2000 RACE RESULTS
Hamilton County Speedway - Webster City, Iowa
USMTS Fall Nationals - #57 Ritts Racing Modified
September 28-30, 2000
John came to an agreement with Al Ritts that returned John to the seat of the #57 Ritts Racing Harris Modified at the Fall Nationals in Webster City. The format for the event included running 2 timed laps on Thursday to determine the starting order for the Friday night heats, and qualifying features. John was the 90th car to go out on Thursday and ran the 3rd fastest lap of the group of 30 cars he was ranked with. But that time was significantly slower than those cars that had gone out earlier in the session before the track dried out. John ran well in his heat race on Friday and finished in the top 5, but got involved in an accident in the qualifying feature that took him out of that event in which he had been moving up in the field.
On Saturday night there were numerous qualifying features that would still give the opportunity to move into the A-main and the Non-qualifiers feature. The winner of the A main receives $7,000 and it paid $1,000 to make the show, the non-qualifier paid $3,000 and $400 respectively. John would start his racing Saturday night in the H Feature. He ran well enough in that feature to advance to the G, and advanced out of that race to the F and was in a position to advance out of that race before the transmission failed on the car ending his run to make the big show. It was an enjoyable, but tiring week as the shows ran late into the early morning each night.
News - After the 2000 Harris suffered significant damage on Season Championship Night, Larry Davis & Bill Rolfes worked during the week to get the old #1s Modified (Click here for photo) ready for action in the Siouxland Nationals. It was going to be a guessing game as the old chassis had never been run on Hoosiers, and John's driving style has changed after being in the Harris chassis all season.
Heat - John would start 6th of 8 cars in his heat race, and battled an extremely tight racecar. The Hoosiers significantly tightened up the car, which had historically been quite loose. John fought the tight condition throughout the race and slid back to the 7th position. It would take some significant changes to make the car competitive in the feature.
A Feature - Because we didn't come to the track to run last, we removed all of the extra weight from the car, and John made some significant chassis adjustments to loosen up the car. We were optimistic, although tentative, going into the feature. John would start from the 16th position, and made a strong move to the inside when the green flag fell. As the leaders were coming through turn 3 the cars of Jay Noteboom, Mike Jensen, and PJ Late Model champion John Anderson got together and spun to the infield, right in front of John. As he was slowing John got bumped from behind and turned around. The officials ruled that John was involved in the accident and sent him to the rear. On the subsequent restart, John was once again making a solid move and several cars got together in turn one, right where the pile up was the week before. John took to the infield and was again able to avoid the wreck. During the caution, John noticed that his fuel pressure had gone away, and came to the pits. We quickly lost a lap as the race got underway and decided to park it for the night, and possibly for the season. John was scored in 23rd position for the night, in a race that John Anderson would win after going to the back for the first lap incident. Anderson proved why he's the late model champion!
John may be competing in the USMTS shows at Webster City and/or Denison in Al Ritts's #57 modified on Sept. 27-30 and Oct. 11-14. Stay tuned to the website for any updates when those plans are made.
Heat - John started 3rd in his heat race, behind Mark Wenzlaff and Greg Peck. At the drop of the green flag the guys on the front row took off, and Jeff Berens got around John. The car was not running up to full song but John was still able to hold onto the 4th spot and qualify for the A. The crew did some work on the car before the feature and found the problem, the car was again up to speed come feature time.
A Feature - The field took the green flag for the 17 lap A Main with 5 of the top 6 cars in the top 12 starting spots. Reece Coffee skipped the season championship night to make an attempt at the Boone Nationals, unfortunately for Reece he was unable to get in the big show at the Supernationals. John was just 34 points out of the lead and had a decent mathematical shot at the title. He would start 8th in the field, behind Chuck Clark, Greg Peck, & Mark Wenzlaff. At the drop of the green flag, John made a move to the outside down the front stretch and appeared to have the position, but never made it to turn one as the #3 of Mark Neal got turned by a bump from behind by point-leader Greg Peck. Neal was headed head-on into the wall, as John approached on the outside lane he had no time to react and was trapped between Neal's car and the wall. As this happened at the front of the field, the following 16 cars created quite a tangle trying to get their cars slowed. A number of cars piled into one another and the #11c of Chris Prussman charged into another car and was launched into the air rolling down the front stretch and landing on his roof. His car stopped right next to John's and John quickly jumped out of the car to give Prussman assistance. Fortunately, Chris was not seriously injured in a rather scary wreck. John's car suffered some severe front-end damage, bending both the right and left suspension components, when the car came in on the hook, the crew went to work attempting to get him back out to garner as many points as possible, but came up a few parts short. Brad TeGrotenhuis of Orange City, offered John the ride in his car, and John was in the process of strapping into Brad's car when the officials decided it wasn't going to allow John to take the points anyway, so John returned to the pits and nursed some sore joints and neck. John was scored in 20th position, and the race was won by Mark Wenzlaff who was followed by Greg Peck, Kyle Koster, and Chuck Clark.
Standings - The battle for the modified championship was all it was billed to be! With two weeks to go Greg Peck was in 4th position, and Rich Hesse was in 5th. After the final feature, Peck had claimed the championship and Hesse had moved into a tie with Clark for the second spot. Wenzlaff's win moved him into the 4th spot and Reece Coffee held onto the 5th spot. John slid to 6th in the standings after not being able to run the Saturday feature. Looking where we were at this point last season, a 6th place finish should satisfy us, but we had the taste of higher, and wanted more. It was a great season, we became contenders, we joined the upper tier. That is success when judged by anyone's yardstick.