July 12th, 2003 Racing

After being rained out the last 2 evenings we were finally able to race under nice sunny skies. In qualifying as Mark was heading down the back straight on his first lap he lost the driveshaft. The team worked hard and got the drivershaft changed in time for Mark to qualify, since he had taken the green when the driveshaft let go Mark was only allowed one lap. Mark turned a lap of 19.793 which was 9th fastest overall. The format for the evening was twin 50 lap races, the first 50 lap feature Mark was lined up 6th (outside row 3) the outside line was moving and Mark moved right up with them. Being a long race Mark took his time remembering he had another 50 lap feature to run after this one. Some hard charging drivers who started in the back worked there way by Mark and moved him back to 6th place. At the checkered flag Mark was in 6th place. For the second 50 lap race Mark lined up on the outside line which would be the line that moved forward at the green flag. Within laps Mark was right on the leaders tail trying to pass him both on the outside and inside. Mark was taking it easy not to make contact with the leader, but wasn't given much of lane to get by. With Rod Wheeler and Jeff Van Oudenhoven on his tail he applied the pressure to Korth. By this time Van Oudenhoven was on the ouside of Mark and went by, as he got to the leader, the leader moved over and gave the outside lane. Mark went to the high side to make the same pass, but lost forward bite and started to fall back. Once he got back in line he started moving foward, he was battling Rod Wheeler who was fighting a loose race car. Rod pinched Mark down and Mark got loose causing both to spin out sending both to the rear of the field. Once back under green both drivers began to move forward, but by now the tires were worn out and the laps were winding down. With the way the car was running at the begining of the race, the team came home a disappointing 13th.

Qualifying: 9th - 19.793
First 50: 6th
Second 50: 13th
Points: