Tuesday June 12 - Highway 3 Raceway - Allison, IA

Stop #6 on the USRA Tour found us at the Highway 3 Raceway. We had never raced on this track, but Chris quickly took a liking to the high banked speedway as he started from the pole position and drove away from the field to win his heat race by over a full straightaway. Chris earned the outside front row starting spot for the A-main and lined up alongside Chad Simpson.

Simpson got the jump at the drop of the green and sped into the lead. Chris worked the high line of the track, but it was covered up with loose dirt and marbles from the B-modified race and Chris couldn’t make up any ground in the first few laps. Chris began to get the high line cleaned up and the car began to find traction. Chris ran down Simpson and roared into the lead exiting turn 2.

Chris began to drive out to a slim advantage as both he and Simpson began to distance themselves from the rest of the field. Many of the cars were racing on the low side of the track where there was moisture and they were throwing a lot of loose dirt and marbles up to the high side of the track. Chris was having troubles getting the car hooked up in the loose dirt, and Simpson drove back alongside Chris and the two cars engaged in a heated battle for the top spot. Chris was holding the lead when the only caution of the race came out for a spinning Jeff Aikey.

The caution allowed Tommy Elston and Denny Ekrich to catch up and join the lead battle when racing resumed. Elston made it a 3 wide race for the lead and surged past on the low side to take the point. Chris fell all the way to 4th with just a handful of laps remaining but he worked hard on the top side and raced his way back up to 2nd and was gaining on Elston as the white flag flew. Chris drove hard down the back chute and was just a few car lengths from Elston's bumper entering turn 3 on the final lap. Chris drove too hard into the loose dirt and slid up near the wall allowing Denny Ekrich to shoot by on the bottom. Chris recovered and salvaged a 3rd place finish.

The car was very quick, but the marbles and loose dirt that were continually being thrown up into the top lane made it hard for Chris to keep the car hooked up. We were very happy to get another solid top 5 finish, but disappointed that we couldn't get the win.

We will keep digging and as long as we keep finishing in the top 5, the wins will start to come.