7/12/02
US 36 Speedway
Osborn, Mo
22 cars
by Rustin Nelson
Heat 1)(started) -- 1. 82 Kerry Madsen (1) 2. 92J JR Topper (2) 3. 4K Lynton
Jeffrey (3) 4. 20 Ron Lefholz (4) 5. 21 Mike Lefholz (6) 6. 33 Tim McVay (5)
Madsen was VERY fast, and totally blew everybody away in the mostly single
file affair.
Heat 2) -- 1. 6 Bryan Grimes (2) 2. 50D Derek Beckman (4) 3. 44H Phillip
Heavelow (1) 4. 03 Charlie Burton (3) 5. 14 Josh Riggins (5) 6. 88 Chad Tye
(6)
Grimes rocketed to the early lead and cruised. Beckman did a nice job
moving into the runner up spot.
Heat 3) -- 1. 96C Jim Cameron (4) 2. 8s Shane Hunter (2) 3. 7N Tracy Nichols
(1) 4. 21x Skip Jackson (3) 5. 12 Colin Northway (5)
Hunter took the early lead with a 360 bullet under the hood, but Cameron was
moving up fast and quickly on his tail. With only a couple laps remaining,
Cameron put a textbook slider on Hunter exiting turn four. Jackson &
Northway were uncharacteristically mired at the back of the field, forcing
them to get their elbows up come feature time.
Heat 4) -- 1. 71 Dennis Moore Jr. (4) 2. 18 Tim Newman (2) 3. X Mike Douglas
(1) 4. 1P Curtis Evans (3) 5. 76 Jay Russell (5)
Dennis Moore quickly tracked down Newman, and ran away with the heat winning
in impressive fashion.
A-Main) -- 20 laps -- 1. Moore Jr. (4) 2. Grimes (2) 3. Jeffrey (9) 4.
Jackson (15) 5. Cameron (3) 6. Northway (19) 7. Hunter (7) 8. Burton (14) 9.
Nichols (11) 10. Topper (5) 11. R. Lefholz (13) 12. M. Lefholz (17) 13.
Newman (8) 14. Riggins (18) 15. Beckman (6) 16. Madsen (1) 17. McVay (21)
18. Tye (22) 19. Heavelow (10) 20. Douglas (12) 21. Evans (16) 22. Russell
(20)
Madsen jumped to the lead from the poll and began to encounter lapped
traffic on the 2nd circuit. Moore Jr. was right on his bumper as they
weaved through traffic. On lap 7, Douglas spun in turn four, and Evans
tagged him hard bringing out the red. Both would retire to the pits.
Madsen was right in the middle of the mess, and had his brakes to the mat!
There's no way you could've slipped a piece of paper between Madsen's rear
bumper & Moore's front bumper as well -- great job by both of these guys of
avoiding a huge mess. Skip Jackson at this point was up to 7th. After the
restart near the halfway mark Madsen bobbled high in lapped traffic in turns
1 & 2, opening the door for Moore to pass him on the low side. Madsen was
reeling him back in when Heavelow spun in turn 3 and tipped over - he was
done. Madsen once again made a quick move to avoid severe problems. Moore
controlled the restart, and Grimes began to close on Madsen. The track was
slicking off, but still had a tricky transition from the racing groove to
the marbles. Madsen slipped high in turns 1 & 2, bicycled, and took a
fairly easy tumble. He was done for the night however. On the impending
restart, Grimes got a great run on Moore coming out of turn two. They were
side by side down the back stretch, but Grimes slid a hair over the outside
edge of the track, giving Moore the slim advantage. This was all for not
though as Beckman spun to a stop on the inside of the front stretch. A
mini-fiasco ensued concerning the lineup. Officials declared Jackson at
fault for spinning out Beckman and wanted to send him to the tail - giving
Beckman his spot back. Lap after lap ticked off, and neither of them went
anywhere. As it ended up, they both restarted where they were runnning
prior to the spin. I personally felt that Beckman didn't have any help
spinning -- and that's what he conferred after the race. After this
incident, I have a good feeling that all of the officals are going to try to
be on the same page when it comes to the consequences of spinning out.
Moore dominated another restart, and cruised to his 3rd win of the season at
US-36 Speedway. Beckman spun again on the front stretch as the checkered
flag waved, relegating him to 15th and ruining his solid top ten. Jackson,
Northway, and Jeffrey all had solid runs, with Northway picking up
hard-charger honors. Hunter picked up the $200 bonus for being the top
finishing 360 in the field.