[Jerry Shaw]

The theme of the night ended up being "A Tale of Two Bradys". The first Brady made things easy on himself. He qualified well. He won his heat race. And by the time all the heat races were ran, he was locked into the front row of the feature. He would have time to rest up and be fresh for the A-Main. The other Brady took a different path. He qualified terribly, near the very bottom. Had to start behind the invert in his heat race and did not transfer. He then found himself in the qualifiers race, where he would start well back and race his way to a third place transfer position. This hard work put him in the back of the B-Main where he would race his way into a fourth place finish, but not before being involved in multi-lap rumble between Himself, Bryan Clauson, Thomas Meseraull and Justin Grant. The Semi was a fun one to watch! Congratulations Brady Short, this hard run earns you a spot in the back of the feature, right in front of the guys who took provisionals. Having ran two more races than the drivers who had transferred in out of their heat races.

As soon as the green waved, Brady Bacon assumed command from his front row starting spot. He was fast. He ran a lower line and was it was going to be a monumental task for anyone to catch him, on this night. Brady Short surely didn't stand a chance, against this field, from where he was starting, right? As soon as the race started it was apparent that this Brady didn't get that memo, as he started to steadily march his way through the field. After the first yellow, he was just outside the top ten. Right after that, he was up to ninth. He then took on a pack that included Chris Windom, Robert Ballou, Jon Stanbrough, Dave Darland and Max McGhee, who had fallen from his starting position on the pole. He went through that group and set sail for the top four. The crowd was abuzz with what Short was doing, as you could see who they were pointing out to their neighbors and racing buddies, as he made his way through. The run would stop there though, as he was never able to take down fourth place runner, Hunter Schuerenberg.

Another highlight of this race was Kevin Thomas Jr's assault on the cushion of this track. The race he ran looked like a fun one to run. The leader was putting the HAR #69 where ever he wanted to and it was fast running a lower line. Jerry Coons was on the very bottom and snuck up on the leader several times during the race. He even had the lead, briefly. Thomas was up there in the rough stuff, bouncing on many occasions, nearly going over the ledge in turn two on others. He pried second away from Coons and that wasn't easy. He then went after the leader. He reeled him in several times and tried to get around the outside coming out of four and down the frontstretch more than once. It was exciting to watch, but Bacon was just too good and too consistent for KT to defeat. He had conquered a track that had gotten the best of him, quite a few times. And he made it look fairly easy. The race featured a bunch of great battles. The one at the end, between Robert Ballou and a surging Jon Stanbrough may have been the best. Robert would eventually take back what Jon had taken from him. Several of the great drivers that Short got around, didn't go down without a fight and those skirmishes were up there, too. And the KT Jr around the rim and Jerry Coons smooth around the bottom one, was a classic top -vs- bottom duel.

This was a successful event at a real fan friendly track and this may have been the largest crowd I've ever seen at this place. They put on a real show, both Joe and his crew and the drivers. The track was racy up until the very end. It took a long time to get out of there, because there was such a huge crowd. But when I was sitting in gridlock on the way out, I noticed that I didn't see anybody walking to the parking lot that wasn't happy. Many were more than that, they were ecstatic.

Now we have two races left and there is one point separating The Madman and The Macho Man. This thing's going to go down to the wire.

Jerry