The final round of the JSR King of the River turned out to be a nail biter with Paul Solomon winning the crown by one point. Solomon had a night he would prefer to forget. Going into the final round as point’s leader he just needed a smooth night.

Winning the Oval Express Magazine Quick Time Award it was looking good for him but this wasn’t to be after hurting his engine in his first heat. The team quickly set about trying to find the issue and repair it but not being able to do this they then were offered another motor from Ron Donaldson’s V33. Donaldson was out for the night after damage sustained in Heat 1.

The extended Team Solomon then took about pulling the engine out of the V33, pulling the engine out of his own V7 and installing the V33 power plant into his own car. Without engine lifters in transporters the Heartland Raceway Backhoe was put into use and assisted in lifting all engines around. Lining up for the A Main from position 20 Solomon had the drive of the night with the little steel block engine finishing in fourth place.

It was a tense few minutes while points were calculated and then double checked before it was announced after RD5 Presentations were awarded. With the effort made by so many to help get Pauly back on track everyone was pleased with the result.

38 drivers contested the five round three state mini-series just proving the popularity of this miniseries.