Ritter rolls to SUPR triumph at Pike County Speedway

By Steve Molnar

MAGNOLIA, MS (August 21, 1999) - Larry Ritter returned to Pike County Speedway determined to win an O’Reilly Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) Late Model Series race on the track. He did just that in winning his second career O’Reilly SUPR victory.

Driving the Majestic Metals GRT, Ritter won his second O’Reilly SUPR race at Pike County on the track after having won his first race when the initial winner was disqualified. That was not the way Ritter wanted to win and he saw this race as a chance to win on the track.

"I’m proud, proud for my crew, everybody’s worked real hard. I’ve got to thank Majestic Metals, my sponsor, my whole crew but most of all my Mike Donahoe, my crew chief. He’s held it together these last few months and made it work tonight." Ritter is the plant manager at Majestic Metals and the heavy workload has limited the amount of time he has to race and work on the car. "(The crew’s) been doing all of the work, all’s I do is drive."

Ritter started alongside pole sitter Phil Cooper. The field went 3 and 4 wide as they jockeyed for position going into turn one with Cooper getting the initial jump while Ritter and Siegert battled for second. The first caution waved on lap 3 as Chick Boyd and Neal Temple got hung together in turn 4.

Cooper continued to set the early pace while Siegert held off Ritter, with Ronny Adams, Duke Whiseant, and Jay Blair in tow. Then on lap 6, Cooper began to slow as he stripped a spool bringing an early ending to an impressive run. Siegert and Ritter then staged a great battle for the lead. Siegert held the top spot but Ritter was trying to work his way underneath going into turn one.

The gap between the two closed and Ritter’s left front tire jumped high off the inside berm but he kept his momentum going and made the move stick the next time by.

The second caution waved on lap 10 as Cooper’s car stopped in turn 2 as he tried to exit the track. Ritter controlled the restart as the battle for positions intensified.

Duke Whiseant saw his chances of cutting into David Ashley’s point lead evaporate as contact with Jay Blair led to a cut tire and an unplanned pit stop for the quick change on lap 13. Whiseant returned at the rear but could only salvage a 12th place finish.

Ritter began to pull away from the field on the restart but the action was further back in the pack where Dennis Duncan was putting on a show running the highside of the track and moving forward in the Majestic Metals team car.

Duncan started 14th but was now up to 7th and was closing in on Marlon Wild for 5th. Siegert continued to hold 2nd with Adams and Blair next in line followed by Elizabeth Halpin Smith, Wild and Duncan.

As the race wound down it was clear that Ritter was going to be tough to catch but lapped traffic made it interesting as Ritter’s half straightaway lead evaporated. Siegert closed in on Ritter but was unable to get underneath Ritter to make the pass.

After the race, Siegert was a bit disappointed when he found out from his crew that the highside was still there on the track.

"Hindsight is always easy but I didn’t want to lose the spot at the end either. That’s where radios would be nice but I’m glad we don’t have them. It gets you in more trouble then its worth. We were a little off at the start, a little too tight and the car come around to me. We’ll take it, the luck we’ve been having."

As for Ritter, he knew Siegert was there at the end.

"He let me know he was still there. But he run me a good hard race."

Adams was able to close in at the end as well and followed the lead pair across the line followed by Blair, Wild and Duncan. Adams ran his Ford powered Rocket chassis and was happy to get a good run out of the car but felt he was hampered by his gear selection.

"We put a higher gear in it and it was too much. It was lugging way down coming off of the corners, I couldn’t stay with them."

Siegert, Cooper and Wade Cleveland claimed the heat victories with Cooper claiming the GRT Top Qualifier award for his performance. Cleveland put in a valiant effort in the feature as he was racing despite the fact that he was under the weather. Halpin Smith saw a solid top 5 run end as she slowed with a wounded engine.


Official Results:
1. Larry Ritter
2. Dave Siegert
3. Ronny Adams
4. Jay Blair
5. Marlon Wild
6. Dennis Duncan
7. David Ashley
8. Ricky May
9. Wade Cleveland
10. Chick Boyd
11. Steve Latson
12. Duke Whiseant
13. Bubba Mullins
14. Jon Mitchell
15. David Knight
16. Eddie Taylor
17. Elizabeth Halpin
18. Neal Temple
19. Chris Cassano
20. Phil Cooper
21. Curtis Vicknair