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| 2002 Race Results |
| Saturday, June 15, 2002 - Park Jefferson Speedway Heat - John started 4th in the 3rd heat race and was quick right from the start, he patiently worked his way through field. The car was straight as an arrow the entire race, and John worked his way past the 3rd & 2nd place cars and set out in pursuit of John Heins's #57h which had started from the pole and led the entire race. John caught Heins on the final circuit and made the pass for the lead to win his second consecutive heat race. The car was on rails, and we were excited for the feature because it looked like the track was going to hold some moisture for the feature once again. A Feature - John started from the 8th position, and was fast right from the start on a track that was once again very raceable at feature time. The track was drier up top but the bottom had some pretty good moisture in it yet. We set the car up to be neutral hoping he would be able to go high or low as he moved through the field. As it turned out there would be very little moving up through the field! In the first 3 laps John moved from 8th to a pass on Jesse Cowles for the lead to lead the third lap. When the caution waved on the 2nd lap John had moved into the 4th spot, and in one lap after the restart he moved to the lead before the race was once again halted for an incident. The race was plagued by cautions and John paced the field on about 6-8 restarts in the feature that would take over 45 minutes. During one green flag run of about 6 laps John opened up a full straight away lead on second place. During the race, Clark & Hesse would have struggles, Charlie was battling engine troubles, and Hesse would be sent to the rear twice for being involved in incidents. On a restart with about 6-7 laps to go John was being pursued by Jay Noteboom's #7n, on the first try John opened up a 5 car length lead but the race would again halted on the first lap after the restart. Noteboom would have another stab at John and he intended to take advantage of it. When the green flag fell John again got a great run off turn four and had about 4 car lengths on Jay entering turn 1. Jay let it all hang out and got a run on John in the corner, making a move to the inside of John in the middle of 1 and 2. Jay's car pushed up as he closed on John quickly and noticing that he was either going to take John out or take himself out, Jay got on the brakes and spun himself out to avoid taking John out. Jay got into John's left rear pretty good but only caused some sheet metal damage. It was a close call! When the race resumed with 6 laps to go Rich Hesse had worked his way into the 3rd position behind Jeff Berens who had been running in the top-5 all night. At the green flag John again opened up a couple car lengths on Berens, but Hesse quickly got by Jeff and set off in pursuit of John. Hesse was running "his" groove on the high-side and John had been running the bottom all night. Several times over the closing laps the two were side by side in the corner with Hesse appearing to have the momentum on the top, but John would pull him off the corner each lap. With two to go Hesse attempted a swing to the bottom to go under John in turn 2 but couldn't pull off the move. John drove a nearly flawless race, and never waivered from his groove over the closing laps, and Hesse didn't have the traction he needed on the top to move by John. John held on for his 2nd Park Jefferson Feature win, and 4th modified win overall. It was perhaps the most satisfying feature win of the four features, having come from the middle of the pack and holding off a very stout challenge from a tough competitor like Hesse. It also made a great Father's Day present for Dad and John and Ed and Don and Larry...oh heck, we all enjoyed it!! Oh...victory is sweet!! Standings - It was a pretty good night in the points, as John continued to work his way back to the top tier of the point standings. Although he didn't gain much ground on Hesse, we did move by Kyle Koster who finished back in the field into 4th in the points. John is only 4 behind the 3rd place car of Jimmy Cole who would finish 3rd this week, and Clark finished 7th and leads John by 26 points. We're 42 out of the lead and only 1/3 of the way through the season. Cool! Hopefully, we'll keep our current hot-streak going for a couple weeks. |