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| 2001 Race Results |
| Thursday, July 19, 2001 - Knoxville Raceway (Knoxville, IA) Harris Clash / IMCA National Modified Series Heat - John was scheduled to start 3rd in his heat race but the pole sitter had wrecked in hot laps and was unable to make it out for the heat race. John slid up into the pole position for his heat race. 120 cars were on hand for the annual Harris Clash, and only the winners would advance from the heats. We felt pretty good about our chances as the car had been very fast in hot laps, and with a pole starting position on a track that had already dried out quite a bit we were optomistic. John got a good start and had the lead down the front stretch, as he entered turn one the car was suprisingly loose going in, and as he got out of shape on the entry he got a bump from behind and by the time the cars made their way back to the starting line he had fallen back to 6th position. As I mentioned before, the track was very dry and there was no passing for the rest of the heat race, John maintained his position pretty well, and we were left to wonder what might have been as John finished the race in 6th. Local drivers Jay Noteboom and Kelly Shryrock were able to win their heats and advance to the A-Main. B Feature - John started 6th in his B feature and needed to garner a top 2 finish to advance to the A main. On the start John got a good run into turn 1, and was up to third entering the corner, but the car was again very loose and got away from him a little bit, he was back in 6th by the time he got it straightened out. It was again a single file parade as no one really made much progress in the race, John would finish right where he started...6th. We had a good time but wish we could have had a better showing. For our first time at the track, we weren't totally disappointed with our performance. To do better we're going to have to work on the car's handling on a dry racetrack. The A main also included very little passing, Kelly Shryrock led early from a 3rd place starting position, but was realed in and passed by Johnny "the Jet" Saathoff from the Jet's 20th starting postition. Amazingly, he was able to pass on the very dry race track. Saathoff and John Logue were the only ones who were able to do any substantial passing in the race, showing why they are considered two of the best modified drivers in the nation. |