BARKSHIRE'S IRWINDALE BAD LUCK OVER - FINISHES FOURTH

The 4th of July Camping World West race at Irwindale's Toyota Speedway was Jeff's 7th start at the track - and his first finish. "We just seemed to be jinxed there," Jeff's father Bob Barkshire said, telling a different bad luck story for all six previous attempts at Irwindale. Having been knocked out there by a variety of mechanical and electrical problems, and two flat tires caused by debris on the track, it was with extra anxiety that they headed back to Irwindale. Their 7th try though, proved to be a good run and resulted in a 4th place finish for Jeff and his 46 Centennial Battery Dodge.

A few adjustments made to the shocks and springs after running 14th in the first practice served to improve his second practice time to 4th. He then qualified 6th.

With the car better on long runs, he lost two positions early on, from 6th to 8th, but didn't stay there long. Able to "just" avoid a spinning car, Jeff steadily worked his way forward. "When I saw him avoid the wreck," Bob recalled, "I thought OK, maybe the jinx has lifted." He was right. By the 1/2 way break he'd been in 2nd for 25 laps, had run down the leader and was on Mayhew's bumper as they left the track for the mandatory 100 lap pit stop.

During the stop, in an attempt to correct a lose condition, they made three small adjustments which turned out not to be beneficial. Instead, they proved to be too much, giving him a car for the second half that got increasingly tight as the race progressed. He battled in the top 3 for most of the 2nd half, but was unable to hold 3rd, falling back to 4th in the final laps.

As Jeff put it, "A win is always our goal, but a strong top 5 finish on a track where we'd been unable to finish at all, felt pretty good." His 4th place finish won him the Sunoco Rookie of the Race Award for the fifth time in seven races, and keeps Jeff in the lead in Rookie points. He's now fourth in the overall Series' points.

He'll be racing this Friday, the l9th, at Roseburg Oregon's Douglas County Speedway in the car that finished l0th at Infineon's road course, but whose body was pretty much demolished. "It's been a lot of work, rebuilding the body and changing it back to an oval track car, but we'll be ready, and are looking forward to competing in Roseburg."

Click here to go back to the main news section.

...........................................................................................................................................................