Saturday, June 1, 2002 - Park Jefferson Speedway
Heat - What would prove to be a difficult night at the race track started out on the wrong note. John started 6th in a very competitive heat race and ran 5th most of the race. In turn 2 of the final lap John made a move to the inside of Wally Wagner for the 4th spot, and got together with him taking down John's right front tire. John had built up a large enough lead on 6th place John Heins to finish out the lap with his right front down and still advance to the A feature from the 5th position.
A Feature - After gaining the final transfer spot out of the heat race, John would start from the 16th position. As the field entered turn 3 on the first lap, John was punched in the left rear tire by the #7x of Ken Fridrich. Rather than stopping on the track to bring out a caution flag John continued to the pits and the crew got his tire changed under green, but sending him back out 5 laps down. At the time we didn't realize that some of the rear suspension parts had been bent by that initial impact. The car was typically fast and John had advanced in the field up to 10th in the running order. Since we're points racing this season we had hoped that the typically high Park Jefferson attrition would gain us more positions in the final run down. Unfortunately, that would not prove to be the case. The track was absolutely pathetic tonight, the modified feature conditions were among the worst we've seen at PJ. Dust prevented the drivers from seeing more than a few car lengths in front of them, and cars back in the pack couldn't be seen as they exited the corners. It later became clear that we should have parked the car the first time around. Unbelievably no cars fell out during the 2-3 cautions before the 12th lap, and John gained no positions. On the 12th lap, John was under Kyle Koster, when he was hit from below and knocked Kyle off the high-side in turn 2. The contact was out of John's control, we regretted getting together with Kyle for the 2nd time in as many weeks. The hit from below finished off the initial damage to the rear-end and John parked the car. Due to the low (or non-existent) attrition in the race, John was scored in 22nd position after parking it on the 12th lap.
Standings - It was one of those nights you don't want to have when you're running for a championship, as we dropped several spots to 8th in the points. The field is becoming more spread out as the season progresses and it'll take a solid string of good finishes to get back to the top. The field is still lead by Charlie Clark, Rich Hesse, & Jimmy Cole. |
