Everyone who attended this race said the same thing at the end of the day.  "This was the best racing we've seen at the Jug in years."  Seven cars turned out.  The only regular missing was the 85 because Wayne was on vacation in Utah.  The action started right away in Heat 1A with the first five cars running two abreast most every lap.  There were no drop outs and no yellows, just a flag to flag dogfight that had the stands screaming. 

Then in the first B heat Rob Markhart held off Chuck Rosemergy and Jim Smith for his first win in a while, and Ralph Davis tried for 14 1/2 laps to get around Ed Wargo in a battle of the street stocks.  Finally on turn four of the last lap Ed left just the slightest opening underneath and Ralph went for it.  Ed held his line and there wasn't enough room for Ralph's right rear tire to clear Ed's left rear; the tires touched. That sent Ralph airborne; the car stood on it's nose and then dropped around 90 degrees backed into the infield.  The 81 took the worst of it though.  The contact with Ralph's tire instantly stopped the rotation of its wheel, but didn't stop the rotation of the axle, which snapped clean.  Michelle Pasquariello took the photo that appears above just as the 81's wheel and tire flew.  The 81 crew was not about to give up; after running to NAPA for a bearing and axle seal and back to their shop to refit a spare axle with the oversize racing lug studs, they got the car back together after only missing one Heat race.

Then it was Gerard Barnes turn to thrill the crowd.  Late in Heat 3B Chuck Rosemergy came under Gerard going through turn 1 to lap him.  Chuck gave Gerard plenty of room but Gerard got up a little too high coming out of two and left the track going over the high mound of berm where the lawn ends and the trees begin.  The car dropped about 8 feet and completely disappeared from view of everyone.  The red flag was thrown and people came running down from everywhere, looking for Gerard's car.  It was nowhere to be found!  Everyone was hollering and running around when all of a sudden Gerard comes driving up out of Smith Street and back onto the track.  I took these pictures of his route, but they don't do justice to the drop off.  It's eight feet down from the first red arrow in the lower picture to the second.  The rock to the left of the second arrow is as big as a 12" cinder block, and there are trees on either side of the third arrow.  Those bushes he went through are five feet high.  This path will hence be known as the Barnes Exit to Smith Street. We hope no one uses it again.

The final race of the day, the B Feature, was a classic late model shoot out between Chuck Rosemergy and Jim Smith.  There were four lead changes and the two cars finished nose to tail.  Ed Wargo won the Street Stock end of that race but his arch rival, Ralph, had turned over driving duties in the 24 to Gerard.  For some reason the upper A frame on Gerard's #8 car had gotten bent!!

This was the first race date this year where we got in the full card of eight races, and we had four cars still competitive at the end of the day.  Chuck provided hot dogs for everyone afterward and the bench racing continued well after dark.