Lee Davis conquers Boothill

Lee Davis conquers Boothill

Shreveport, Louisiana (April 27, 2002) - Lee Davis battled his way back to victory lane at Boothill Speedway as he chased down early race leader, David Ashley and passed him just past the halfway mark in the event before easing away to the victory. This was Davis’ first O’Reilly SUPR victory since September 2, 2000 and the third of his career. Davis, a former Late Model track champion at Boothill, has claimed each of his O’Reilly SUPR victories at Boothill Speedway. David Ashley, Jon Mitchell, Ronny Adams and Jeff Chanler rounded out the top 5.

Davis started 8^th in the feature but quickly joined the battle for second with Jeff Chanler and Jon Mitchell. Davis, Mitchell and Chanler battled for over a dozen laps with each driver trying different grooves in search of the perfect line around the 3/8^th mile speedway. Davis eventually grabbed second, free and clear of Mitchell and Chanler and began to reel in the B&K Underground Top Qualifier David Ashley. Davis stated that his car took some time to come around. “The car was loose at the beginning…but I just kind of settled down, starting rolling through the corners and the car just kind of took off there that one time and just started working its own self.”

Davis had given thoughts to just settling for second as Ashley was hocked up and rolling on the bottom of the track but as the race went on Davis could see that the bottom was going away on Ashley. “The bottom started getting slower and (Ashley) started not getting in the corner as fast is what it was, and I started rolling in with him. My tires finally started to come around.”

As Ashley worked lapped traffic Davis closed in running through the middle of the corners. On lap 27, Ashley closed in on the rear of Ryan Plaisance and the two made contact sending Plaisance into a slow spin in turn 2. Davis seized the opportunity and blasted into the lead on to see the caution fly for Plaisance sitting in turn 2. Ashley returned to the front but his run at the head of the pack ended just two laps later as Davis was able to complete the pass coming off of turn 4.

Ashley managed to hold on to second place and in the process, cut in to Rodney Wing’s still sizable lead in the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship standings. Ashley has reeled off 4 top 3 finishes in a row and now trails Wing by 85 points. And while he was disappointed with not winning Ashley was glad to record another solid finish. “We got another top 5. I think we’ve got a good game plan as far as what is going on right now; we’ve just got to keep pecking on it, working toward the front.”

Jon Mitchell started alongside of David Ashley on the front row and ran near the front of the pack all night but Mitchell felt he was just a notch below where he’d like to be. “We’re still trying to learn this new car and we still don’t quite have it figured out. Third is better than what we have been doing but I still would have liked to won it down here. I think I could have been a little bit better on tire selection.” Still Mitchell’s solid finish has propelled back to 4^th place in the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship standings, just 15 point in arrears of leading rookie of the year contender James Ward.

Ronny Adams made a late charge through the field to grab 4^th place but he felt the late cautions kept him from mounting a stronger challenge for the lead. Meanwhile Jeff Chanler, another competitor at or near the front for much of the night before slipping out of the top 5 in the latter stages of the race, overtook Kenny Merchant on the final lap to secure a top 5 finish.

38 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Marlon Wild, Lee Davis, Jon Mitchell, Jeff Chanler and James Ward claimed the 5 heat race victories while Curt Lipsey and Rob Litton secured the last chance victories.

Rodney Wing claimed the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award as he started 21^st and moved all the way to 7^th place in a race that saw 18 cars still running as the checkers waved and in doing so, he kept his streak of 8 straight top 10 finishes alive. Wing has finished no worse than 9^th place in the 8 O’Reilly SUPR Late Model events this season.

The O’Reilly SUPR Late Models will take a rare two-week hiatus before resuming on May 18^th at Lone Star Speedway.

Official Results:

1. Lee Davis

2. David Ashley

3. Jon Mitchell

4. Ronny Adams

5. Jeff Chanler

6. Kenny Merchant

7. Rodney Wing

8. Jason Ingalls

9. James Ward

10. Donald Watson

11. Ricky Ingalls

12. Kennith Crowe

13. Bert Chanler

14. Rob Litton

15. Ryan Plaisance

16. Chris Wall

17. Curt Lipsey

18. Kevin Sitton

19. Odie Green

20. Randy Paine

21. Mike Boland

22. Marlon Wild

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