SWS: Raudman hangs on at Mesa Marin

Rancho Santa Margarita, California (October 23, 2000) - Craig Raudman, driver of the #2 Yerf-dog Fun Karts/ITPS Chevrolet in the Featherlite Southwest Series, NASCAR Touring and NASCAR Winston West Series, worked most of the night to turn his second place spot into a win in Saturday's Terry Lumber 200 during Mesa Marin's October Classic.

During the laps that counted most, however, Raudman's car developed handling problems, and he just managed to hang on for a third place finish.

Raudman started the race from the outside pole position, which he claimed with a qualifying lap time of 18.202 seconds.

Auggie Vidovich, Jr. shot ahead at the start and paced the race from nearly beginning to end, but Raudman was on his bumper all the way. Other's tried to work their way to the front, but Raudman was a contender for the win until the handling on his car began to fade in the last twenty laps of the event.

Raudman battled the car to keep it on the track until the end of the race. Even though he was clearly backing up, he held on to his positioning, and crossed the stripe in third place.

"The car was just fading on me," Raudman said. "It started getting real loose, and the right rear tire wore down. Once it got to that point, and with it being so late in the race, there wasn't anything we could do to help the situation. We're just glad we were able to stay in third until the end of the race."

Raudman won Friday night's Big O Tire 200 NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Late Model Stock Cars race. He was running second in Sunday's NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Race of Champions Invitational until another driver cut down on him midway through the event, causing the right front tire to flatten and putting him out of the race.