[Jerry Shaw]

It just goes to show you, never, ever give up on a racing program. Yesterday, it looked like Mother Nature would never even let this event happen. Tonight started with the track being so terribly sloppy wet that it couldn't even be hot lapped on, without a significant track rework and lengthy delay. Then the first heat wasn't real good. But then the last three were a harbinger of things to come, as they were action packed and thrilling. Come feature time, everything looked to be served up on a silver platter, as you had drivers like T-Mez, Jon Stanbrough, The Madman, Dave Darland, Stockon and Brady Bacon within the first three rows. Surely this thing would be great right off the bat, right? Ballou was the first aggressor, but after contact from Stanbrough, went over the berm in two and was shuffled back to 13th or 14th place and then everybody just pretty much settled in on the bottom and followed each other around for the longest time, with Meseraul leading the way. Then after a yellow Dave got underneath Thomas and grabbed the lead. We've all seen this before, game, set and match. It was a done deal, right? It looked like it, but then, as if some just flipped "The Top Is Now Open" switch, Leary started passing people like crazy. Robert Ballou was in full Madman Mode, both on the top and dive bombing people with sliders. But most significantly, Brady Bacon was a rocket on the top. It was obvious in a few laps Dave was going to have a serious problem. Then there was another yellow, with Darland in the lead, followed by Meseraul, then Bacon. Bacon took second and dove under Dave as he switched and went high to try to take Brady's momentum away. The as the laps wound down and they started getting into lapped traffic T-Mez came roaring back and passed Dave on the high side. And he was reeling the leader in. But would he run out of laps? He was right on his tail tank on the last lap and dove low as they came top the flag stand. It was close, but Brady just had too much momentum coming to the line. It didn't always look like it was going to be, but it ended up being one hell of a race!! And thanks to Dick Terrell for getting me a top row spot that I could stand and watch the race, I had a bird's eye view of this one. Thanks to the O'Connors for saving this place and giving everyone the opportunity to see such a great race. And the highlight for me was how Meseraul got passed by two champions like Darland and Bacon, regrouped, came charging back and actually outraced both through traffic. He almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. He's having such a good year, this year.

Jerry