out of the 10 car field, John would have his work cut out for him even with a good starting spot. The track was very tacky on the hot and humid July night. John was held up behind the pole sitter on the drop of the green flag and fell to 5th on the first lap, on lap two John was crowded up to the turn 2 wall by Dean Palmer, whose car pushed badly. That dropped John back to the 8th spot. John raced hard with Kelly Shryrock who had started in the rear for a couple of laps until on lap 5 when Jason Weatherton and Bill Flegg got together in turn 3, John moved by both of them into the 6th position behind the 5m of March. Lost in all the excitement of the first few laps was the fact that John had a very fast car that was handling excellently. It appeared that John was in a very good position to grab one of the transfer spots to the A main. John moved by March on the restart into 5th place and forfeited that spot a lap later as he made contact with Shryrock as Kelly was attempting a pass, that contact would cause the rearend of the car to break, and drop John from the race. We were able to find enough replacement parts at the track to get the car put back together, but would be very pressed for time. The team worked very diligently, but came up just minutes short of being able to make it out for the B feature. Honestly, with 4-5 minutes more we'd have been ready to race. It was frustrating coming that close and being unable to compete. The track held it's moisture for the remainder of the evening and the track was super fast. The modified feature winner, Mark Noble, was clocked at 115 mph and winner of the $10,000 late model feature, Billy Moyer, was clocked at 125 mph. The late model feature was awesome as nationally renowned late model drivers Moyer and Scott Bloomquist competed at the track, and basically took the locals to school, qualifying 1-2 and finishing 1-2. It was some awesome racing, but unwelcome results for the O.K. One Stop Racing team! |