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| 2002 Race Results |
| Saturday, May 25, 2002 - Park Jefferson Speedway Heat - John started sixth in his heat race and quickly zipped by 4 cars into second place in the first few laps. John set out after Wally Wagner's #88 and the two quickly pulled away from the field. After opening up that big lead John took it easy and coasted home to a 2nd place finish just ahead of Rick Schau's #77t. Between the heats and the A feature came the first PJ screwup of the night. In the pit meeting the drivers had been instructed that the first 4 finishers in the heats would advance to the A-main with the remaining cars needing to advance out of the B Features. In the 2nd heat Charlie Clark and Rich Hesse battled hard for that 4th transfer spot with Clark taking the final transfer spot on the final lap when Hesse got together with Gary March coming out of turn four and went to the wall. Hesse's car suffered what appeared to be pretty significant damage, and his crew worked diligently to get the car back together before the B feature. Hesse's crew was welding on the car right up to the time they moved to the lineup area. The lineup was posted and the cars were in the lineup area when "mysteriously" the track determined that the top 5 finishers from the heats would advance. Immediately upon returning to the pits, Hesse's crew resumed their repairs, including additional welding and work on the rear of his car. Strange how the rules change when it's convenient to some drivers. A Feature - John started 10th in the A feature and the track was again very dry. From the drop of the green flag it was clear that we had hit the setup! The car was a rocket. John patiently moved up in the field advancing to 6th or 7th, picking up a position every couple laps. Several times needing to backout when other driver's moved into his line. On the 9th lap, Paul Hemmingson got out of shape causing Clark and Kyle Koster to checkup, John was following Koster closely and although he had turned the car sideways to avoid Kyle, made contact with Koster turning him around. John's car has significant damage to the passenger's side door where John had laid the car sideways before contacting Koster. John continued after the contact but Koster had spun. This is where things got ridiculous. The officials who had appearantly only seen the contact between John and Koster assumed the incident was initiated by John, which the video clearly shows IT WAS NOT and sent John to the rear for rough driving. Needless to say John was livid and starting 15th on the restart had his work cut out for him. On the restart John would pass 4 cars in the first green flag lap before the race was halted for another caution. The car was still one of the fastest cars on the track, and John at one point had advanced to 7th before giving up 2 positions attempting to make a move to the highside around the #77t of Schau. John was back up to 9th at the fall of the checkered John. The feature would be won by Jason Edwardson from the front row. We were very disappointed in what we viewed to be some biased calls going against our race team tonight. For only the 2nd time in 12 years of racing we visited the officials office after the races to express our displeasure with the incident, which of course fell on deaf ears as we had anticipated. Standings - Hesse really struggled tonight and finished in about 13-15th position after several visits to the pits after involvement in incidents. Koster would also finish back in the field as did Hemmingson. The top of the field will likely get bunched up this week, but we think John will hold onto a top 5 points position. |