John Boneske pulls off the win at Michigan

Friday, January 22nd   There were a lot of fast cars in practice and happy hour, but none were as fast as Mike Reed.  He had the car to beat!  An upset on the Pole was won by Dave Porter, Followed by Mike Reed, Ben Simmons, John Boneske, Bobby Rafuse, Larry Graveson, Jeff Prutzman, and Matt Farrell.

Jamie Little caught up with #49 Silverado driven by John Boneske on his win.

Jamie:  It looks like you and your teammate were at the right place at the right time.
John:  Yes we were, we knew it was a long race, and to just go into “cruise control” mode, we had very similar trucks, and knew that if we paced ourselves and conserved fuel, that when the leader Mike Reed had to pit on lap 35, we could run a few more laps.  Two trucks is better than 1 in a draft, so it was a no brainer for the SpeedPro teammates!

Jamie:  It looked as if your Teammate Dave Porter would of won the race..?
John:  Yes, I think on lap 64 when coming out of the pits on the back Stretch Dave missed a shift from 3rd to 4th gear, which allowed us to take the lead over out teammate, which we never looked back!

Jamie:  It looked as if it was gonna be a race to the end.
John: Yes, after that pit stop on lap 64 I had the lead with my teammate and owner Dave Porter running second, it seem as though he was searching for a line to run, and found one with about 3 laps to run, to run us down!  Coming out of turn 2 on the final lap allowed Dave to get on the outside of me.  Going into turn 3 I wanted to be careful not to slip up and take out my owner and teammate, and I think he didn’t want to pinch me down and cause an issue either, we gave each other enough room, but raced close at the same time!  Its great when you run with a great group of guys like we have here at N4nites, when you know we can all run in a tight pack, and not have any issues!  We ran side by side coming to the checkers and beat him by a fender!   I want to thank my team mate Dave Porter and Owner SpeedPro Inc.  It is nice to get a win early off in the year.  I am trying to run as many races as possible this year!  Thank you to everyone to attended the race, and my fellow racers!

Jamie Little also caught up with Dave Porter, driver of the Dupont Chevy N4Nites car after the race.

Jamie:  Dave, what happened?  You went from last to nearly first.  How was that for you?
Dave:  First off - we really didn't have much to work with once our car hit the track.  We brought this setup from Michigan before in a charity race late last year but didn't think it would have performed so well in the end.

Jamie:  How do you contribuite that change?  Was the weather different?
Dave:  Some dealt with weather changes and the pickup truck handling.  The track had a lot of grip and we typically run loose.  A brief chat with team mate John Boneske, and we got back that which we lost.  Our qualifying run was simply our race setup with tape.  We honestly were hoping for a 3rd q spot - but it was great to pull off a pole position.

Jamie:  This run seemed to be commanded by you and John.  How what was that all about?
Dave:  I've ran this track so many times, I feel Michigan is just one of my best tracks.  When Ben Simmons had his problems, I knew it was just a matter of laps before John and I would catch Mike Redd who was pretty dominate (and has been) in this race.  This track requires three things, a good car, good drafting partner, and really good pit strategy.  The Speedpro team carried all those qualities here today and I was proud to get the Speedpro team delivering a one two punch.

Jamie:  Any plans for next week?
Dave:  Just a quick tweaking when were allowed on the track and we should be good to go.  For the Speedpro team, we're here to have fun, put on a good show, and race up front.  It's not about winning, just being a good team player.  I'm really looking forward to next week.  That is, to be the one everyone is trying to beat (wink wink).