News

We ”may” have finally rid ourselves of the bad luck monkey Saturday night as Mark raced to an impressive runner-up finish in MARS Racing series action at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, MO. After winning his heat, Mark started fourth in the feature. At the drop of the green flag, we dropped back to sixth place as Terry Phillips jumped out to an early lead after starting on the pole. By lap 10, Mark had the Casey’s General Stores / Titan Wheel #7B working the high groove to perfection advancing to second place and setting his sights on Phillips. A lap 17 caution would bunch the field and Mark and Phillips would put on a show for the fans over the remaining 18 laps. Mark would get his nose under Phillips on a few occasions but could not find enough moisture in the low groove to successfully complete the pass ultimately settling for a respectable second place finish.

In other racing action, Mark finished third Friday night to Jeff Aikey and Ray Guss Jr. at Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, IA. Over the coming three weeks our Ford spec motors will be rebuilt by Kuntz & Company in Arkadelphia, AR in preparation for the upcoming season championship at LCS and Deery Bros. races at Quincy, LCS and 34 Raceway in West Burlington.

Be sure to watch our schedule as we will be running a few more open motor races in the coming weeks prior to the Labor Day weekend.

Our bad luck continued (unfortunately in a costly fashion) at the Oksaloosa Deery as our backup spec motor broke in the heat race.

With the loss of this spec motor and our primary spec motor needing a rebuild ASAP, we have chosen to step back and regroup for the end of the season. Look for changes to our schedule for the remainder of August as we will likely be racing more open motor shows in Illinois and Missouri while our spec motors are rebuilt.

An accident with lapped track on lap 13 of the 50 lap feature cost Mark an almost certain victory at Independence (IA) Motor Speedway and a chance to gain valuable points on Ray Guss Jr. in the chase for the 2010 IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series championship.

After winning his heat and drawing the pole position for the feature, Mark looked to be car to beat Wednesday night in the eighth event of the 2010 Deery Brothers Summer Series tour. However as luck would have it (of which our luck has been terrible the last two months), lapped traffic would stack up right in front of Mark as they exited turn four on the thirteen lap leaving the #7B now where to go but into the rear of Joel Callahan. The impact pushed the radiator into the fan ending our evening prematurely resulting in a 22nd place finish.

Rob Toland would go onto win the event followed by Terry Neal, Kevin Blum, Dan Shelliam, and Ray Guss Jr. rounding out the top 5. Unofficially we trail Ray Guss Jr. by 23 points in the points chase.

After timing in second quickest in group qualifying (in our spec car) and finishing second in the heat to Dennis Erb Jr., Mark had an early exit from the feature event following a cut tire and severed left rear brake line on the second lap of the 40 lap feature.

Dennis Erb, Jr. went on to win the event followed by Rodney Melvin, Jeep Van Wormer, Billy Moyer Jr., and Shannon Babb rounding out the top five.

We'll look to rebound and rid ourselves of this "bad luck" monkey tonight at Shepp's Speedway in New Berlin, IL. The good news is we have qualified for each UMPSN feature event we've attended which is a positive building block to build upon.

Mark timed third quick overall but struggled in the heat race, finishing third after starting outside the front row, as we continue to search for the “fast set-up” on the new car. In the feature, Mark started 12th but quickly fell back fighting a loose-on-entry condition that seemingly will not correct itself regardless of whatever adjustments we make. A vibration in the rear end around lap 30 forced Mark to the infield resulting in a 15th place finish. The good news is the car is fast in qualifying and the heat race (generally). If we can correct the loose condition in the feature we should be a force to be reckoned with some of these open motor shows.

Mark brought the #7B home to a seventh place finish in UMP Summernationals action at Vermillion County Speedway in Danville, IL on Monday night.

In hot laps, the #7B was one of the fastest cars in the group however on our qualifying lap we would misjudge the track as we had too much rear stagger leading to a loose condition and a marginal lap time. Mark would time in sixth fastest (out of nine) earning him the outside third row starting position.

At the start of the the heat Mark would fall back as he battled a tight race car in the high groove - ultimately spotting the leaders a half straightaway lead. On the third lap Mark would find "paydirt" down low and began to reel in the lead pack advancing to third place, and challenging second place Dillan White, by the white flag lap. At the finish, Mark would hold onto the third position securing a starting spot in the feature event.

In the forty lap feature, Mark would start 8th and battle with Brian Shirley and Jack Sullivan for the 6th place position. As the track provided little passing opportunity, Mark would ultimately finish in 7th position.

Jeep Van Wormer, who led every lap, collected the $5,000 first place prize and was followed by Dennis Erb Jr, Ryan Unzicker, Brian Shirley, Jason Feger and Jack Sullivan - for the most part finishing in the order everyone started.

Tonight we follow the UMP Summernationals tour to Highland (IL) Speedway. Check the website tomorrow morning for an update on tonight's performance.

Following respectable 2nd and 4th place finishes over the weekend, Mark and the NMI team look forward to joining the UMP Summernationals Tour for three events week. Monday the team will travel to Danville, IL followed by Highland, IL on Tuesday and Belleville, IL on Wednesday. All weekly UMPSN races pay $5,000 to win and $500 to start. On Thursday, Mark and the team will be in Moberly, MO racing in the $3,000 to win MLRA race followed by weekly IMCA weekly racing action on Friday night at Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, IA.