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able fourth. "I just ran as fast a pace that I could run," Nate 'Gator" Wait, Matt's younger brother, said. "I knew it was going to be a long race, and I didn't want anything to happen. So I just went and rode my own race and put my head down and tried to stay consistent, which I did." Not long after his holeshot, Nate Wait nearly high sided, the near-fall sending Jeff Wood off the track. "On that right-hander he went to the outside of me, and when my bike about hjghsided, I don't think we hit, but it sent him into the grass," Nate Wait said. "By the next lap he was already right beside me." "That wasn't the end of the world, it just set me back a few spots," Wood said. "This [a terminal mechanical problem) set me back all of them." Denning struggled with handling throughout the race. "We just kind of messed up," he M.ke CIccotIio rode to a lonely third.place fInbh on ........... little bit and then made a move to see what he had for me again." By then it was the 14th lap, and Matt Wait held it until the 17th when Greenwood took the point again. "I passed him once going into the little chicane," Greenwood said. "I thought maybe I had something to hold him off." Wait had other plans. He closed in for the next handful of laps then made his pass on the 23rd lap. "Toward the end I made my move," Wait said. "I knew his tires had to be greasy, too, so I figured I better pass him right here, because it's going to be hard for him to get me back. I think I just drafted him down the straightaway. I got a better drive because of those ripples coming though there, and he was taking a Scott Harwell (2) leads Mike Himmelsbach (8) and Nick Cummings (hidden) in Sportbike action. Harwell ended up the best of the three, finishing sixth. wider line to square it off. I just kind of cut the corner to the inside." Matt Wait said it'd been difficult to make the pass because Greenwood was able to turn his Yamaha earlier, and he was having to make up his time getting into the corners. With the checkered flag looming, Wait upped the pace, plus one, plus two, then more. "When he put the last pass on me, I was just exhausted at that point," Greenwood said. "I tried my best to stay with him. But he rode smart, did what he had to do." Nate Wait passed Larry Denning on the 12th lap, the two well back of Ciccotto and well clear of the battle for sixth. For much of the race they ran together, then Nate Wait began to edge away, eventually to a comfort- admitted. "I was happy when he [Nate] passed me because then it was easy to ride around behind and pace me. We got by Bryan Bemisderfer, and he got in between us for a corner and then 'Gator' pulled out, and I was just trying to survive the race. And then I looked back and saw [Scott] Harwell coming, so the last two laps I really had to find some speed. It was enough to hold him off." Harwell was in a quartet fighting over sixth for much of the race and at the back of it at the beginning. When the excitement of the first few laps settled down, it was Michael Shaun Fields in front of Hooters' Suzuki's Mike Himmelsbach, TCR Racing's Nick Cummings, and Harwell. Further back was Harwell's teammate Dave Stanton. Harwell moved up to seventh on the 12th lap, then set out for Himmelsbach, who'd pulled a slight gap. By the 18th lap Himmelsbach, Har- cue I e n e _ S • AUGUST 20. 2003