Alex Shoemaker Dominates The Field at Road America

Friday, August 27th - Road America   The stars of N4Nites roared into Elkhart Wisconsin after having some fun out at Riki Raceway last week.  The haulers did their parade into the beautiful Road America.  Fans gathered to watch as drivers and teams worked endlessly on their cars to get them to shine.

Leading up to the green flag, the drivers signed autographs along pit road and took pictures with fans, some even letting them have a seat behind their race car before the long, tough day ahead.

When the green flag dropped, it was the #01 of Alex Shoemaker and the #52 of Jeff Prutzman on the front row.  They got off to a clean start, roaring through the turns.  Leading down into turn 5, the #01 over shot his marks and ran off course.  Ronnie Perryman, driver of the #19, was right there to take advantage, along with everyone else in the field.

A few laps later, on lap 4, we had our first caution when the #94 of Ben Simmons got into the back of the #19 of Ronnie Perryman and turned him around.  It was the caution that Alex Shoemaker in the #01 car was hoping for and it put him back on the lead lap.

Once the pits had opened, everyone except for the #24 car of Dave Porter pitted and got four fresh tires and a tank of fuel.  Shoemaker's crew managed to get the #01 car off of pit road with that #1 pit stall advantage.

Most of the day it was the #01 out in front while everyone trailed.

Our third caution came out on lap 25 when Ben Simmons in the #94 got into the grass and lost it in turn 7, hitting the wall and flattening his car.

Once again the green flag came out and it wasnt long before the last caution of the day would come out when the #19 of Ronnie Perryman hit the rumble strip the wrong way and lost control of his car, hitting the tire barrier and ending his night.

It came down to the wire with the #01 of Shoemaker out front, and the #52 of Prutzman right behind him.  The #01 came over the team radio and let Jeff know that he was making him nervous.  He looked up into his mirror and could see Jeff with his face shield up and an ear to ear grin on his face.  The green flag waved for the last time and Alex got a really great start.  Jeff threw everything he had at it but could not keep up with the #01 and ended up finishing second.

Overall it was a great day for racing, and the stars of N4Nites really showed their strength on the road courses.

Jamie Little caught up with most of the drivers after the race and here is what they had to say.

Jamie: How was your car tonight Jo?
Jo: Surprisinlgy good, I didn't get any Thursday night practice in, started with a default set, wasn't to fast, but at least it was a top 5 car.  Ben, Jeff, and Ronnie all had fast cars.  It was pretty much door to door racing with Dave when I had the chance.

Jamie: How was your car tonight Dave?
Dave: I was kinda scared at the beginging, when we got to the track, we didn't have a setup and since they reconfigured it, with a little tweaking, some luck, and bit of driver skill, I could drive a lap before qualifying.  We definitely hated the car, but it was driveable.

Jamie: How would you say your team is preforming this year?
Dave: John is doing great, he has been out front quiet a bit, being extremely impressive.  I was working with him at the start of the year and he has really taken over.  I think personally, the #24 team has not been preforming this season.

Jamie: Why would you say that is?
Dave: We were pretty hot last year, and I know the competition has not changed, our luck has been horrible, we've had alot of engine failures, it's a DNF or a wreck, our luck just has not been in favor of the #24 car.  Everyone seems to have their good years and their bad years and this year is definitely one of our worst.

Jamie: How was your car tonight Ben?
Ben: My car was pretty much junk, through pratice and from the help of my team-mates, I got it running pretty good.  We got the car dialed in pretty much half way through the run.  Overall, I didn't get enough practice and pretty much dumped it.

Jamie: How would you say the team has been running this season?
Ben: The 94 kellogs team has been running hot and cold.  We came out of the gates firing at Califorina, we thought we had a 1st place car at Phoenix and ended up second.  We ended up coming here hoping for a win, and the driver lost it for us.

Jamie: What about your other team mates?
Ben: Well, I'm really proud of them, they are starting to kick my butt and help me out.  The three of us have been working real well together.  Jeff Prutzman in the #52, and Alex Shoemaker in the #01 have really helped the team, we just need to get the #52 in victory lane and then concentrate on the chase and see where it falls the rest of the year.

Jamie: How was your car Jeff?
Jeff: Well, I liked it.  I didn't expect to see the #01 run 2:10s and 2:11's all day long though.  When I heard Alex radio in that I was making him nervous being right behind him for the final restart, I felt like I could win this one.

Jamie: What could you say about your team mates this season?
Jeff: Tough to beat, tough to keep up with.  They are really running strong and helping us out as we go.  Both Ben and Alex are killers on these road courses and I think that both of them have really helped us step up our road course program.

Jamie: Anything else you'd like to add?
Jeff: Yeah lets go to Kansas and have some fun!

Jamie: Alex, you obviously had the car to beat tonight.
Alex: Our car was amazing, it drove well and handled great.  The Cad-Vis Racing guys always build me an excellent car and I owe them one after wrecking so many times coming close to a win.  It feels good to have gotten back in victory lane, especially with the U.S. Army on board, we got to talking about having a sponsership and it worked out well.

Jamie: How would you say that Cad Vis Racing has been doing overall?
Alex: This season we are doing great, I think we almost have the top three spots in points, Ben and Jeff are really strong, and I on the other hand, need to work on finishing a oval race instead of just these road courses.  We had issues at California and ended up putting us multiple laps down, we walked into Phoenix feeling great, having a car that could win the race and I ended up smacking the wall and killing the car.  We went into Riki Raceway with our heads high and ended up coming out of there with a damaged race car.  I was really looking forward to these road course races and I always run strong.  These guys always give me good cars week in and week out and I really needed to reward them.

Jamie: Where you nervous about anyone out there?
Alex: Ben had me nervous at the start, but he ended up having issues and I thought it was smooth sailing.  Then we had a caution and Ronnie ended up being able to hang with me for a few laps, and I thought he had a strong car, he ended up getting loose and wrecking or something like that.  Coming down to the line it was Jeff.  Jeff was fast, and I knew he probably had a car that could compete and he made me nervous.  I was definitely sweating beads inside the race car.   I almost lost it a couple of times, but manged to hold onto it.

Jamie: Well congratulations on your win!