GRANITE CITY, IL, June 14 --    Severe weather marred Thursday's Sprint Car Racing Association (SCRA) visit to the Tri-City Speedway.  New Mexican ace Richard Griffin was leading and declared the winner after officials deemed the conditions too dangerous for competitors and spectators.  The abbreviated eight lap race gave Griffin and  the Ron Chaffin / Madera Produce No. 50 Jon Boy Team their third win of the Non-Winged World Championship (NWWC) Midwest tour.

With constant flashes of lightening in the not so far distance, JE Pistons Dash winner Steve Ostling got the jump in the Fischer Motorsports No. 29 and led the pack into turn one.  Griffin nipped Ostling at the line to lead the opening lap.  With Tony Elliott running third ahead of Charles Davis, Jr. and John Scott, Griffin beat Ostling to the bottom of turn one and secured the lead.

"Track conditions were pretty slippery out there for the feature.  I had a pretty good car for going around the bottom and that was the place to be," Griffin reflected.  "I kind of noticed the wind gusting during the race. Before that, I noticed the lightening and knew the storm was coming." So too was Elliott, who showed his power with a bold pass on Ostling in for the second position in turn two on lap three. 

Later that same circuit, Scott slid in front of Davis for fourth exiting turn four.  Griffin and Elliott sped away from the rest of the field until the red flag was displayed on the seventh lap for Troy Cline's turn one flip.  George Gervais and Mike English were also involved, fortunately there were no injuries. 

On the restart, Griffin skated wide coming down for the green flag and Elliott was poised to take advantage of it.  Elliott had just put his Jeff Walker Racing entry into the lead when the caution light appeared for an incident that collected Rip Williams, Adam Mitchell and Kevin Doty.  The caution period proved very timely for Griffin, who promptly reassumed the point for the restart.

"I was kicking myself in the butt for missing the bottom on the restart," thought Griffin during the yellow flag.  "We made a couple changes on the red and I thought we were going to stick better than we really did.  I knew that
the weather was going to be a factor, I was just hoping we'd keep running to at least the halfway point." Griffin didn't make the same mistake on the subsequent restart.  Setting the pace without challenge from Elliott, Griffin was comfortably in the lead when rain forced the race to be stopped just after the eighth lap was completed. 
Griffin was declared the winner with Elliott scored in the runner-up spot ahead of Ostling, Cory Kruseman and Davis.    
.                              ### 
           

SCRA RACE #18 - TRI-CITY SPEEDWAY, GRANITE CITY, IL (NWWC #4)  
Date of Race: 06/14/01

SANDER ENGINEERING TIME TRIALS 
1. Troy Rutherford, Gardner 4, 20.384 *Automatic Track Record
2. John Scott, Scott Mtrsprts 83, 20.415
3. Charles Davis, Jr, Morales 94, 20.495
4. Richard Griffin, Chaffin 50, 20.515
5. Danny Sheridan, Sertich 92, 20.527
6. Steve Ostling, Fischer Mtrspts 29, 20.561
7. Tony Elliott, Walker Racing #39x, 20.576
8. Cory Kruseman, Willis 45, 20.651
9. Rickie Gaunt, Pratt 12 , 20.661
10. Troy Cline, Cline 11, 20.680
11. Adam Mitchell, Mitchell 99 , 20.700
12. Mike Kirby, Geurin 5, 20.775
13. Michael Hinrichsen (R), Lake Mtrsprts. 16, 20.776
14. Bob Ream, Jr., BRAT Racing 8, 20.808
15. Mike English, Priestley 7 , 20.867
16. Lance Gremett, Gremett 85, 20.893
17. Casey Shuman, Lake Mtrsprts 6, 20.916
18. George Gervais, Gervais 9 , 20.929
19. Hank Winter, Winter 33, 21.050
20. Rip Williams, Jory 3, 21.063
21. Mike Spencer (R), Engstrom 44, 21.260
22. Brian Venard, Venard. 47, 21.293
23. Ronnie Clark (R), Winter 138, 21.314
24. Glenn Crossno (R), Crossno 38, 21.805
25. Kevin Doty, Dooling 6x, 22.036
26. Dan Ford, Sohm 83x, 22.921
27. Josh Davis, Davis 98d, 23.017
28. Jon Robertson, Pratt 12x, 23.313

HEDMAN HEDDERS HEAT 1
1. Rutherford, 2. Sheridan, 3. Doty, 4. Gaunt, 5. Hinrichsen, 6. Shuman, 7. Spencer

SHAVER ENGINES HEAT 2 
1. Cline, 2. Ostling, 3. Scott, 4. Ream, 5. Gervais, 6. Venard, 7. Ford

KSE PRODUCTS HEAT 3
1. Winter, 2. Elliott, 3. English, 4. Davis, 5. Clark, 6. Mitchell, 

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS HEAT 4
1. Williams, 2. Griffin, 3. Kruseman, 4. Kirby, 5. Crossno, 6. Gremett

JE PISTONS DASH
1. Ostling, 2. Griffin, 3. Davis, 4. Elliott, 5. Scott, 6. Sheridan, 7. Rutherford, 8.Kruseman

JB ENTERPRISE B FEATURE
1. Hinrichsen, 2. Shuman, 3. Mitchell, 4. Spencer, 5. Gervais, 6. Clark, 7. Robertson, 8. Crossno, 9. Gremett, 10. Ford 

A FEATURE 
1. Griffin,  2. Elliott,  3. Ostling,  4. Kruseman,  5. Davis,  6. Rutherford,  7. Sheridan,  8. Kirby, 9. Gaunt,  10. Hinrichsen,  11. Ream, 12. Shuman,  13. Winter,  14. Spencer,  15. Clark,  16. English,  17. Scott, 18. Mitchell,  19. Cline,  20. Gervais,  21. Williams,  22. Doty
Laps Led: Griffin 1-8