West Valley City, Utah (July 15, 2001) - Under a threat of rain qualifying got under way, with the drivers hoping the nights events would take place. Bret Houskeeper #16 set fast time with a 15.783,capturing the Diamond Racing Wheels Hard Charger Award for the event. Bret was followed by Russell Butler #25 (15.792), Joe Hood #37 (15.831), Scott Lynch 29x (15.848) and Kenny Rich #30 (15.873).
The first heat race saw #50 Fred Walker lose his engine on the parade lap and be out for the night. With the drop of the green flag #77 Gary Porter took the lead with #96 Gary Dastrup following behind. Rick Ellison #09 and Joe Hood #37 moved up into the first and second spots shortly there after. Marty Zehr was climbing through the field and took the lead on lap 11 of the 15 lap heat race and would hold on for the win.
In the second heat race #25 Russell Butler got loose on the front stretch and spun on the first lap, going down into the figure eight part of the track he was able to save it and rejoin the field at the back, the caution did not come out. Don Beamis #29 and #36 Greg Hillock got together coming off turn 2 causing both to spin down into the infield. With both drivers making great saves , they continued on. Once again, no caution was thrown and the race continued with #55 Travis Kidd leading. By lap seven, the 29x car of Scott Lynch had made his way to second. Lap eight saw the #99 car leave with a broken rocker. Lap 13 finally saw Scott Lynch #29x find his way around the #55 of Travis Kidd for the lead and take the win two laps later.
At the drop of the green flag for the main event the #14 of Dave Davis spun coming out of turn one bringing out the yellow and mandating a full restart of the race. The #99 car of Jared Elwell gave up the lead on lap two to the Genesis Manufacturing & Distribution Rookie of the Year candidate #55 Todd Kidd. Lap eight saw the #96 car of Gary Dastrup spin out of turn one to bring out the caution flag. The #55 of Todd Kidd continued in the lead on the restart. Lap 12 saw #63 Marty Zehr hit the wall coming out of turn four, bring out the second caution of the race. Zehr would be out the night with a bent lower control arm. During the caution #55 Todd Kidd would leave the track and lose his lead position due to overheating, putting the #88 of Clint Kidd into the lead.
The #26 of Jim Curbow would leave the track with a broken rear end on lap 14, only to have it let loose and spray oil onto the exhaust starting a fire as he went down the track exit road. This brought a red flag to the race on lap 15 as the emergency equipment put out the fire. With Curbow taken care of the race went green with the #88 Clint Kidd still in the lead, he was followed by the #36 of Greg Hillock, #77 Gary Porter, #09 Rick Ellison and #30 Kenny Rich.
Lap 32 saw the #99 car of Jared Elwell had his engine let loose, laying down a wide swath of oil and anti-freeze out of turn two all the way down through turn three. The #25 of Russell Butler had not yet got the yellow and he found the oil coming out of turn two and got loose. He did a full 360 degree spin that sent him backwards and airborne out the track exit where hit the retaining extremely hard. This brought out the second red flag of the night.
After the restart the yellow flag flew once again on lap 38 when the #29x of Scott Lynch got into the Rear of #88 Clint Kidd coming out of turn three. This earned Lynch a trip to the back of the field. The yellow would show once again on lap 47 when #77 Gary Porter and #49 Jeff Flynn got together coming out of turn two. the contact was enough to cut down the right front tire of porter and the right rear tire of Flynn.
With a green , white, checker finish, the question was if the #88 of Clint Kidd, would have enough to hold off the #09 of Rick Ellison and the #30 of Kenny Rich, who was clearly faster than Kidd. With Ellison and Rich battling it out for second, this allowed Kidd to stay in front and take his first win of the season.
