Thursday, August 30, 2001 - Park Jefferson Speedway (USMTS)
Heat - After struggling with the car for the last few weeks, we rescaled the car this week and found out that somehow our weight distribution had gotten pretty messed up. We felt really good coming into the USMTS show hoping to have a car that would handle better than it had on the previous several outings. That turned out to be true. John started 8th in the 10 car heat race and would work his way through the field into the 3rd position and was gaining on USMTS regular Kelly Shryock and IMCA standout Ricky Stephan. As the race wound down the car became increasingly tight, and although he was the fastest car on the track, it still managed to get away from him and push terribly on the final lap, John gave up two positions and slid to 5th. The 3rd place finish would have been enough to put John into the A-main on the basis of passing points. It was a disappointment, but most of all we had a car that was fast again.
B Feature - John would start 4th in the B feature and ran 2nd for most of the race making a challenge on race winner Jim Thies on a couple occasions. The car of Tim Donlinger slid by John in the closing laps and we would finish 3rd, good enough to gain a transfer spot into the A-main!
A Feature - John would start 18th in the 24 car feature field. The start of the race was awesome, with a fantastic fireworks display overhead. Park Jefferson put on a great show for the USMTS event! The car was great from the drop of the green flag, and John was able to move up to 12th by the drop of the checkered flag. The race was very exciting with Jim Thies taking a nasty tumble into the turn 4 wall, rolling his car after getting tied up with another car coming out of the corner. John battled during the race with Kelly Shryock and Ricky Stephan, and had what is arguably our best run of the season. A 12th seemed like a top 5 against this competition and given our success over the last few weeks.. |
