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| _ | Kenny Merchant Takes
the Lead And Battles for the Win Glenmora, Louisiana (March 27, 1999) - When the new track in Glenmora, Lousiana was announced there was great anticipation in the Louisiana racing community and if the early indications are correct, the track has more than lived up to those expectations and then some. The Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) Series paid their first of four visits to Thunder Valley and in a race that saw the field run multiple grooves throughout the program, Kenny Merchant used the outside groove to full advantage to claim his second SUPR victory. Merchant grabbed the lead from pole sitter Diamond Dave Siegert at the start and once out front he was able to maintain a narrow lead throughout the feature. Merchant started on the outside pole after he outgunned a red-hot Ronny Adams in the first heat race. This proved to be the key to his victory. Following the race, Merchant was just pleased to be able to hold on for the win. “The car was good. I felt like right there at the start of the race we was good as anybody with a SUPR motor but there at the end my groove started to go away and that’s were Siegert was able to really run with me. We was lucky that we was in front of him. If we would have been behind there’s no way we would have passed him.” The race was slowed by a series of cautions as several cars slowed with mechanical problems. This allowed Siegert to test Merchant’s restarting skills. Merchant was up to the task despite a close call on lap 24. “I like to spun out one time on the restart but everything went pretty good.” Siegert ran the bottom of the track and mounted a hard but clean challenge throughout the race only to come up just shy of victory. “I felt pretty good just being able to hang with him and have a close finish.” Siegert stuck with the low groove in the feature. “It worked for me real well in the heat race and I thought stick with what got you here.” Marlon Wild, who found himself stuck in the middle of the pack in the early going, decided to move up to the high groove and the decision paid off as he was able to pass several cars on restarts in route to a third place finish. “Everybody was on the bottom and a bunch of cars passed me. I couldn’t go anywhere down there so I moved up top.” Wild charged by several unsuspecting drivers on the restarts but he confessed that the highside required a delicate touch. “If you got too high you would almost knock the fence down so you had to be real careful.” At the end, Marlon was looking for one more caution to give him a shot at the leaders but that chance never came. “I needed another caution but Merchant and Siegert they were running pretty good. They would have been tough.” The performance put in by Wild came under difficult circumstances as his crew helped him prepare his backup GRT after damage from the night before at Baton Rouge proved to be worse than first suspected. Then upon arrival at the track, his father Lloyd Wild Jr. began feeling severe pain requiring an emergency helicopter ride to a nearby hospital. It turned out to be a kidney stone that passed at the hospital. A taxi ride back to the track allowed Mr. Wild to watch his son’s charge over the final 20 laps. David Ashley, who is still sorting out his new Warrior, continued to string together top five runs with a fourth tonight. Ronny Adams finally had his hot streak cool but still managed a top five finish after starting the race in 10th. Dave Siegert was the GRT Top Qualifier among 31 entries while Marlon Wild fittingly claimed his second Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger passing 10 cars in the feature. Official Results: |
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