POSTED APRIL 6 , 2003

ERIC ROOT won his first Mini Stock feature of the season Sunday evening at the Mottville Speedway as he held off Merle Yoder to win the 35 lapper and $100! Root drove a very smooth race and several times Yoder got within 2 car lengths of Root but could get no closer! Season points leader Jon Fitzpatrick was 3^{rd   and Kristi Zimmerman 4th.}

^{Root also took the heat over Jon Fitzpatrick and Yoder while Jon Fitzpatrick won the dash over Yoder and Joe Fitzpatrick.}

^{Rick Fritz came to Mottville for the first time 2003 but had mechanical woes during the heat and was unable to run the feature.}

^{Two time defending Mini Thunder Car season points champion Fred Garrett won his 9th feature of the season with a 35 lap victory of current season points leader Derk Sargent. The results were the same in the heat.}

^{Defending Pro Stock season points champion and current season points leader Paul Scott won his 10th feature of the season in a 12 lapper. In the heat it was Scott over Dennis Zimmerman.}

^{Mike Stemes came to Mottville for the first time in 2003 and recorded the win in the 12 lap feature and in the heat.}

^{It was about 10 degrees warmer than Saturday night and that made conditions for racing and watching much nicer!}

^{Next Sunday, April 13, all heat and dash winners in all divisions will receive an Easter ham!}

^{The Short Track Truck Challenge Series. Com have been added for 2 dates to the schedule at Mottville-June 14 and August 16. They had their head man at the track Sunday night.}

^{Robert Sutton was at the track and said he SS truck is now ready to race and he purchased tires for it and plans to hot lap Thursday and race next week-end as he starts his goal of being the SS season points champion. By now he figured he would be way behind in the points race but as it is he is only 78 points out!}

^{Sutton told me the reason Scott Rozner was not here was because he hurt one finger last night pointing at someone!}

^{Defending MS season points champion Joe Fitzpatrick hit the backstretch wall in the heat and may run his father’s MS next week-end if he can not get his repaired in time!}

^{Every season is always different-no two are every alike-that much I have certainly found out in my now 13th season of trying to run Mottville! But the real oddity of this 2003 season after 6 week-ends-besides the cold weather for 9 of the 12 nights-is that Sunday nights on the whole have actually been better than Saturday! Usually the pattern is that Sundays start out way behind Saturday and then eventually catch up and then late in the season fall behind again.}

^{This season with 23 outside shows on Saturday nights we seen in good shape on Saturdays and with PS running Sunday only and no other track in our area running on Sundays the higher car count for our cars may well be Sunday.}

^{This is also the first season of the 13 where we started right out with Sundays and Saturdays. Usually we run 4-8 Saturdays before starting Sundays.}

^{I will not be in the chat room this week unless I happen to find an internet connection for my lap top as I will be on a business trip, leaving Monday night and returning in time for practice on Thursday.}

^{I see the forecast for Saturday is 50’s and Sunday 60’s! That will really be nice as the forecast for spring was above normal temps but so far they have not occurred on the week-ends!}

^{This was another most encouraging week-end despite the weather! Car count beginning to come around for MS and a few SS each night now! MTC dropped behind this week-end but that should be a very short term thing as we know there are several more out there!}

^{I want to wish a very happy birthday to Judith Grace Swihart Holden on Monday!}

^{I expect bigger car counts and bigger crowds each week-end now and it looks right now after 6 week-ends like this will be a very exciting and successful season for the Mottville Speedway!}