Tommy Surrett remains hot with Thunder Valley victory

Glenmora, Louisiana (June 22, 2002) – Tommy Surrett staked further claim to the title of “the hottest driver in O’Reilly SUPR Late Model competition”.  Surrett made all the passes he needed to accomplish in his heat race and he earned the B&K Underground Top Qualifier money and the pole for the feature.  Surrett won the drag race into turn 1 and went on to lead every lap of the feature to claim his second O’Reilly SUPR victory of the season in his Lando Patton/Daniels Family/Ronald Surrett Contracting Keith Craft-powered Ford Mustang Rocket.

Tommy credits his recent surge to a car that is just working flawlessly.  “We haven’t touched a thing on this car in a month and its been going go everywhere we’ve been.”  And of course his success is a reflection of the hard work that has been put in behind the scenes by his crew and the faith his family has placed in him as a racer.  “I’ve got to thank my crew Buddy West and John Henry and my mom and dad.  If it wasn’t for them we’d be out of business.”

And yet, the victory was not as easy as it sounds as David Ashley hounding Surrett for much of the middle of the race, battling long and hard on the restarts but never able to make the pass.  Ashley went on a softer tire than most of his competitors and he was able to challenge Surrett on the restarts but faded back on longer runs. 

Kennith Crowe made a late charge and with three laps to go he drew even with Surrett in the battle for the lead.  Lapped traffic would be the deciding factor as the pair raced into turns one and two only to encounter the car of 15^th running Kevin Sitton.  Surrett went to the high side while Crowe elected to run the bottom.  Surrett found clear sailing while Crowe found his exit path blocked just long enough to give Surrett a clear run to the checkers. 

Kennith Crowe said it was a matter of inches that kept him from being able to challenge for the win in his Wescorp backed Wall2Wall Performance Engines powered Chevrolet Monte Carlo Rocket.  “About two more inches.  Surrett went up high on the outside of (Sitton) and my only chance to get around (Surrett) was that lap that turn.”  But unfortunately for Crowe, Sitton went down and bumped tires with Crowe.  Crowe recovered to finish second ahead of Kenny Merchant who made a late topside charge to grab third from David Ashley.  Merchant was at the wheel of a new J.D.Caver/J&J Motorsports/Goddard Performance Keith Craft powered Ford Taurus Warrior.

Surrett’s path to victory lane would be hindered one last time as his car came to a halt in turn one just after the checkers waved, the culprit a broken torque arm.  “I could tell there was something that was wrong a little bit toward the end.  I was just trying to stay out of trouble.  I seen Crowe beside me and I got on the outside of the other 77 car.  I got lucky again I guess.  It’s the same kind of deal that worked out at Murfreesboro (site of Surrett’s first O’Reilly SUPR victory) lapped cars worked to my advantage.”

Ryan Plaisance had the misfortune of being involved in a tangle with Kennith Crowe as a restart was waved off just as the field was entering turn one.  Plaisance made contact with Crowe and punctured his radiator ending a solid top 3 run and costing his valuable points in the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model point standings.  Rodney Wing’s 7^th place finish helped him maintain the top spot in the championship point chase but Kenny Merchant’s 3^rd place finish helped him cut the lead down to 86 points with 17 of 35 races complete.

33 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models competed for a spot in the field.  David Ashley, Ryan Plaisance, Jay Blair, Kenny Merchant and Tommy Surrett topped the heat race action with Phil Cooper and Bill Gordon winning the last chance races.  Marlon Wild started 22^nd and passed 12 cars to earn the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.

Official Results:

1.                  Tommy Surrett

2.                  Kennith Crowe

3.                  Kenny Merchant

4.                  David Ashley

5.                  Jon Mitchell

6.                  Jay Blair

7.                  Rodney Wing

8.                  Phil Cooper

9.                  Jeff Chanler

10.              Marlon Wild

11.              Rob Litton

12.              Keith Craft

13.              Sam Patrick

14.              Bill Gordon

15.              Kevin Sitton

16.              David Lafleur

17.              Keith Mancil

18.              Donald Watson

19.              Odie Green

20.              Ryan Plaisance

21.              James Ward

22.              Gene Coumes

23.              Curt Lipsey

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