When we arrived at the short track, there was still a fair amount of water on the track and the pit area, but after some quick work by the IMDA and the AMA, we were ready to go it looked, and the weather was not looking too bad either.

    After practice and qualifying was over with, I ended up in the 15th spot. I felt I was much faster than that, but they kept moving our practice groups around which would depending on your group you were in, you might get a decent wet track with traction, or you might get a slower dry track. I ended getting stuck in a dry track when it counted for qualifying, but still I felt my bike was working good, and was ready to go for the heat race. One of my goals for the day was to make sure and beat Sammy Halbert by as much as possible, as this was the last singles national of the year and I was like 4 points behind Halbert in the standings, as he was in the third spot in points and I was fourth. I wanted to move up to third if possible, and I knew it was totally possible, as I just had to make it happen.

    I had Chad Cose, Schnabel, Mataya and some others in my heat race, so I knew I needed to try and get up front quick, as it is real easy to get shuffled back on this track if you are stuck on the outside, and my starting position was one away from the far outside, which was not where ya want to be, but I'll make do with what I had. I got a good start from the outside as I entered turn one side by side with JR on the inside of me. I knew to try and tuck behind him right away to keep from letting anybody else stuff a wheel under me and push me out and back farther. I got out of turn two great and dang near got under JR down the back stretch, as just then the red flag comes out as someone had crashed I guess off the start in turn one. For the next start it was pretty much the same, as JR had gotten the jump on me from the inside again, but I was second right behind him. He seemed to have tighten up his line off of turn two this time, as maybe he knew I almost got under him there on the last start. When he tightened up his exit of turn two this time, I knew he was now protecting his line, and when he exited turn two tight, this was gonna make him enter turn three lower than he wanted I was thinking, so I was hoping this might make him go too high in turn, which might leave the door open for me. Just like I was hoping, as we entered turn three, JR went in too tight and when I seen this, I grabbed a handful and turned it early and got underneath him in the middle of the turn. Now I had the lead, but at a short track grand national, man, you gotta charge very hard the whole time and be ready for anything and everything. I ended up coming home with the heat race win, which would also put me in the Dash for Cash again. Plus I had the fastest heat race of the night, which would give me pole for the Dash and the main event.

    Now we had the Dash for Cash and I had pole, with Wiles next to me and then everyone else outside of him. I love starts, especially on a track like this with lots of traction, but for some reason, I let my buddy Wiles get the holeshot on me. Well, I didn't let him get the holeshot, he just somehow did. Dang, that start really stunk for me! Henry ended up getting the Dash win, with myself second.

    Now we had the main event coming up, and I was ready. I was going back and forth to maybe make a gearing change for the main event, but then I decided to leave it and just ride it and make it work, as it was working great, but I needed to push it a little harder. Before the start of the main event, we were all lined up on the starting line with our bikes shut off, and they were introducing us all one by one. Wiles had just beat me in the Dash, so I thought I would give him a hard time before the start of the final. I leaned over and told him that he better watch out because I had forgot and left my bike in first gear during the Dash for Cash. You don't ever get much humor out of Wiles, as he just kind of made a quick laugh and said something like "yah, whatever."  I know Henry is fast on the 450 single bikes, but I also know he is totally beatable too.  On our warm up lap for the final, I ran it into turn three so hard, and my bike just stuck like glue, and right then I knew my bike and myself were both ready to race!

    I was not going to let Wiles or anyone beat me on this start, I mean I had worked really hard to get this starting spot tonight, and I was not gonna give it up that easy again. At the flash of the light, I nailed it just perfect and my Honda 450 just launched out of the hole and this holeshot was mine. Right away someone was trying to get underneath me off of turn two. Even though this was a day time race, the IMDA and the AMA had worked hard to give us a pretty normal race track, as usually a day race means for a dry, single file, grooved race track. But we had a pretty moist, typical Springfield short track, where you could pretty much run where you wanted to. I could tell after a couple of laps, that my bike was working great down in turn three and four, but turn one and two was getting very dry slick on the exit, and it seemed I was kind of struggling here a little bit. Lap after lap went by, and the track was starting to change quite a bit down in turn two, as it had really dried out on that exit, and you pretty much had to make sure you stayed on the blue rubber groove, or you would really loose some time. Every lap someone was right there, as I was not too sure just who it was, but at the same time I was trying to ride my own line and not worry too much about anything else. But then when all you can hear is someones bike revving behind you, it can be kind of hard to focus ahead at times. hahahaha One of those "easier said than done" things. hahahaha Then around lap ten, I spun it up a little bit too much off of turn two this time, and this allowed Wiles to slip by down the back straightaway. He barely had enough room to get by me, so this kind of made him enter turn three a little lower than usual. I seen that he had to enter turn three pretty low, so I set up for turn three to see if I could get it turned before he could. My plan worked great, as I got my Honda turned and managed to get back underneath him on the exit of turn four. Now that I had the lead again, I knew I had to keep working on turn two, and getting a better drive off of that exit. So I kind of slowed down my entry into turn one, just so that I could make sure to hit my marks better down there and hopefully get a better drive off of turn two. I knew that my entering turn one slower was letting Wiles and whoever else to maybe make time on me there. I could hear that Wiles was able to get back on the throttle much harder than I was off of turn two, as if I would give it that much throttle, it seemed that I would just spin it up too much and loose time. I could not figure out how they were getting through turn one behind me, as I knew that a higher entry would help me out, but then that would leave the door wide open for them to run up the inside of me there too. Sometimes it's easier to follow than lead, and this was one of those times it seemed. My slower entry into turn one was helping me out with my exit, as it seemed I was getting out of turn two better, but they were still right there on my heels. Then around lap 20, Wiles managed to get under me again off of turn two, at the same spot he did earlier. Just as he slipped under me, here came Jared Mees, trying to get under me too. He was pushing on me hard, but I pushed right back and kept my second place spot. Now that Wiles was out front, Mees was pushing on me hard, and he can be kind of pushy at times so I knew I had to go after Wiles again and not worry about Mees. This plan seemed to work, as I was able to get back away from Mees by a comfortable distance. With only a few laps to go after Wiles got by me, we ended up finishing in that order, Wiles with the win, then myself and Mees in third. I ended up passing Sam Halbert in the Singles points race today which was one of my goals, which meant I finished up the Singles Championship in third place, with Wiles winning the championship followed by Schnabel and myself.

    After this long three day weekend in Springfield was finally over, I realized that we made some headway on the Overall points for the year which is combined between the Singles and the Twins points, as I am in third overall right now, and only four points out of the lead behind Halbert and Mees. To alot of us riders, it still means the most to try and win the overall combined points for the year, as now days we have two champions as you know, a Singles champ and a Twins champ. So going into our last race which is Pomona on October 24th, that's my goal there, to win the race first, then wrap up the overall combined points for the year.

    So until next time, G'Day! Joe