West Valley City, Utah (May 6, 2001) - Twenty-two drivers brought their cars to Rocky Mountain Raceways for the 2nd race of the ILMS season. Qualifying had the #66 car of Troy Workman posting fast qualifying time with a 15.49 on the 3/8 oval. Troy was followed closely by last weeks fast qualifier #30 Kenny Rich who had a 15.54 and Marty Zehr posted 3rd fastest time for the second race in a row with a 15.56. Fred Walker #50 lost his engine on his second qualifying lap and was done for the night.
In the first heat race, lap 3 saw the #99 car of Jared Elwell get loose coming out of turn 2, the pack of cars behind him had no where to go and in the check got into each other hard. Six of the eleven cars in the heat race were involved, with the #14 of Dave Davis and the #16 of Bret Houskeeper taking the worst of it and bringing out a red flag to help facilitate the clean up. Others involved where #41 Jeff Hillock, #12 Jim Wulfenstien, #25 Russell Butler and #99 Jared Elwell. Houskeeper was unable to return for the main event, while the others repaired the damage. the #14 crew of Davis rebuilt the whole front end of the car and made the main event. The restart on lap 4 saw eventual heat winner Joe Hood come from the 3rd position to take lead from #2 Kevin Stauffer on lap 7 and keep it for the win.
The second heat race saw #77 Gary Porter lead for the first five laps, before giving it up to #84 Zan Sharp on lap 6. Car #72 and Car #11 where both blacked flagged on lap ten and lap eleven respectfully for possible leaking fluids. Sharp maintained his lead to take the win in the second heat of the night.
The 50 lap main event had 21 cars take the green flag and things where running smooth with Hood moving into the lead on lap 5 after starting 4th in the inverted field. Then the mechanical failures started to have their way with the field. Lap 14 saw #99 pull down off the track on the figure 8 for which later turned out to be broken valve spring and almost immediately after #27 also pulled down into the figure 8 for unknown reasons. Dennis Wurtz #01 left the track on lap 19 with mechanical problems and did not return. The halfway mark saw Hood maintaining his lead last weeks winner #41 Jeff Hillock and taking the Pro Racing Supply Halfway Challenge.
Caution hit the track for the first time on lap 26 when Marty Zehr #63 and Keith Garcia #19g got together coming out of turn 2 and spun out on the backstretch, while the car of Greg Hillock #36 was black flagged for excessive smoke.The caution allowed Webster and Elwell to leave the track after sitting in the infield for 12 laps. Hillock would not return, it turned out that a rocker went bad on his engine and finally let go which resulted in his black flag. The restart on lap 27 would see #41 Jeff Hillock leave the track after losing his power steering pump in a cloud of smoke, he also would not return.
Lap 33 saw the #66 car of Troy Workman spin out between turns 3 and 4, with Joe Miller #73 checking up hard to miss him and almost putting #63 Marty Zehr in his back pocket. Turns out that Miller lost a shifting rod out of his transmission and laid fluid all over the track causing a red flag to be brought out, while the track crew took on the major clean up, of course with no transmission Miller was done for the night.. After going back to yellow and running some hot laps to get some heat back in the tires, this allowed #27 Rick Webster back on the track, while #84 Zan Sharp left for the night with a seized oil pump. The restart saw the #63 car of Marty Zehr jump the start and get penalized two positions.
The Yellow flew again on lap 43 when #27 Rick Webster spun coming out of turn 3 after a quick yellow this restart saw #12 Jim Wulfenstien make a jump and get the penalty of two positions this time. Lap 47 saw the #11 car of Brad Spin going into turn 2 while just seconds later the #14 of Dave Davis and the #19g of Keith Garcia got together between turns 3 and 4. No yellow was thrown by the track officials. After taking the lead on lap 5 and never looking back Joe Hood took the checkers closely followed by the #09 car of Rick Ellison. For more please visit www.intermountainseries.com
