Whiseant nabs Boothill SUPR feature

GREENWOOD, LA (September 4, 1999) - Duke Whiseant is having a breakout season on the O'Reilly Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) Late Model Series and he continued that performance by winning his 4th tour victory of the year at Boothill Speedway. Whiseant started from the pole with his A-1 Auto Salvage GRT and he grabbed the lead right from the start and he led every lap en route to the victory. But to say it was an easy race for Duke is far from accurate.

Ronny Adams, the 12 time Boothill Track Champion moved up to 2nd on lap 8 and pressured Duke throughout the feature but was unable to make the pass for the lead. Whiseant's performance enabled him to take over the O'Reilly SUPR championship point standings and it was his first SUPR victory outside of I-30 Speedway. After the race, Duke stated that he andA-1 Auto Salvage teammate Ronny Adams talked about what it would take to win here at Boothill. "Today, me and Ronny went out on the same setup. It worked real good. Before the race we talked about what lines we were going to run and it all worked out real good."

The battle for the lead took a surprising turn when on lap 33, Elizabeth Halpin Smith had her engine let go on the backstretch just as the lead battle exited turn 2. Whiseant was able to avoid the oil on the track but Adams wasn't as fortunate and he slid into the rear of Elizabeth's car. Adams' car avoided heavy contact and kept moving but was now missing a rear spoiler. Despite this handicap, Adams was still able to hold onto second ahead of a fast closing Odie Green and Waylon Morris. You know if you're gonna lose a spoiler you're gonna lose bite and lose corner entry but you don't know where. You've got a rhythm going and when that rhythm's broken you got to change to a different tempo but you don't know what that tempo is until you test it a few times. There were a couple of laps where I thought I was going into the fence."

Ronny Adams has been running an open motor combination and he seems to be getting the right set up. "We're getting on that program now. I had it going last year but the cars have gotten faster."

And while the A-1 Auto Salvage team of Whiseant and Adams set the pace up front, Odie Green and Waylon Morris staged there own race long battle. Green started on the front row while Morris had to move up from the 8th starting spot. Green held 2nd until lap 8 while Morris moved up to 4th on lap 9. Morris grabbed 3rd on lap 21 but the late caution for Halpin Smith's engine failure gave Green another shot at Morris. Green said, "the car felt like it got faster there toward the end." And while he couldn't get by Adams at the end, Green still put in his best SUPR finish in the Sharp Racing car. Waylon Morris was happy with the performance of his car he just felt that the last caution hurt him as his tires sealed up.

When Elizabeth's motor let go it caught fire briefly but she was able to get the car stop and exited quickly without any further incident. 33 Late Models were on hand and Odie Green earned the GRT Top Qualifier award as won the 2nd heat after starting 6th. Jeff Chanler won the 1st heat with Duke Whiseant claiming the 3rd. Eric Conner then topped the 4th heat and Ronny Adams claimed the final heat race. Doug Ingalls topped the 1st last chance race and Bubba Mullins snagged the 2nd last chance race. Mullins then moved forward 12 positions to earn the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.


Official Results:
1. Duke Whiseant
2. Ronny Adams
3. Odie Green
4. Waylon Morris
5. Wade Cleveland
6. Bubba Mullins
7. Kenny Merchant
8. Jeff Chanler
9. Dave Siegert
10. Jason Ingalls
11. Jody Mayne
12. Jon Mitchell
13. Marlon Wild
14. Tom Wiggins
15. Jay Blair
16. Eric Conner
17. Donald Watson
18. Elizabeth Halpin Smith
19. David Ashley
20. Rusty Cummings
21. Michael Coleman
22. Doug Ingalls