Boland sweeps through Southern Mississippi

Mike Boland sweeps through Southern Mississippi, taking the final leg of the 2002 Magnolia State Championship Series

Magnolia, Mississippi (August 10, 2002) – Mike Boland capped a successful weekend by winning the 3^rd and final leg of the Magnolia State Championship Series at Pike County Speedway. Boland, who won a Mississippi State Championship Series event just up the road at Simpson County Speedway on Friday night, claimed the 4^th O’Reilly SUPR victory of his career with the Pike County win.

Mike Boland started 6^th and made an early move to reach the top 3 and then waited for his tires to heat up before making his assault on the lead. Boland moved past Rodney Wing on a lap13, following the first caution of the night. The caution waved when James Ward lost a driveline in turn 1. The restart gave Boland the opportunity to grab second place as he shot under Wing. Overall I guess the night was fine the race was good. At the beginning of the race Rodney and Chris took off but I knew what kind of tires they was on. We choose a little harder tire, we choose 55’s and I knew that on a long green I could catch them but I didn’t know if we would be good enough to pass them. I caught Chris and was just racing with him and I knew I was good the tires were coming in but I didn’t know who was coming up from behind.”

Boland didn’t have to worry, as he was able to keep the field at bay in his Ware Construction/Boland Performance Keith Craft powered Ford Mustang Warrior, particularly after Rodney suffered minor spoiler damage on an early restart. Rodney slipped high on the restart and made contact with the outside wall just hard enough to damage his rear spoiler. The damage upset the handle on the B&K Underground car and Wing was unable to close in on the lead duo. “The car felt really good at the start of the race then got a little lose at the end. They say my spoiler got knocked back a bit. I got in the wall when Boland passed me, really just my fault, I jumped the cushion there and got a little squirrelly and scrapped the wall. It was still fairly good but just a little lose but that’s okay we’ll take second to ‘old six time’ any day.”

As the race continued, Boland began to reel in Wall and he grabbed the lead just before the halfway mark. Just two laps later, Wall’s night came to a grinding halt in turn 4 as his car suffered a right front control arm failure. Boland was able to pull away from Wing on the restart as Wing had to hold off a challenge from defending O’Reilly SUPR Later Model Champion Jay Blair. Ryan Plaisance, all the way from 12^th was running fourth ahead of 4^th starting Marlon Wild.

Jay Blair recorded a top 5 finish for the second week in a row after taking a few weeks of from the tour. “The car was real good. We were a little off but it’s a lot better than were we’ve been being. We’re finally starting to get it to come around. We were having problems with it all year just being real inconsistent.”

Boland’s ability to ease away from the field left the attention focus further back in the pack as Keith Craft and Tommy Surrett were trying to work their way up through the field. Craft started 20^th and he was up to 9^th when the caution waved again on lap 26 for debris on the track. Surrett, who started 22^nd, was one spot behind Craft at this point.

The caution would on the restart as Marlon Wild’s top 5 run would end when he dropped a valve heading down the front stretch with 13 to go. One last pass of consequence would occur and that was the battle for 6^th as Keith Craft passed David Ashley with two laps to go, handing the point lead back to Rodney Wing in the process. Still David Ashley did not leave empty handed as he claimed the 2002 Magnolia State Championship for the best average finish in the three race series at Pike County Speedway, earning a guaranteed starting spot in the season ending Jambalaya 100. Rodney Wing also earned a starting spot in the Jambalaya 100 as he finished second in the final rundown.

Boland faced one last challenge, as he was required to pull the head on his engine and just like the race, Boland and his Keith Craft Ford power plant were up to the task as the motor passed the post race inspection.

35 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Chris Wall, Kenny Merchant, Rodney Wing, Mike Boland and Marlon Wild won the 5 heat races with David Ashley and Donald Watson taking the last chance races.

Official Results:

1. Mike Boland

2. Rodney Wing

3. Jay Blair

4. Ryan Plaisance

5. Davin Bates

6. Keith Craft

7. David Ashley

8. Tommy Surrett

9. Kenny Merchant

10. Odie Green

11. Jon Mitchell

12. Kennith Crowe

13. Phil Cooper

14. Keith Mancil

15. David Knight

16. Lester Bernadas

17. Marlon Wild

18. Rodney Sheridan

19. Chris Wall

20. Donald Watson

21. Rob Litton

22. James Ward

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