The season's fourth short track event takes place in Southern Indiana this weekend, a high-banked, quarter-mile clay oval that should suit the Ford QCCPOV Team well.
"It was a pretty good night for us. I got third in my scratch heat behind Murphree and Springer. It was kind of uneventful. The track was kind of a one-line, narrow thing with the sun still being out. The groove was real inconsistent and rough in places, but as the sun was going down before the heat races, they put some water down on the high side, but they didn't water the groove, so it was either dry on the bottom or wet on the top.
"They ran the Sportster heat races and everybody rode around the bottom, and in the first 750 heat everybody rode around the bottom. I didn't get that great of a start - like I hadn't all night long - and I was fourth in my heat race. (Rich) King was out front, kind of checking out, and (Johnny) Murphree and Chris Boone were going at it for second, and I was in fourth with nowhere to go, and I actually kind of got into turn one a little hot and rolled up into the wet stuff up on the outside. I got some pretty good traction, so I thought I'd go down into turns three and four and try it again. I just started riding the rim, passed them guys and split.
"Then the red flag came out. So, it was one of those things where I got to the front in a hurry, and there really wasn't anything I could do with my lead from that point, since the red flag gave it all back.
"They lined us back up for the restart, and I went back to the top and it was pretty easy at that point. I beat King by about twenty bike lengths and he had a bunch of time on Springer in third. We ended up going to the main event and getting the fourth pick on the starting line.
"The main event came around and I proceeded to get another lousy start - I think from the front row, I ended up eighth after lap one - which wasn't very good at all. (Joe) Kopp and (Kenny) Coolbeth had jumped out early and those guys had a good pace going - I knew they were going to be tough to beat because they ran really good times in their heat races. I kind of picked them off one at a time and got to third. Maybe I gained the first three or four laps that I was in third - a tenth here or a tenth there - but, for the most part, I couldn't put a dent in their lead whatsoever from that point on.
"It's one of those things where, if I could have gotten a better start, I could have given those guys a run for their money, but they got good starts and they were riding real well. There was nothing I could do to chase them down."
How was the track for the main event?
"The moisture went away, but in turns one and two, we had a thirty foot wide blue groove, and the best way around it was near the top. In three and four, we had two distinct lines - you either ran the bottom all the way around, or you ran the top, which had some rubber, a little bit of moisture left in it, at least early on. It was kind of a free-for-all going into turn three, but it ended up being a racy track, and I have to give Steve Morehead some credit for doing a good job. The track wasn't very good, and they did what they needed to do at the right time of the day to give us something to race on, otherwise, it was going to suck. The racing was boring, there was no passing, the track was treacherous. Once we got to the top, it was a lot smoother up there, and more consistent, even though there were a few ripples here and there that caused some problems for a few guys. It was a racy track from that point on. It was a helluva lot better than it was a year ago, that's for sure."