That's Italian - Wild wins Boothill

That's Italian! - Wild wins Boothill

Shreveport, Louisiana (May 25, 2002) - Marlon Wild credits a good Italian meal and late caution for propelling him to the 7^th O’Reilly SUPR Late Model victory of his career and his first at Boothill Speedway. Marlon, from Springfield, Louisiana missed the races the night before at Sabine Speedway to attend his daughter’s graduation and hence the reference to the Italian cooking, but he quickly got up to pace at Boothill, winning his heat race and earning Wild the outside front row starting position. Wild assumed the lead when B&K Underground Top Qualifier, Curt Lipsey slid to a halt with a broken oil line on lap 19. Wild would lead the remaining laps in his Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging-backed Keith Craft powered Ford Mustang Warrior but he would do so under pressure from Rob Litton and then David Ashley.

Wild knows he had a strong challenger behind him in the form of Rob Litton. “I could hear somebody back there. I was trying to fend David (Ashley) off too, trying to keep the bottom and top covered.” But as he tried to fend off the challenge he faced another problem, fading brakes. “The brakes faded out and the long caution saved them.” The long caution came in the form of a fuel stop with just three laps remaining in the feature. A fuel stop necessitated by a high number of cautions. The decision made as per O’Reilly SUPR policy, when Rob Litton ran out of fuel in turn one and several drivers reporting a similar problem with their racecars. Litton retained his spot and the final three laps where run with just one position change in the final run down.

David Ashley suffered with a miss in his engine the night before at Many so he and his crew got to work replacing the motor and making a slew of changes to the car and the effort paid off as Ashley was able to hustle his way from the 12^th starting spot up to the top 3 by lap 37. Ashley first had to contend with local track favorite Ronny Adams. Ashley and Adams battled for several laps before Ashley was able to make the outside pass exiting turn 4. Ashley then set his sights on the lead duo but with less than ten laps to go, he realized fuel was going to be an issue. “With about 10 laps to go, we started losing fuel pressure and I seen Rob doing the same thing so I backed off and started saving fuel and I knew when his shut down and I passed him then mine shut down I knew I was going to have to settle for second. When he pulled down there I said well he’s not the only one, let me confirm this (with the race officials) because mine was doing the same things his was.”

Ashley gained ground on current O’Reilly SUPR Late Model point leader Rodney Wing but he did so in a way he was proud of. Ashley was pursuing Wing in a battle for fourth when the two cars got together, Ashley wheel hopping Wing, cutting down Wing’s left rear. This is the guy you’re racing for the points deal and I don’t want to outrun him like that. I feel like it was a racing incident nothing more, I’d never do that to anybody but I guess if I had a downfall on the night, that was it.” Wing recovered to finish 11^th but his streak of top 10 finishes ended at 10 races. Still, on the weekend, Wing maintained his lead over Ashley with a solid finish the night before at Many.

For Litton, the late caution saved the race for him but it couldn’t keep him in second place as Ashley was able to make the pass on Litton before the car came up completely empty. But the lack of fuel did play a role in the position swap. Litton felt that the fuel situation might have kept him from making a late challenge for the win. “We were pretty good because we got up beside Marlon a few times and I know we had plenty of laps left. He may have been holding back a little but if he was running as hard as he could we were good enough to try to get by. We were better in one corner and he was better in the other.”

Ryan Plaisance ran a steady race to finish 4^th in his new Chief Edison Chouest-backed Wall 2 Wall powered Chevrolet Monte Carlo Warrior. “The car was real good, I just started too far in the back and didn’t want to take too many chances.”

40 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand with Curt Lipsey securing the B&K Top Qualifier award as he started 8^th in his heat race and stormed to a second place finish, earning enough passing points to claim the top qualifier honors. Rob Litton, Marlon Wild, Allen Tippen, Rodney Wing and Kennith Crowe topped the heats with Scott Slay and Bert Chanler copping the Last Chance races.

Jeff Chanler started 20^th and passed 12 cars to finish 8^th and in doing so he earned the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.

Official Results:

1. Marlon Wild

2. David Ashley

3. Rob Litton

4. Ryan Plaisance

5. Michael Coleman

6. Scott Slay

7. Kenny Merchant

8. Jeff Chanler

9. Kennith Crowe

10. Jon Mitchell

11. Rodney Wing

12. Allen Tippen

13. James Ward

14. Chris Wall

15. Ronny Adams

16. Odie Green

17. Clint Baker

18. Jay Blair

19. Lee Davis

20. Curt Lipsey

21. Bert Chanler

22. Rusty Cummings

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