From Bill W
(Bill W) May 31, 2010 – It was victory at last for Josh Fisher last Saturday night at the Lake Ozark Speedway near Eldon, Missouri. A sweep of the nights events also included wins in the heat and the dash. A sixth place finish with the Winged Outlaw Warriors at Jesse Hockett’s Double X Speedway on Sunday night capped off the weekend. This week, he’ll be in Rick Northrup’s #83 410 at Jacksonville Speedway in Illinois on Friday, before returning to LOS on Saturday.
The luck of the draw wasn’t included in the night’s events at LOS. Josh had to start sixth in his heat. “We got a good start off the bat, and I was able to get second by lap two,” he says. “We had a yellow, and we were able to get Mitchell Moore on the restart. We kind of coasted from there.”
The dash win came from outside of row one, but he had to work for that one too. “Mike Trent got the jump on us, but we were able to get back by him about lap three,” says Josh. “The track was slick for the heats and the dash. We ran the bottom. It didn’t look like there would be a top at all.”
The dash win put Josh on the pole of the main event, and he led from start to finish to post his first win of the year, and first at LOS since the 360 Nationals last September. “When you win, sometimes it feels like everything falls into place, and that’s how it was for us on Saturday,” he says. “I found a line, and kind of pulled away. I started out on the bottom, and saw someone up on top. I decided to go up there, and that’s where the groove ended up being. The bottom went away.”
The impact of the loss of Jesse Hockett can be felt in the Fisher camp. On Saturday night, Josh donated the trophy to Jesse’s father, Jack. “It felt like the right thing to do to me,” says the Smithton, Missouri driver. “With us being a family team too, you really feel for their loss. Our thoughts are with them.”
On Sunday night, racing went on as usual as Jesse would have wanted it at the track known as Jesse Hockett’s Double X Speedway. Randy Martin drove the Jesse Hockett Racing #77, and the majority of fans were pulling for him. Did Josh have any second thoughts about going for the win? “If there was a chance at passing him or not passing him, I would have passed him,” he said of Martin. “If it was Jesse, he never would have wanted me to back off, I know that.”
After running third in his heat, Josh lined up outside row four for the feature. He languished in seventh and eighth place a lot of the way and struggled to find spots to pass on the tight bullring. “I just couldn’t get around Eric Todd,” he says. “We had quite a few restarts, and I tried going through the middle. I thought I might catch some rubber and get them bottled up on the bottom. Every time I tried it, it seemed like someone got by us. We had a couple of cautions come up where we had got around him too.”
The event was plagued by a number of cautions and reds and even included a fuel stop. In the end, Josh would settle for sixth. “One time I did pass him, and I pushed up in three and four, and he got right back by me,” he says of Todd. “It was just a tough track to deal with from back where we were. You needed to start closer to the front to have a shot.”
Josh looks forward to his second full outing of the year in the 410 at Jacksonville, and he’ll be back in the family Ozark Barge & Dock Services #86 at LOS on Saturday.
Follow Josh on his Website and on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter!
Follow Josh at his website located at www.JoshFisherRacing.com! Also keep up with him on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter (which also can be accessed at the website) at the following links…
MySpace link = http://www.myspace.com/joshfisherracing
Facebook link = http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?ref=name&id=100000662545016
Twitter link = http://twitter.com/JEFRacing
Josh would like to thank the following sponsors for all their help: Ozark Barge & Dock Services Inc., ASAP Properties, Impact Wraps, Impact Sign & Lighting, Fischer’s Concrete, Champion Brands, Bill Ferguson Livestock Trucking, K&N Filters, Butler Built Seats, Maxim Racing Chassis, Winters Performance, Bell Helmets, Hoosier Tires, Ramey Dirtworks, TCI Tire Centers, Brian’s Gym