Results from 11/12/2000

The final round was an elimination competition.  Starting with the lowest four qualifyers, each group raced one 5 lap race per lane.  Lower qualifiers had choice of starting lane.  At the end of four rotations, the points were added up (lower was better again), and the 2 lowest scores stayed on the track, while the other 2 were eliminated.  This meant no matter where you qualified, you had a chance to win, if you could stay in the top two from round to round.

Competition was more furious in these elimintation rounds.  Kevin Chesney and John Forlino were in the first group, and raced the pants of a bunch of racers to stay in the hunt.  You can see how well they did by seeing how far they moved from their qualifying positions to their final positions.  During these elimination rounds, sudden death tie breakers were needed to decide who stayed on and who sat down.  The first of these pitted Yensid against Bob Mose Jr, and Yensid prevailed in the 5 lap Crash-n-burn.  Yensid also beat Kevin Chesney in a crash-n-burn, despite the home field advantage.  There were also more photo finishes that required the keen eyes of the marshalls and race director to call the winners.  Again during my rounds, I was personally involved in at least 3 photo finishes, including the one I lost to JB that eliminated me.  There was other drama when Joe Selinski suddenly walked away from the track before the final heat was over, leaving Bob Mose, Sr., JB, and I wondering what happened.  Joe was doing the math in his head, and thought he would be eliminated with less than a 2nd place finish in the final race.  But he had already take 2 first place finishes, and even with his fourth place finish in that last race, he still finished first in the round, and he and JB moved on.

The final rounds had top qualifier, Tom Bowman taking a 3rd place finish, in front of Larry Schenk in fourth.  Tied for first were Joe Selinski and JB.  This was a tie after 40 laps of racing (the final rounds moved to a 10 lap, instead of 5 lap, heat).  Once again 2 drivers went after a 5 lap crash-n-burn, amidst taunts from Kevin Chesney of "DON'T PUSSYFOOT!  YOU GUYS GOTTA GO FOR IT!!!"  It was shortly after that, that JB off'ed at then end of the long straight, and Joe took first place.