ASA: Mike Garvey Collects First Pole for Texas Roadhouse 300
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
August 4, 2001
ASA Veteran Looking to Capture Fourth Win at Hawkeye Downs
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (August 3, 2001) – Once one of the dominate qualifiers in the ASA ACDelco Series, Mike Garvey has found qualifying a struggle in the 2001 season. But Garvey turned it all around on Friday, as the Minnesota native captured his first pole of the season for Saturday’s Texas Roadhouse 300 at Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Garvey’s lap of 18.749 sec. (96.005 mph) bested that of six-time winner Johnny Sauter, who will start outside the front row after clocking his time at 18.815 sec. (95.668 mph).
“Finally, finally, I can’t believe it,” said Garvey. “We came here and tested and both me and Kevin (Cywinski, Garvey’s teammate) threw a lot at these cars. We found some things that are completely different than what we did before. We are just chasing Joh nny. He found some things out here that we didn’t know, and BFGoodrich changed the tires over the winter, so we needed to get back on our horse.
“This has been a tough year for the whole Tecumseh team. We just feel like we have been one step behind all year long and haven’t had the kind of year we wanted to have to expected to have. This is really nice and sweet and hopefully we can get our year tu rned around and win some races.”
Sauter has won six events in his rookie season, the first of which came at the half-mile oval in April. Sauter dominated the event, beating defending ASA National Champion Gary St. Amant, who qualified third, and Garvey.
“This is a good position for us,” said Sauter. “I think our race package has been as good as our qualifying package all year long, so we will be good tomorrow.”
St. Amant will start third after his lap of 18.980 sec. (94.837 mph). Seven-time ASA National Champion Mike Eddy will start fourth, (18.852 sec. / 95.481 mph) and Texas Roadhouse driver Kevin Cywinski will start fifth (18.869 sec. / 95.395 mph).
Third-year ASA driver Russ Tuttle won the 100-lap qualifier, beating hometown driver Johnny Spaw. Spaw led the first 77 laps of the event, but missed a shift following a restart, allowing Tuttle to take over the point. A late caution flag allowed Spaw to challenge, but the effort came up short in the end.
Raceday activities get underway with spectator gates opening at 4 p.m. The on-track autograph session is set to begin at 6, with the Texas Roadhouse 300 going green at 8.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The starting line-up for Saturday’s American Speed Association ACDelco Series $197,410 “Texas Roadhouse 300” at the half-mile Hawkeye Downs Speedway. The top 18 starters were locked in during qualifications with the remainder of the fiel d set by season points and a qualifying race. Listed is starting position, driver, make of car and speed for the top 18 drivers.
1) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 96.005 mph
2) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, 95.668 mph
3) Mike Eddy, Chevrolet, 95.481 mph
4) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 95.395 mph
5) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 94.837 mph
6) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 94.822 mph
7) Butch Miller, Pontiac, 94.647 mph
8) Robbie Pyle, Chevrolet, 94.468 mph
9) Paul Paine, Pontiac, 94.404 mph
10) Tim Taylor, Chevrolet, 94.172 mph
11) Dudley Fleck, Chevrolet, 94.098 mph
12) Ted Smokstad, Ford, 94.064 mph
13) Joey Clanton, Chevrolet, 94.034 mph
14) Mike Miller, Pontiac, 93.814 mph
15) Doug Mahlik, Chevrolet, 93.799 mph
16) Dave Weltmeyer, Chevrolet, 93.706 mph
17) J.C. Beattie Jr., Chevrolet, 93.633 mph
18) Matt Sielsky, Chevrolet, 93.565 mph
19) Scott Hansen, Ford
20) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet
21) Russ Tuttle, Pontiac
22) Johnny Spaw, Chevrolet
23) Mike White, Chevrolet
24) Greg Stewart, Pontiac
25) Pat Kelly, Chevrolet
26) Craig Smith, Pontiac
27) Rick Nelson, Chevrolet
28) Chad Wood, Chevrolet
29) John Silverthorne, Chevrolet
30) Greg Williams, Chevrolet
31) Ricky Bryant, Pontiac
32) Francesco Gaudesi, Chevrolet
33) Mark Cole, Pontiac, provisional
34) Carroll Adamy, Chevrolet, provisional
35) Brandin Fagin, Chevrolet (GM Vortec Development Car)
Text provided by Jeremy Troiano
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