Merchant stings competitors with Super Bee SUPR win

CHATHAM, LA (September 3, 1999) - The O'Reilly Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) Late Model Series visited Super Bee Speedway and Kenny Merchant put in a dominate performance to take the win. Merchant brought out a new J.D. Caver sponsored Warrior chassis and jumped from his 5th starting spot in the feature up to 4th at the start. He grabbed 3rd from David Ashley and then chased down the lead battle brewing between Eddie Taylor and Bubba Mullins. He caught the pair and passed both cars on the outside as they raced into turn 3 on lap 8. Once out front, Merchant proceeded to pull away to an almost half-track lead before the checkers flew. Merchant has been running Warrior for the last few years but this is the first Warrior assembled by J&J Racing and Merchant was quick to praise John Brunson. It's a brand new car. This is the first time it's ever been out the shop. It worked real well tonight."

It was Merchant's third victory of the year on the SUPR tour but the first for him utilizing a Harold Eatmon built Ford spec motor. "It's a motor that we had around the shop from our limited car and we just took the heads off of it and just bought the SUPR heads." And despite some early development problems, it has now become a force to reckon with. As Merchant stated, "It just run flawless tonight."

Eddie Taylor finished second with his Ford spec motored car marking the first time a pair of Ford spec motors have finished one two in a O'Reilly's SUPR feature. Taylor started the feature from the outside pole and he was able to out-drag David Ashley into turn one at the start. Bubba Mullins quickly moved up to second and the pair began a battle for the position that would last the entire race. Taylor felt his car was good but that Merchant was just in another class tonight.

Bubba Mullins felt that his car was too tight in the feature and he was never able to get a good run on Taylor for second. He wasn't surprised to see Merchant move by on the highside. "It was expected, when the track blacks down, you can't stop him."

Charlie Brown promoted the race and he had the pits filled to the rafters as 32 SUPR Late Models were on hand with another 117 cars in other classes. David Ashley was the GRT Top Qualifier after winning the 3rd heat. Eric Courville won the 1st heat race while Bubba Mullins won the second. Kenny Merchant claimed the fourth heat while Eddie Taylor won the final heat race. Ronny Adams and Dave Siegert then claimed the two last chance races. Bill Avant started the feature in 24th and worked his up 10 positions to claim the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.


Official Results:
1. Kenny Merchant
2. Eddie Taylor
3. Bubba Mullins
4. David Ashley
5. Jeff Chanler
6. Duke Whiseant
7. Mark Andrews
8. Wade Cleveland
9. Ronnie Poche
10. Dave Siegert
11. Eric Courville
12. Waylon Morris
13. Jack Blocker
14. Bill Avant
15. Ronny Adams
16. Rob Litton
17. Jay Blair
18. Jeff Hill
19. Jon Mitchell
20. Kenneth Mitcham
21. Marlon Wild
22. Lee Davis
23. Jody Prince
24. Rusty Cummings