CRESCO, IA (July 4, 2000) — Matt Moro, who has spent his summer competing primarily in the 410 division at the Knoxville Raceway this season, brought his 360 car to the Cresco Speedway and won his heat, the Justice Brothers Dash, and the 20 lap MSS feature on the Fourth of July. Moro, a native of Des Moines, picked up the $1,000 winner's check for his work in holding off Jimmy Kouba and Travis Whitney.

The A-main saw Moro and Whitney line up wheel to wheel by virtue of their 1-2 finish in the dash. On the initial start, Whitney got the jump on Moro and lead the field into turn 3, but the rest of the field made it to turn 3, Brett Geldner spun and Ron Smith got hard into the retaining wall while trying to avoid the spinning #1B car. Both cars were finished for the evening.

As the cars got into the original two-by-two formation, the green flag flew again and this time, Matt Moro got the jump as the field went through the first set of turns. Moro set sail and kept Whitney at bay while using the low side of the raceway. Near the halfway point, Bob Hildreth pulled his #55KC to the topside of the speedway on the frontstretch and rolled to a stop. During the caution, the #6 of Roger Rager also pulled into the pit area. Rager was running in the fifth position at the time.

Moro again led the field following the restart, but Travis Whitney was charging hard on the high side of the speedway. Whitney was really pushing hard on a quickly disappearing cushion and at times pulled even with the #2M of Moro, but never quite found a way to pull ahead of him. Meanwhile, Jimmy Kouba had been gaining steadily on the leaders and was becoming a threat. Moro eventually pulled away through lapped traffic and on the last lap, Kouba slipped inside a fading Whitney and took away the second position. Larry Ball Jr. and Ryan Jamison rounded out the top five positions in the 18 car field.

The dash went to Moro, and the heats were won by Moro, Whitney and Colin Northway. The points lead has changed hands for the second time in two races as the top two in points, John Franzen and Tom Kamrath, who was battling motor problems, were not in action. Ehren "Primetime" Layton is the new point leader for the MSS series and is followed closely by Greg Kamrath.

RESULTS

FEATURE - 1. Matt Moro; 2. Jimmy Kouba; 3. Travis Whitney; 4. Larry Ball Jr.; 5. Ryan Jamison; 6. Colin Northway; 7. Dean Brown; 8. Allan Gilbertson; 9. Jesse Gianetto; 10. John Wycoff; 11. Ehren Layton; 12. Johnny Parsons III; 13. John Jacob; 14. Bob Hildreth (DNF); 15. Roger Rager (DNF); 16. Greg Kamrath (DNF); 17. Brett Geldner (DNF); 18. Ron Smith (DNF).

JUSTICE BROS./GILLUND ENT. DASH - 1. Moro; 2. Whitney; 3. Kouba; 4. Hildreth; 5. Northway; 6. Rager (DNF).

HEAT 1 - 1. Whitney; 2. Rager; 3. Ball Jr.; 4. Kamrath; 5. Smith; 6. Wycoff.

HEAT 2 - 1. Northway; 2. Kouba; 3. Jamison; 4. Geldner; 5. Parsons III; 6. Gianetto.

HEAT 3 - 1. Moro; 2. Hildreth; 3. Gilbertson; 4. Layton; 5. Brown; 6. Jacob.