APRIL 30th - quick results:

qualified 3rd 20.963 summary started finished heat 6th 1ST feature 8th 2nd

highlights

josh getting ready for heat race

2nd heat win in 2005

(click here)

The second night of the season at Illiana Motor Speedway dawned cold and partly cloudy. When Josh took to the track for his first and only practice there was a slight problem after the first lap. He came onto pit road and Carl Kolbe was under the right rear of the car checking to see if the spring was seated, turns out that it was. As Josh went back onto the track Jason and Butch Kolbe were talking to him through the headset. Jason was timing Josh's laps and was calling them out to our fearless driver. His best time during practice was 21.029.

 During qualifying Josh had one of the fastest times. He qualified 3rd and his time was 20.963. He showed a lot of consistency last night.

When he started the heat race he was in the 3rd row outside at 6th place. During the second lap he made it up to 3rd place and in the fifth lap out of ten he made it to 1st place and held fast in that position and finished 1st. When Josh took his place in the feature race he started in the 4th row outside. In the first lap he went from 8th place to 5th. As the seventh lap came about he passed Patterson and moved up to 3rd place. In the middle of the 12th lap he passed Amptmeyer to get to second place. There was a bit of distance between him and the leader Bill Neering that he caught up and almost took the lead. In the end he took 2nd and was pleased by it. If Josh had a couple more laps left he would have taken 1st place. Josh is still leading in points. The top three people in points are Josh Nelms, Bill Neering, and Jeff Cannon. Good luck to all.

APRIL 16th - quick results:

qualified 2ND 20.856 summary started finished heat 5th 1ST feature 8th 1st

highlights

car going though the tech area.

josh passes Jeff cannon for the led

1st feature win in 2005

(click here)

Opening fell upon Illiana Speedway for it's 58th season. The CJ Motorsports team was all fired up as the car was just finished this week! Carl and the rest of the team arrived at the track bright and early to get through the tech process and everything went fine.

Josh went out in the first practice and shook the car down and the car was fast handling awesome. The team opted to scuff the sticker tires for the second session and get the car ready for the qualifying. Josh qualified second with a lap of 20.856. In the heat Josh started 5th in the shortened field and made his way up to the front and capture his first heat win and over two years at Illiana.

Carl claimed, "one of our goals for this season was to win a heat race, glad we got that out of the way." For the feature Josh started 4th row outside and worked the outside groove to gain a few spots then worked his way back to the bottom and worked his way to the front. A close call came when Josh and Mid-Am Rookie of the Year candidate Craig Amptmeyer made contact going into turn 3. Josh said, "it's one of those deals that I was up to his rear bumper on the inside and he probably didn't know it and it's a difficult spot for his spotter to judge. I went and talked to Craig after the race and everything is fine. Craig is going to do well this year, heck he already won a race. He's a tough competitor and will be somebody to contend with all season."

 Josh continued to move forward following Jeff Cannon in the #33 all the way to the front and slipped by on the inside of him on lap 10. Josh set the pace the rest of the way and went on to win to the opening feature of the season. During the interview Josh thanked his crew and sponsors for giving him the chance to drive for them.