POSTED AUGUST 31 , 2003

ERIC ROOT won his 12^th Mini Stock feature of the season driving in the rain to win the 12 lapper and $100 at the Mottville Speedway Sunday night!

Steady rains came to the speedway about 4:30 pm and never quit the rest of the evening but 18 of the 22 drivers on hand elected to race and put an exciting how for the few brave souls who watched in the rain!

Root led start to finish and had no trouble at all with the wet track! John Yoder took 2nd and $60 for his biggest racing pay-off of the season and Glenna Sargent was 3rd. In the heat it was Root over Sargent and Yoder and in the Jenkins NAPA Auto Parts Stores dash it was Root over Yoder and Sargent.

Yoder moved into 4th in the season point standings!

Street Stock season points leader Robert Sutton won his 13th feature of the season with a 12 lap victory over Larry Saunders and results were the same in the heat.

Pro Stock season points leader Paul Scott padded his points lead by winning the 12 lap feature and heat. For Scott it was feature win number 20 on the season.

Derk Sargent returned to Mottville for the first time since 4th of July week-end and won one of the 2 15 lap features for the Mini Thunder Cars! A season high 11 MTC were on hand and put on a terrific show in the rain! Newcomer Bruce Martin was 2nd followed by Aaron Stevenson and Tony Vitali. In the first 15 lapper it was Steve Clifford picking up his 9th feature win of the season over Chuck Hall, Sargent, Fred Garrett, Stevenson, Martin, Vitali and Richard Allbee.

Hall won the dash over Clifford and Sargent. In the first heat it was Clifford over Garrett and Hall and in the 2nd heat it was Sargent over Stevenson and Martin.

Tony Eldridge won the Bomber heat and both 15 lap features.

It was amazing we were actually able to run in the steady rain and that 18 of the 22 cars ran! First of all it was amazing to have 22 cars with the rain! What was really amazing was who the 4 were who decided not to run! Mini Stocks! Not Street Stocks or Pro Stocks on track tires but MS on radial tires!

Of course, as is always the case on a wet track we had less wrecks than on a dry track! Always works that way!

Talk about the weather people missing a forecast! As late as this morning they said slight chance of rain and gone by noon! When I left for the track they said 30% chance of rain from 6 pm on! They sure missed it totally! Now they say 70% chance of rain until midnight Monday night! Sure, like its going to rain for 30 straight hours?

If we had 11 MTC on a rain filled night can 15-20 be far behind? If you are interested in a MTC Garrett announced after the races his car is for sale! Also Leroy Dick tells me his buying Justin Mosher’s car and will race it next Saturday!

Last night Jeff Van Dam, Matt’s father, told me he plans on having 2 MTC for 2004, one he will drive and one a friend will drive!

So this 2003 racing season continues on. Certainly this is the worse weather constantly over the course of the season that I have ever seen! I guess I am just grateful to survive!

Hopefully we can get our trophy night in Monday night! Then Sept. 6 it’s a Ladies Powder Puff and the Pro Stocks wrap up their season next Sunday night! September 13 will be our next spectator drags.

At least we got our show in Sunday night which at least 3 tracks in the area and perhaps more are scrambling to figure out how to make up the date after getting rained out Sunday!

A big thank-you to all the drivers who drove in the rain and the fans who braved the rain to watch and especially to Shelly Lauderdale, who got drenched, doing her duties as a track official!

Before you know it the end of October will be here and the Indiana Michigan Challenge Cup! If we get the car count the pay-off will be outstanding! But the stated pay-off will be for a full 14 car field. Right now that looks very doable for MTC and MS but maybe not for SS! I know we can not pay $300 to win for a field of less than 14 cars! So we will see where we are at the end of September before announcing plans for the IMCC!

Anyway lets hope the weather forecasters are wrong again-this time in predicting rain for Monday night! Would be nice to get our final triple header week-end of the season in!