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May 27, 2002

After a big feature win Friday night at Kankakee, John loaded up the car and the family and headed south for Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, IL for a $2000-to-win Street Stock Shootout. Unfortunately for John, the words "Street Stock" were greatly exaggerated. He was at a disadvantage from the start running against cars that looked and ran more like Sportsmen and Late Models than Stock cars. 64 cars clocked in and John turned a time of 16.266 averaging approximately 55 mph on Fayette County's 1/4 oval.

John's time put him on the outside of row two for the first heat race. The 9 1/2 car of John Giddens spins out early in the race and John jumps into the third place, but he's almost a half a lap behind the top two cars. Giddens gets his car back pointing the right direction and he and John fight for that third place position for three laps before Giddens finally takes it. John finishes the race fighting fellow Kankakee driver Jay Hamilton for fourth place. John holds off a late race charge by Hamilton to finish the race in fourth almost 3/4 of a lap behind the leaders. Only the top two advance, so John has to get the car ready to come through a consolation race if he's going to be in the big show.

The first of four 12 lap consolation races rolls out on the track and John is in the inside of row #2 right in front of Jay Hamilton. John jumps out of the gate in fourth place and holds it to the third lap where he is passed by Hamilton. Jay realizes Hamilton has the better car and only one car transfers out of the consi's into the feature, so John goes into protection mode to repay the favor Jay did for him two nights ago in Kankakee. Hamilton moves up to third place as John races in fifth behind the 46 machine of Bob Williams . A battle ensues with the Williams after he knocks Hamilton off the pace for a split second costing him valuable time on the leader. As Hamilton works up to second, John starts working on the Williams and eventually takes back fourth place from him. Williams wasn't quite done yet and two laps later, he takes back the fourth place position. The 9 1/2 car of John Giddens that John battled in the heat race spun out in front of him and gave John back the fourth place position. John gets a little high in turn three and loses a few more positions. On lap 11 John finally makes contact with the Williams and spins out in a dangerous spot on the front stretch. Fortunately, the other drivers avoided what could have easily been a driver's side T-Bone. The green flag and white flag wave at the same time to restart the race and John finishes the race in 8th place and is finished for the night. John's work at helping Hamilton almost paid off as Hamilton just missed making the show by finishing a very close second.


May 24, 2002
Racing action picked back up tonight at Kankakee Motor Speedway and the night looked to be good to John from the beginning. Things started off with the Dash comprised of the top six cars from the last race. John started outside the second row next to Jeff Momper. With so little time and Kankakee's top cars on the track, John fell in line and finished third behind Billy Wicker and Jay Hamilton. John rolled out for heat race action inside of the fourth row of the first heat. After a caution on the first lap, John was then bumped up to inside third row to start the race. When the first yellow came out John had worked his way up to third place. Two laps later, John was working Jake Howard for second place and eventually took it. One lap later, John was chasing down Jeff Momper for the lead and by the end of lap four, he had taken. John then broke away from the field and once again, finished the heat race out front.

The heat race win gave John inside first row for the feature lined up to Jay Hamilton. John took the lead right away on the first lap and never looked back. Teammate Kevin Lenzen gave John the only challenge when Lenzen moved up side-by-side on lap seven. Lenzen eventually dropped out with transmission problems and no one could come close to John after that. Following John back to the checkers was Jay Hamilton, Billy Wicker, Matt Cleary, and Mike Cavanaugh.

John and the 05 Team returns to action this Sunday, May 26 at Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, IL for a $2000-to-win special show.


May 19, 2002
John took the 05 car over to LaSalle Saturday night with a new engine. The cam timing was screwed up and he was only able to run between 3 and 6 thousand RPM. John said after the race it was like having traction control...he never had to lift. In heat race action, John was running fourth when Tom Legner tried to go under the 911 car and ended up taking them both out as well as the car running in third. John managed to avoid the accident and led the way back to the checkered flag. Come feature time, John was lined up right next to Jeff Hamilton, but he was passed almost immediately by Mark Stanley. John kept his foot on the floor and Stanley eventually spun out giving second place back to John. A caution comes out with five laps to go and John's sitting pretty good in second place, but with two laps left, a right rear tire blows and he ends up finishing ninth. Not bad for a car that was "turtle slow."

John puts the car back in action next week at Kankakee's regular show then it's off to Fayette County Speedway in Brownstown, IL for a $2000-to-win Sunday night.


May 5, 2002
In a quick points update, John sits tied for fourth right now with 82 points after Friday's action. Leading the race so far this year is teammate Kevin Lenzen with 120 and following him is Billy Wicker with 101. A full rundown of the top ten can be found HERE

May 3, 2002
John started off the night with what he thought was a bad draw and a starting spot deep in the field in his heat race. John started on the outside of the fifth row in heat which saw Shannon Shutter and Jay Hamilton start up front and stay up there most of the race. John quickly worked some magic and got himself into the third spot and stayed there until the final lap. On the backstretch of the white flag lap, Shutter broke with Hamilton right behind him. John took advantage of the situation and passed both Shutter and Hamilton going in to turn four and took the checkered flag. The heat race win gave him an inside second row starting position for the feature right next to AJ Dixon, behind Jeff Momper, and infront of teammate Keven Lenzen. Kevin made a pass very early in the race into second place and John fell in line behind Jeff Momper. Jeff and John battled for the third place spot until the caution came out on lap five. John got by Momper on the re-start, but couldn't hold him off. Momper re-took the the third place position and John and Jeff battled side-by-side for the remainder of the race. Second place car Billy Wicker spun out with four laps to go and John took advantage and gained a spot. Lenzen took the checkered flag with Momper right behind and John a very close third place.

May 1, 2002
John and his crew got the door straightened out and the fender is as good as new. Some realignment was down as well over the last couple days and the team is ready for this Friday's races. On another note, John is also now registered for the Valvoline Cup National Championship. I'll do my best to keep track of that points race on this site as well. Valvolinecup.com