Well, after picking up a couple new tires, changing the oil and repairing damage caused by exploding tires, it's time to try it again.

In the heat race, I started on the inside of row 2 beside the #7 truck of Dave Beman. Nothing real special about this race although it was a fun and tight race. The #86 of Marty Halouska jumped out to an early lead when the #83 of Jeff Foster slipped and nearly spun on the bottom of the corner. From then on for nearly the whole race, it was Halouska leading with Pater and Beman side by side and me following right on both of their bumpers trying to find a way around them. Going into turn 3 on the last lap, Pater slipped up a bit and fell back a bit and I got side by side with him and finished only .054 seconds behind him. So close! But at least I transferred directly into the A.

After the heat race, the only thing I had to do was scrape some more mud, top off the fuel and check tire pressures. I love nights like this!

For the feature I started 4th, behind #77 Jason Mehlhaff. He has been having trouble with his car cutting out going into the turns lately, so I was trying to anticipate how I was going to get around him in a hurry on the start. Green Flag!!! Going into turn one, Jason bobbled a bit and I dove under him and moved into second right away. Heading into turn 3, whoever was in the lead, Halouska I think, got loose and I blew by him and took the lead! Yellow flag! Damn! I was planning on checking out! Well, let's try it again. On the restart, Jason took off a little better, but going into turn 1 the 86 slid up the track just as I was sticking my nose in between him and the 77. I had to hit the brakes hard to avoid getting squished. I did get pinched a little, but nothing to worry about. However, with that, I fell back to 5th and had to play catch up. At the end of lap 1, I saw Tim Waltner come flying up and blow by all of us going into turn one. He started 10th! How did he get up there that fast!?!?! Then there was another yellow. I restarted 4th and after about one more lap, Tim lost the tread cap on his right rear tire and had to call it a night. No caution, so the race was on. I hung on to the rear bumper of #12, Mike Chaney for 3 or 4 more laps trying get around him. I was a little faster than Mike, but he was all over the place, so it made it difficult to pass him. By that time, I noticed the P8R car sticking his nose up under me going into a couple corners. Chaney had settled down a bit and was inching away from me, so I kind of turned my attention to racing with Pater. He has been wicked fast this year and I figured it was going to take all that I had to hold him off. This was going to be harder than usual because the track was pretty slick tonight. That is something that we haven't had to deal with in a long time. I knew if I ran up high where I wanted to, Pater was going to get by me on the inside. So in a bit of defensive driving, I ran the middle of the corners to pinch him down and make it very hard for him to pass me. There wasn't a whole lot of grip down there, so I figured that would be my only chance to hold him off. With 4 or 5 laps to go, we ended up with a red flag. I believe someone blew an engine and had an engine fire. I didn't see who it was, but apparently he was ok. On the restart, I was trying to figure out how to get around Chaney while at the same time trying to figure out how to keep Pater behind me. My car was a bit too loose and after the restart, Chaney started pulling away slowly. I then turn my full attention to Pater, who was still sticking his nose under me in every corner. I was diving into the corners as hard as I could...a little too hard a couple times, because I just about spun myself out 3 or 4 times. Finally, the white flag! Can I hold on? Coming through the final corner, I nearly lost it again and Pater dove to the inside and it was a drag race to the checkers! When we crossed the line, I looked over and was looking at his front fender! Close, but I held on for second!

After the races, Marshall came up to me and showed me his payout for the night. The officials awarded him second, which meant they gave me 3rd. I knew that was wrong. I even had several people tell me that I beat Pater to the line by about half a car length. Later when I went to collect my check, I talked to one of the officials to see what the deal was. Apparently my transponder had not registered for 3 random laps during the feature and one of those was the last lap. At that point, when a transponder doesn't register, there are scorers that manually keep track of the positions. I guess someone either wasn't paying attention or didn't see when we crossed the line and looked up a second later when Pater was past me after the flag and thought he finished second. Now I am curious to see a video of the race to see for sure. Not that it will change anything, but at least I will know for sure.

I have to give Marshall credit. He is a heck of a driver. It's not very often that you can race side by side with someone lap after lap and never touch each other. That was fun!

All in all, it was a very good night. Didn't cut any more tires down, didn't wreck anything and actually made a little money for the night! That is a very rare occurrence!!!!

I may have started something tonight. In the last 2 weeks, I have moved from 17th in points to 9th. I am only 16 points out of 3rd and 117 from the points lead! I may have to run for points this year for a change! Hopefully good luck will be with me and I will be able to run every night this year! I have never been able to really run for points before.