The Keeppers

Randy and the entire Monett Speedway staff would like to thank all the fans for sticking it out last night, and especially all the drivers who helped get the track ready after the rain came. And for the ones who left your cars on or in the trailor cause you didn’t want to get a little mud on them, we thank you so much for your help.

After several rain delays and a rather slippery heat race I started 6th in the feature out of 19 cars. I quickly passed the car on my inside and then got around Michael Maggard. About 2/3rds of the way into the race I was working on 3rd place and had a nice run out of corner 1/2 on neon orange 01. I had the pass if I hadn’t gone into corner 3/4 way too hard which ended in me spinning out. Had to restart last place (I think about 13th at that point)…passed enough cars to finish 8th. My clutch petal also went out sometime during the race…probably a fluid leak…but the new clutch worked well.

Thay started on the pole in the heat and won it by alot. In the A thay started on the pole and won it by a half a lap.They had the three stooges in the trophy picture.

Clutch went out after a couple laps.

I believe I should have won this race. After the first lap there was a caution and it was a near dead tie for Eric Turner and I to the flag stand (there is no racing back to the yellow so I’m referring to the lap back). I thought I beat Turner and he did also, he was surprised that they put him in front of me on the restart and so at that point I could only finish 2nd though I was right on Turner the entire race. I reviewed the video Jessica shot of the race and it looked like all you could tell is we were side by side to the flag pole but I was racing and I’m quite sure that I beat him and that one decision determined the race winer. Considering that Turner is one of the top Factory/Modified/Late Model racers in the county… to keep up with him is a feat upon it’s own. I believe he won every Factory Stock race last year at Lucas Oil that he entered and once he won the Factory, Modified, and Late Model races all in one night.

I started 4th in my heat and ended up winning by a good straight away. Started on the pole next to James Flood…he got a jump on me so I was worried that I was going to be behind him but ended up getting around him in corner 1/2. From there we had a caution and I could see that Holloway was behind me. He was pretty much on my bumper the entire race but I took it relatively easy because I knew there was only one groove and that was on the high side and he wasn’t going to be able to pass me on the low side. I got the checkered and was glad to have pulled off the win. Check out my winners photo in the Driver Photo area.

Here is the excerpt from Bolivar Speedway…
Ben Solberg (72) is out front early with a hard charging Jordon Holloway (21) all over his back side. By mid race, the duo had managed to pull away from James Flood (41) and Chris Jackson (65) leaving them to battle for third. The fight up front continues to heat up as they enter heavy lapped traffic. Holloway gets a great run near the end high off turn two and looks like he might take the lead, but a yellow re-sets the field with just four to go. After the restart, Holloway tries several lines including a Hail Mary dive to the apron out of four with the checkered waving. However, he can not hold the line and Solberg takes the win. Great finish and great clean racing by Holloway. Roger Flood (24) gets the hard charger award as he quietly worked his way from the back to a fourth place finish. Jim Reaves had handling problems all night and a flat tire but still managed to get the big black 18R to sixth place.

I got a good start and was in 4th place behind Holloway, Bryant, and Tillman. I pulled up on Tillman a couple times…almost thought I might get around him once on the high side and once on the low side. Randy Lebow turned me sideways after about 11 laps so I had to restart in the back. I attempted to get a few cars passed but too many laps had passed… ended up making contact with yellow 8 and so have some side damage to my car…right side isn’t so pretty anymore. Not sure where I finished yet as Isaac picked up my check for me. I should have finished at least in 4th place.

Had problems with the axel alignment of the gear we replaced so only one tire was getting power so I had to pull off the heat early. During the feature I started last and to make things worse a car ran me off the track into the infield around the 2nd lap…by the time I made it back on the track I was pretty far in last place. There were no cautions to catch me back up to the pack, however, I did manage pass a few cars and finished 6th. Jody Tilman won.

I know I still had problems with my car from last week at Monett so I was hoping to go to Midway and work out the bugs. The car was fast but after 4 laps during the heat and feature the car would lose power. I took it to Rubles after the races and he worked on it Saturday and replaced all the electrical and MSD units and so something he did fixed the problem. That’s a relief.

They did not have cruisers so he raced in the bombers .He started second in the heat got off to a bad start but was passing the 88 back going into turn three the 99 went to the inside of the 88 it was three wide coming out of turn four the 88 got loose hit the 99 sending them both back up the track smashing Isaac up against the wall leaving him no place to go but up he gets shot up about seven feet in the air taking out fence and coming down with a crash. They will be back next week with a new car.