Whiseant's GRT best in I-30 Speedway's "GRT 50"

By Steve Molnar, SUPR

LITTLE ROCK, AR (July 24, 1999) - Duke Whiseant swept the competition en route to the biggest O’Reilly Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) win of his career as he topped the 2nd annual "GRT 50" at I-30 Speedway.

Whiseant drove the A-1 Auto Salvage GRT to victory from the pole position in the feature. The Texarkana, Ark., pilot used his BPH Racing Engines horsepower to wrestle the lead away from Bubba Mullins on the start and he set a rapid pace up front, running clear of the field until the late stages of the race when David Ashley and Dave Siegert reeled him in.

Afterwards, Whiseant relayed that the car was good and that he "put it on cruise."

"I just slowed down and tried to be smooth. Right after we had that last restart I run a couple of laps pretty good and then I decided to keep from getting up with a bunch of lapped cars and risk getting tore up," Whiseant said.

Whiseant started his weekend off with a victory in the third heat to snag the GRT Top Qualifier award. He then followed that up with a victory the next night in the six-lap Dash for Cash before claiming the feature victory to bring his weekend win total to $5,550.

Despite the dominant performance, Whiseant was only able to gain seven points on David Ashley in the O’Reilly SUPR point standings. He now trails Ashley by just 81 points after 19 races.

Ashley started the feature 11th but quickly worked his way forward, jumping into the top five on lap 13 as he got by both Jay Blair and Lee Davis to move to fourth. He got by Dennis Duncan, who was running on seven cylinders, the next lap and began to battle with Bubba Mullins for second.

Mullins stayed glued to the bottom of the track, making it difficult for Ashley to move by. Ashley finally made the move by Mullins on lap 36 following the third and final caution of the night two laps earlier. He caught Whiseant with 4 laps to go but couldn’t find an opening before the laps ran out.

"We did good, eleventh to second. I’m tickled to death," said Ashley. "I wanted to win but it came out for the better."

The last caution also helped re-shuffle the finishing order as the lapped car of David Yarbrough moved to the high side to let the leaders go by, but instead he was running as fast, if not faster, than the battle for third. Dave Siegert, who had been running sixth was the first to move up high and he went by Jay Blair and Eddie Taylor to grab fourth on lap 44. He continued his charge forward, moving by Mullins with five laps to go and closed in on the lead battle before he ran out of laps.

Taylor followed Siegert’s cue and move up to fourth at the checkers with Mullins and Blair relegated to fifth and sixth, respectively.

Siegert’s charge from seventeenth to third earned him the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award and helped propel him up to fourth in the O’Reilly SUPR point standings.

Blair claimed the first heat race while Dennis Duncan claimed the second. After Whiseant drove from fifth to first in the third heat, Mullins and Lee Davis claimed the final two heat races. Jon Mitchell claimed the first last chance race while local favorite, Dude Garrett, claimed the second last chance race in a Tommy Surrett backup car.


GRT 50:
1. Duke Whiseant
2. David Ashley
3. Dave Siegert
4. Eddie Taylor
5. Bubba Mullins
6. Jay Blair
7. Rob Litton
8. Lee Davis
9. Jon Mitchell
10. Wade Cleveland
11. Steve Latson
12. Tommy Surrett
13. Keith Craft
14. Odie Green
15. David Yarbrough
16. Bill Avant
17. Elizabeth Halpin
18. Dennis Duncan
19. Dude Garrett
20. Ronny Adams