JRL: Everything Turns Out Peachy For Oliver And King In Georgia
- NR2k2
- Published ()
- JustRacin League
The JustRacin League continued its exciting 2002 season this week at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Please pardon the brevity of this week’s column, as your humble reporter was on vacation (business) in a small island in the south pacific (Oregon). Nonetheless I shall do my best to scrap together this weeks racing action for your edification.
Oliver Keeps The #3 Behind Him!
The MBNA America 200 Stock race got off to a tight start as qualifying saw Jeff Shell taking the pole by eight one-thousandths of a second over Kevin King and Denis Fuson took the 32nd and final starting position about half a second behind the pole.
As the 200 mile race started Kevin King was the early man to beat. Unfortunately for him once again connection problems would tarnish his day and by the end he would be a mere 51 laps behind in 25th position.
Although 9 caution flags flew for 32 laps this race saw lots of green flag racing and fierce competition, which has come to be the signature of the JRL Stock Division. The fastest track in NASCAR saw 19 lead changes among 13 different drivers and a tough battle at the end.
Another late race caution setup a shoot out with 10 laps left to run. Tom Oliver kept a wide car holding off the hard charging Mike Ramsden to land in Victory Lane for the MBNA America 200. Following Tom and Mike to the line where Tom Robbio, Scott Hieronymus, and Jon Nelson rounding out the top 5.
Tom Oliver had this to say of his win; "Well I got totally lucky in this one... I think I kind of made a wide car and squeezed Mike everywhere I could to prevent him from getting too good a run and was lucky enough to hold him off long enough to take the win!"
All the top runners seemed to agree this race was indeed a good one with lots of fun racing all around.
King Breaks The Ramsden Streak!
And now for something completely different let’s take a look at the weeks Modified Division action. Qualifying for the MBNA America 250 was not nearly as tight as the Stock Division as the hard charging Kevin King took the top spot by almost a tenth over second place starter Paul Rigney. No worries though as only 25 drivers made attempts assuring everyone would start the race.
As the race got under way it seemed that no one would be able to challenge King and with no connection problems this time out the race was all his. There where 20 lead changes in this race giving 15 drivers a taste of the top spot, but this was not the story of the race. In a win that could only be described as domination King crossed the finish line 21 seconds ahead of Jeff Shell.
Tom Robbio, Matt Sentell, and Sean Higgins rounded out the top 5 in a race which saw only 4 cars on the lead lap at the end of the day.
Ecstatic to break the 3 race streak of Mike Ramsden in the Division, King had a lot to say of his win; "Finally! After the last few weeks struggling with connection problems, doing well then warping laps down or just dropping all together I finally drove the #29 GM Goodwrench Chevy Monte Carlo back into Victory Lane... Thanks to Tom Robbio for the draft help on the long green run, Oliver for letting me follow him through the wrecks, and all the guys who gave me room, I really appreciate it, cause I needed this one bad."
Points Rundown
Well that’s how the week turned out for the JustRacin League now let’s take a quick look at how the points are shaking up after 4 races in the 2002 season.
The Stock Division continues to see a very tight points battle. Tom Oliver did finally eek out a bit of a margin with his second win of the season now 39 points ahead of Roger Voss. Thomas McKie, Bob Fellenbaum, and Tom Robbio push Erick Thomas out of the top 5 all with an average finish of about 10th and all about 130 points out of the lead.
With an average finish of 2.25 Mike Ramsden continues to dominate the standings in the Modified Division with his 3 wins he has a 70 point gap over Tom Robbio. Joey Caporicci, Jeff Weltz, and Jeff Shell hold on to the top 5 all about 130 points behind Ramsden.
So that’s how the racing looked this week; another great showing for the JustRacin League. Please have a look in this spot next week as the JRL bunch tries to survive the lady in black. The Carolina Dodge Dealers 200 and 250 from Darlington should be... SCARY!