[Jerry Shaw]

It ended up being a really entertaining feature. Simon jumped out to the lead, but was chased down and passed by Justin Grant, who held the lead for several laps, before being pressured by Stevie Sussex. Sussex fought Grant for a few laps and then took the lead. Behind them though, is where the best part of the race was unfolding. The race for 3rd-4th-5th-6th-7th was kind of wild and contained battles that went on for most of the race. T Mez, Shane Cottle, Simon, KT Jr and a hard charging Max McGhee were all over one another lap after lap and sometimes three and four wide, especially in turns 3 and 4. As this melee was going on, the one consistent thing about the whole thing was that McGhee was picking them off, one by one and definitely was the mover within the top 7 or 8. And about this time, Grant changed tactics by moving up the track to a faster line for him and within a few laps, had gotten his lead back from Sussex. Then Meseraull made a charge and was threatening to take second away from Stevie, when he came under attack by Max, who had battled his way through a bunch of real tough drivers to get into 4th. Then Max took Stevie and it looked like Justin might have the challenger that had what it took to steal the win away from him. In fact, Max caught him and had several real good looks and then the yellow came out, so there was going to be no surprise move to take the lead away, Justin had to have known who his new challenger was. When they went back green T Mez took the 3rd spot away from Sussex and another yellow came out. So here was our final restart with Grant, McGhee and Meseraull lined up nose to tail. Max got a good restart, but then Justin pulled away some, just as T Mez made a final challenge for 2nd. Max battled that off though and finished 2nd to Justin, with T Mez right behind him. Justin was "the man" on this night, but I'd have to say Max was "the show" or the catalyst that made this race really interesting. I think everybody got their money's worth. I know I did. And I came in with my personal bar set real high, after what we had been treated to at LPS, the previous night. And this wasn't on that level, but it was still damn good! The feature reminded me just how much I enjoyed going there when Joe was running the place, a few years back. Even slicked off quite a bit, that track tends to run real wide, which is consistent with some of the really good features I saw there in the past. Hopefully, they find a way to bring more non wing sprint events back to this track. I know I would be interested.

Jerry