Up and Down Weekend In Michigan
Probst Motorsports PRO-Light Report WSORR Bark River II
 
#44 Claims 7th Friday; Suffers Suspension Failure Running 5th Sunday

August 13, 2007 (Bark River, MI) - Probst Motorsports Pro-Light entries of Jon Probst and George Schultz rolled into Bark River with confidence and high expectations for improvement in rounds seven through nine.

George Schultz took to the wheel for Friday’s afternoon practice and reported the SimplyWow/JMR Nissan to be handling ok. The new Toyo Tire groove was exactly what the driver needed and the team made some minor suspension tweaks for the special Friday afternoon racing.

At the drop of the green flag, George moved up from 13th starting spot to the bumper of the 88 truck of Don Ponder in 10th place and set his sights on Ponder. Schultz couldn’t get the SimplyWow truck moving in the right direction and when the field clipped the line for lap 2, he had back slid to 13th. It was lap 3 when Schultz got aggressive and began a march towards the top 5.

By lap five, George had moved the Nissan up five spots to eighth place. It was the end of lap five however, that proved costly to Schultz as he lost grip in turn 1 and nearly spun out, losing time to seventh place and series newcomer Garit Wallace. Lap six was no better as Schultz repeated the same mistake in the same spot. After losing more time to Wallace, Schultz reached down and pulled a little more out of the Nissan to get up to Wallace on lap eight. George took advantage of Wallace getting crossed up in the back stretch and made a pass into seventh place. With only two laps to go, the #44 SimplyWow truck turned in some fast laps to close the gap on Mark Oberg. Two turns from the end, Schultz closed to within 5 truck lengths of Oberg and made an attempt to pass on the last turn but came across the line a few feet short, in seventh place.

Jon Probst took the wheel on Saturday to improve on his career best sixth place finish last time out at Bark River. Probst started the race in 14th place and began his march towards the front. Jon battled with Garit Wallace made quick work of the 51 truck and began to work on Chris Brandt. Probst worked to close the gap on Brandt, and in doing so, the two began passes on other trucks. By lap seven, Probst had moved up five spots to ninth and tried reeling Brandt. When the white flag fell, Probst had Jim Kandell in his sights but couldn’t quite make the pass. The checkers flew as Jon crossed the line in eighth place.

“The changes we made to the Fox Shocks after Friday were definitely an improvement. There’s still more to get out of the SimplyWoW/JMR Nissan but we’re on our way to making this UWeld Chassis work really well,” commented Jon after the race.

Probst Motorsports made a few more changes to the Nissan for George’s second round of the weekend on Sunday. In both previous rounds, the truck was capable of a top five and that’s where Schultz set his goal. Once again, starting from the second row in 14th place, Schultz tried tucking in behind Kincaid on the start. After getting bounced around a bit in turn one, George was in ninth at the end of the first lap. Heading into the cemetery turn, Schultz made a double pass on Lee O’Donnell and Randy Eller to move into sixth. From there, George set his sights on the 24 truck of Steve Federico. Slowly but surely, the SimpyWow Nissan reeled in Federico until lap six. Schultz was in fifth when he hit the double jumps in the back stretch. The landing broke the lower ball joint and spindle assembly, ending his day.

“It’s disappointing to be that close, but that’s the nature of development. The truck was running in the top five and we might have pulled out a podium finish today. Jon’s suspension work with Fox is paying off and we have the power from the Jeff Probst Design Nissan powerplant. The Toyo Tires are really working and now it’s just a matter of time before this truck gets a podium finish. I think Crandon will be a good weekend for the entire Probst Motorsports team,” commented Schultz after the race.