J&J Auto Racing weekly news 2003-04-16

Dewease, Lynch, Ward, Lewis and Drury score wins for J&J.

McKENZIE, TN -- The solid finishes continued for J&J Auto Racing in last weekend's sprint car action across the country. Lance Dewease and Ed Lynch Jr., claimed season opening events in Pennsylvania while Mike Ward and Trevor Lewis also were victories over the weekend in J&J Auto Racing sprint cars. Kevin Drury will always remember April 12th after winning his first career sprint car feature at Lincoln Speedway driving his #31 J&J.

PORT ROYAL SPEEDWAY

Lance DeWease drove the Manheim Auto Auctions/Hamilton Motorsports # 77 J&J to victory lane Saturday afternoon at Port Royal, PA Speedway. DeWease started second and dominated the event on the tough daylight-racing surface. For DeWease, it was his 81st career win at the Juniata County oval. Fred Rahmer came from seventeenth position to finish fifth in the Joe Harz Racing #88h J&J while Todd Hester drove the Middleswarth #7m J&J to an eighth place finish just ahead of Len Thompson, who drove the #CIII J&J, to a ninth place finish.

MERCER RACEWAY PARK

Ed Lynch Jr. backed up his 2002 opening night win with another one on Saturday night at Mercer Raceway Park as they kicked off their 52nd anniversary season. "The track was beautiful and our car was working really well," acknowledged the Apollo, Pa. driver. "There were too many reds and nobody's happy about that. I had a lot of practice on the restarts and I'm sure the other guys didn't want that." Lynch led the entire race after starting on the pole in his #2L J&J earning his ninth career Mercer win. Scott Bonnell finished second giving J&J a one-two sweep.

MEMPHIS MOTORSPORTS PARK

Mike Ward claimed his first win of the season in his #88J&J sprinter in Saturday's 2nd Annual Super Chevy Shootout. Ward chased down race leader Marshall Skinner and made a dramatic pass for the lead around the outside and drove off to claim the victory.

URC

The URC, the Nations oldest traveling sprint car club, opened its' 56th season last Saturday night at the five-eighth mile Bridgeport Speedway. Trevor Lewis was the top gun of the field, driving the Pat and Cathy Palladino #99 J&J. For Lewis, it was his fourth career victory under the URC banner and winning this opening event, clearly marks him as a strong candidate to claim the URC Sprint Series title of 2003. Chris Coyle, driving the Turpin/Kennedy #3 J&J sprinter put on a charge in the feature event, moving into second on lap eleven. Coyle tried to track down Lewis, but finished a strong third.

LINCOLN

Kevin Drury picked up his first career super sprint win against the best in Central Pennsylvania at Lincoln Speedway Saturday night. Drury started fourth in his #31D J&J sprinter, moved into second following a caution restart on the second lap, and passed race-long leader Brian Leppo for the lead following another caution restart on the seventh lap. Drury then led the rest of the way to take the checkered. "This is only about our 15th or 16th race in a 410, and basically when you win that soon, it's pretty much luck," said the happy first-time winner in victory lane, "We knew we were pretty decent in qualifying," said Drury, "That's probably the best I ever felt in a 410 (sprinter).

"Basically me, my wife, my mom, and my dad, we own it," said Drury on his No. 31D J&J team, "My dad (Don) builds the motors and everything I've ever had. Basically, this is all credited to him...I wouldn't be up here if it were not for him."

Other strong J&J Performances:

World of Outlaws --

Donny Schatz, Daryn Pittman and Sammy Swindell were J&J runners in World of Outlaws action last weekend in Missouri. Schatz raced his ParkerStore #15 J&J from 24th to 10th on Friday at Sedalia and came home fourth in Saturday's event at I-55 Raceway. Pittman piloted the Sherdon Motorsports #21 J&J from 12th to sixth on Friday and 14th to eighth on Saturday allowing him to gain fourth place in the WoO season point standings. Swindell raced the Roth Motorsports #1 J&J to finishes of seventh and 10th.

All-Stars

Lance Dewease led the first 18 laps of the All-Star Circuit of Champions feature event at Sharon Speedway, but came home second driving the Hamilton Motorsports #77 J&J. Fred Rahmer finished fourth in the Joe Harz Racing #88h J&J while Mike Kekich (Kekich #5 J&J), Paul McMahan (Miller #2 J&J) and Craig Keel (Pearl #9 J&J) were also in the feature event driving J&J's.

WOW 360's

Randy Martin started his #14 J&J 12th in Friday's WOW feature event at Sedalia's State Fair Speedwy. He came home third in the event.

-j&j-