BATON ROUGE, LA (October 16, 1999) - Duke Whiseant, of Texarkana, Arkansas came into 1999 Budweiser Louisiana State Championships trailing local favorite David Ashley of nearby Zachary, Louisiana by 30 points in the 1999 O’Reilly Southern United Professional Racing (SUPR) Championship point standings. But despite the fact that Ashley is a 3-time Baton Rouge Raceway Track Champion and despite the fact that David Ashley claimed the last O’Reilly SUPR race held at Baton Rouge Raceway, Whiseant was undaunted.

After setting the 2nd fastest time in qualifications, Whiseant overcame a 2nd place finish in his heat race to charge to the front, winning his 5th victory of the year and more importantly he took over the point lead with just one race remaining.

After the race, Whiseant credited the win to a new setup.

“We came across a good setup out here that works pretty good,” Whiseant said. The setup was refined during the running of the SUPR Star 125 “Last night in the heat race we changed springs and kind of got off a little bit, we come back and put it back where we had it last time and it worked good.”

Whiseant now leads the O’Reilly SUPR point standings by a mere 6 points. A lead that amounts to just 2 positions in the final running order of a race. A lead that could be reduced to just one position in the final running order if Ashley were to have a better heat race finish. But despite the narrow margin, Whiseant is confident heading into the Jambalaya 100 at Pike County Speedway on November 5th and 6th. He’ll rely on the setup that carried his A-1 Auto Salvage teammate, Ronny Adams to victory in last year’s Jambalaya 100.

When the qualifying was completed, Elizabeth Halpin Smith had bested the boys as she set the fast time with a 15.75-second lap. This earned her the pole for the first heat race, a race she dominated. Dennis Duncan slipped by Duke Whiseant in the second heat and earned the right to start alongside Elizabeth in the 40-lap feature. Duncan got the jump at the start and powered away to a huge lead. He caught the backmarkers in just 5 laps and soon stretched his lead to a half-track. The race was slowed by 4 cautions with the first waving on lap 14, but it was the last 3 that allowed the field to bunch up and erased Duncan’s once huge lead. Lap 32 saw David Knight spin in traffic and 2 laps later, Dave Siegert was the next victim on lap 34 with the final caution waving on lap 35 when Phil Cooper and Tod Hazel got together in turn 2. Whiseant then took full advantage of his track position to take the win.

For Duncan, the 2nd place finish was his best of the year on the O’Reilly SUPR tour but were it not for the late race cautions, the race could have been his. “I just got tight with about 10 laps to go when I got in the black. I believe if I hadn’t gotten the caution at the end, I might have been able hold on but Duke had the better car.”

The weekend did not go well for David Ashley; a disappointing qualifying run placed him second heat behind both Duncan and Whiseant. Unable to pass the duo, Ashley started the feature in 12th. He worked his way past 4 cars in the feature to finish 8th but was never a threat to win. He now heads into the Jambalaya 100 trailing Duke by 6 points but like Baton Rouge Raceway, it’s a track he knows very well, a track he runs at when not pursuing the O’Reilly SUPR championship title.

34 Late Models joined a field of over 170 cars participating in the 1999 Budweiser Louisiana State Championships and David Burkhalter, Donald Watson and Ronny Adams joined Elizabeth Halpin Smith and Dennis Duncan in claiming heat wins. A single last chance race was run with Odie Green taking the victory.

Joining Duke Whiseant in claiming the title of 1999 Louisiana State Champion were Lane Whittington in the Winged Sprint Cars, Jerry Cassano in the UMP Modifieds, Chris Walls in Super Stock, Kerry Vicknair in Street Stock, Conrad Cupit in Pure Stock and Jeremy Dubois in Mini Stocks.

The running of the GRT Top Qualifier Dash highlighted Friday night’s action. The race is an invitational affair that includes the GRT Top Qualifiers in 1999 and the top 15 in points. A field of 21 cars started the dash and David Ashley charged to the front to claim the first 10-lap segment ahead of Marlon Wild, Odie Green, Elizabeth Halpin and Ronny Adams. The entire field was then inverted based on the original starting positions and a 2nd 10-lap segment was run. This time Kenny Merchant made a pass late in the race to claim the win ahead of Randy Cook, Neal Temple, Wade Cleveland and Lee Davis. Ronny Adams claimed the $2000 top prize based on the best average finish. Adams backed up his 5th place finish in the first segment with a 6th place finish in the second to claim the overall win. Kenny Merchant finished 2nd with Odie Green claiming 3rd.


Official Results:
1. Duke Whiseant
2. Dennis Duncan
3. Ronny Adams
4. Jay Blair
5. Marlon Wild
6. Neal Temple
7. Ryan Fontenot
8. David Ashley
9. Donald Watson
10. Mike Boland
11. Kenny Merchant
12. Bubba Mullins
13. Jon Mitchell
14. Odie Green
15. Larry Ritter
16. David Knight
17. Phil Cooper
18. Randy Cook
19. Tod Hazel
20. Dave Siegert
21. Elizabeth Halpin
22. David Burkhalter
23. Wade Cleveland
24. Jerry Bevis

For further information regarding the 2000 O’Reilly SUPR Series contact
Greg Holmes at 225-275-5040 or e-mail us at gholmes@suprracing.com.