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Magnolia, Mississippi (April 20, 2002) - David Ashley led
just one lap in the O'Reilly SUPR Late Model feature at Pike County
Speedway but it was the one that counted.
Ashley passed Kenny Merchant on the final lap to take the win as
Merchant slowed with a broken rear axle.
The win was the first O'Reilly SUPR victory for the 1999 champion
since winning the SUPR Star 125 at Baton Rouge Raceway in 2000.
Ashley started 8th in the feature in his Thornhill
Wrecker/Benny’s Car Wash/Ace Pailets and Storage/J&J Motorsports
Keith Craft powered Chevy Monte Carlo Larry Shaw and quickly worked his
way into the top 5 by the second lap and he stayed near the front all
night long. He caught early
race leader, Rodney Wing and battled with him before grabbing second on
lap 35 but as he watched Merchant, he knew he was going to be hard to
catch. “I watched Merchant
and he was so good…my car wasn’t perfect and I really expected the
track to do different than it did.”
With Merchant easing away and his racing grove going away Ashley
could only focus on his driving. “I
really just tried to concentrate on what I was doing, how I was getting
in, how the car was doing, watching Merchant and doing the best we could
and we were in the right place at the right time.” As the feature began it appeared to be Rodney Wing's night as
he grabbed the lead from the start and he led the first 32 laps of the
feature until Kenny Merchant mounted a charge that saw him take it
three-wide exiting turn 2 to grab the lead, securing it with a low side
moving coming off turn 4. Wing
and Merchant have staged some epic battles this year on the 3/8th mile
speedplant but this time Wing had nothing left for Merchant and faded back
to 5th at the flag. Merchant meanwhile appeared to be on his way to his 5th
O'Reilly SUPR event in the last 6 tries at Pike County and just when it
appeared the race was his, Merchant's rear end broke. Merchant coasted to
a stop in turn 4 of the final lap, never reaching the finish line. Ashley only had to hold off B&K Underground Top Qualifier
Curt Lipsey for half a lap to take the win. Lipsey elected to run a harder tire on his Louisiana Stucco
& Masonry/Xtreme Graphics Wall 2 Wall powered Chevy Monte Carlo GRT
than some of the front-runners and felt that the cautions kept his right
rear tire from ever warming up to optimal temperature.
“Every time it got pretty decent, we had a caution.
But we’re happy; it’s like a win to us.” Rob Litton started 9th in his LMS Truck
Center/Litton Motorsports/Graphic Imaging Wall 2 Wall powered Chevy Monte
Carlo GRT and he settled in running in 6th through the first
half of the race, moving to 5th at the halfway mark. Litton battled Lipsey for 4th from this point
forward before both cars moved by Wing in the last 10 laps before moving
up on the final lap to 3rd. Litton
felt his car was good but the wrong tire selection kept from battling for
the lead. James Ward started on the rear in 22nd position and picked
his way through the field to record a fourth place finish and to secure
the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.
Ward struggled in the prelims with carburetor problems but the car
responded in the feature. Ward
may have had a shot at the win had he not made contact with a ute tire on
lap 42. Ward, who had worked
his way to third at that point, slipped back 6 positions but made up all
but one of them in the final 8 laps. 35 O'Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Rodney Wing, Kenny
Merchant, Chris Wall, Kevin Watts and Eric Courville claimed the heat race
victories with Donald Watson and Tony Lawson staking claim to the last
chance victories. Official Results: 1.
David Ashley 2.
Curt Lipsey 3.
Rob Litton 4.
James Ward 5.
Rodney Wing 6.
Marlon Wild 7.
Donald Watson 8.
Chris Wall 9.
Kevin Watts 10.
Ryan Plaisance 11.
Eric Courville 12.
Kenny Merchant 13.
Randy Cook 14.
Jon Mitchell 15.
Butch Jenkins 16.
Odie Green 17.
Rodney Sheridan 18.
Davin Bates 19.
Seavy Clemmons 20.
Michael Coleman 21.
Steve Russell 22. Tony Lawson
© Baton Rouge Raceway, 1998-2002. All rights reserved. Designed and Developed by Internet Advantage Maintained by Weakside Productions |
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