In the heat race we started 8th and came up to finish 4th, just making that all important invert position.  A tacky track early in the evening saw several of the top guys in the points not make the invert for the A-main, one of them was point leader Josh Daniels.  We felt very fortunate.  In the feature we started 12th in which turned out to be almost as frustrating as the week before.  Jeff was running the top groove mostly and it would take him to a lap or two to get his momentum built up but that's about how often a caution would come out.  It seemed every time we would make a pass for a position the yellow light would come on and the pass wouldn't count.  We hung out in 9th and 10th most of the race because of that.  Finally towards the end we got to run some green flag laps and moved up a few positions to finish 6th.  Then to top it off, officials called the race before it's allowed laps because of the time limit.  It was very frustrating for our team as we felt like we at least had a top three car or better.  It seemed like Jeff passed 28 cars to come from 12th to 6th.  Hopefully next week will be better for us.  We did however gain 2 points in the points and gained some of it back that we had lost the week before.

1 Randy Killen, 2 Bobby Davis III, 3 Don Killen, 4 Don Wear, 5 Gary Bass, 6 Jeff Johnson, 7 Russ Byriel, 8 Josh Daniels, 9 Todd Fisher, 10 Danny Hill, 11 Carl Yaw Jr., 12 Tyler Gross, 13 Tony (Butch) Bass, 14 Don Wauters, 15 Ronnie Hill, 16 Ty Hill, 17 Travis Hansaker, 18 Mike Todd, 19 Steve Curtis, 20 Terry McDowell, 21 Greg Shepherd, 22 Robert Koeneman, 23 Steve Hill, 24 Bill Fox, 25 Bob Daniels

Friday night at the IA State Fairgrounds Speedway was a night of hard work and hard luck.  In the heat race while racing for position contact was made with another competitor damaging our LF front suspension.  We were able to nurse the car to a fourth place finish for that final invert spot luckily.  From there the team bonded together to repair the car and get the car ready for the feature.  In the feature we started 12th and had made our way to third in the first few laps when the RF lower ball joint broke.  Probably remnants from the contact in the heat race when we hit the wall going down the backstretch.  Jeff did an outstanding job keeping the car out of the wall as it broke going into corner #3.  A disappointing night all the way around especially after starting 12th and coming to 3rd.  We felt like we had a shot at getting another feature win.  We lost our point lead but there's still a few races left to recover.  Anything can still happen in the points race.  It's shaping out to be one of the closest battles in the I-stock class in recent years.  Basically anyone in the top 10 has a shot.

Des Moines Results

1 Randy Killen, 2 Todd Fisher, 3 Josh Daniels, 4 Steve Hill, 5 Bob Daniels, 6 Steve Jackson, 7 Don Killen, 8 Russ Byriel, 9 Steve Curtis, 10 Danny Hill, 11 Carl Yaw Jr., 12 Tony (Butch) Bass, 13 Travis Hansaker, 14 Tyler Gross, 15 Don Wear, 16 Jeff Johnson, 17 Terry McDowell, 18 Bill Fox, 19 Robert Koeneman, 20 Ty Hill, Dallas Center

1 Randy Killen, 2 Don Killen, 3 Travis Hansaker, 4 Don Wear, 5 Josh Daniels, 6 Danny Hill, 7 Steve Jackson, 8 Todd Fisher, 9 Jeff Johnson, 10 Russ Byriel, 11 Steve Hill, 12 Bob Daniels, 13 Ty Hill, 14 Steve Curtis, 15 Carl Yaw Jr.

We have several wheels and shocks for sale.  This is equipment we've been running and we're just looking to sell some of our used equipment to upgrade our shock/wheel program.  The wheels are mostly the Aero silver painted IMCA/Wissota approved wheels along with a couple of off brands and some chrome wheels.  5x5 in various offsets.  Mostly non-beadlock wheels but do have a couple beadlock wheels for sale as well.  $15.00-50.00...

The shocks are Bilstein, both 7" and 9" stroke in various valvings.  $40.00 each.  Do have one blue AFCO 7600 for $20.00.

Call or email Dave Miller for more info...

515-299-4797 or 515-991-2643

1 TJ Criss, 2 Eric Flander, 3 Brian Mitrisin, 4 Rick Brown, 5 Brad Pinkerton, 6 Bobby Greiner, 7 Josh Newell, 8 Jim Brown, 9 Jeff Johnson, 10 Colt Mather, 11 Trent Vrchotichy, 12 Steve Landgrebe, 13 Brian Sterling, 14 David Brown, 15 Nathan Wood, 16 Brian Edel, 17 Darrin Thompson, 18. Matt Greiner

Photos:

Photos by Dave Hill's Racing Images

Jeff Johnson visited victory lane for the first time since 2001 Friday night at the IA State Fair Speedway Mid-Season Championship.  It was also the first ever victory for the 11ss Racing Team.  No heat races were run.  The feature was lined up according to the point standings.  Johnson got to start from the pole from being the current point leader.  Bob Daniels took the lead on the initial start from the outside pole.  Johnson kept pace by running the high side glued to Daniels bumper with the occasional try for a slide job.  With five laps to go Jeff got a good run going into corner #1 on the bottom side and slide up beside Daniels going down the back straight away.  He cleared him going into corner #3 and went back to the high side as it was the preferred line.  From there Jeff kept Daniels at bay, although Daniels black #25 machine never did fade and was right on the #11ss rear bumper at the checkers.  It was another exciting race for the fans. 

The win allowed us to gain one point on Daniels in the point race.  We now have a 8 point lead.  Still definitely anyone's track championship to win or lose in the last half of the season.  Next week we have a week off from Des Moines as there there is no races on Friday because the World Pork Expo will be at the IA State Fairgrounds.  So we will be going to Southern IA Speedway in Oskaloosa on Wednesday evening for the first time in 2006 to prepare for the USRA Great American Stockcar Shootout which will be held June 12-14. 

Results

1 Jeff Johnson, 2 Bob Daniels, 3 Mike Todd, 4 Steve Jackson, 5 Steve Curtis, 6 Josh Daniels, 7 Travis Hansaker, 8 Todd Fisher, 9 Russ Byriel, 10 Greg Shepherd, 11 Randy Killen, 12 Kent Knopf, 13 Gary Bass, 14 Justin Murphy, 15 Carl Yaw Jr., 16 Chad Severe, 17 Terry McDowell, 18 Steve Hill, 19 Don Wear, 20 Don Killen, 21 Ty Hill, 22 Don Wauters, 23 Danny Hill

Unofficial Points After 6/02