Tommy Surrett claims 5th O'Reilly SUPR victory of the season

Tommy Surrett claims 5th O'Reilly SUPR Late Model victory of the season while rain claims Jackson Sprint show

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (August 17, 2002) – The night didn’t start off well for Tommy Surrett but the end results proved to be just what the doctor ordered as Surrett became the first driver to claim 5 O’Reilly SUPR Late Model victories this season. Surrett, his crew and several of his fellow competitors hustled to help him work out his motor woes and their efforts paid off.

“The car was flawless. We got here and hot lapped and the car was pushing, the motor wouldn’t run. Curt Lipsey and Chris Wall helped me some. We went out there for the heat race and 98 (Phil Cooper) pushed me up in to the cushion a little bit on the start and I drove it in pretty hard and when I knew the car would stick like that I told somebody that every time we’ve won a feature the car has been this good in the heat race.”

Tommy Surrett started on the outside front row in his JS Construction/Lando Patton/Daniels Family Keith Craft-powered Ford Mustang Rocket and powered past pole sitter Rodney Wing at the start and eased away early from the hotly contested battle for second between Wing and Ryan Plaisance. As the race wore on, Surrett was able to make quick work of the lapped traffic and pulled away to a big lead and the eventual win. Surrett summed up his night by giving high praise to his car builder. “Rocket Chassis is the best race car ever built, by far.” And then he stated his intention on taking a few more victories this year before he’s done.

For Rodney Wing, the event marked his second runner-up finish in as many events and it helped him extend his point lead to 49 points over David Ashley in the battle for the 2002 O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship. Wing held second for every lap except lap 32, when Plaisance snuck under him in turn 3. Wing worked his way back past Plaisance in turn one and held off Plaisance for the remainder of the race. After the race, Wing admitted that it would have been tough for him to get by Surrett but he was frustrated by lapped traffic that would never allow him that opportunity. “That was a little problem, that held me up there and let Ryan almost get by me one time, well actually he did, but I kept plugging away there and was trying to work them lapped cars but we just stayed at it and was able to come out ahead of Ryan but Surrett had got by them a little easier.”

Ryan Plaisance I was racing him hard but I was not going to take a chance and take us both out for position but I definitely got him clean one time and I raced him clean the whole race and I really should have had him but that lapped car just – it was in my advantage when I needed it and it was in Rodney’s in the end. The car was good, everything worked out fine everything was just as good as I could ask for.”

Ashley started 4th put spun in turn two on the original start to bring out the first caution. Ashley restarted at the rear and stormed back through the field in the early stages, reaching 15th by lap 8, and 10th by lap 20, but Ashley's charge would begin to fade as he slipped from a high of 9th to an 11th place finish. “I run into the first corner and got on the brakes to keep from getting in the back of whoever was in front of me and I killed the motor and just got in that dust and it just didn’t re-fire. There wasn’t anything I could do but hold on at that point.” Ashley’s early charge faded as the outside cushion went away on the track. “Too many people running the cushion killed it, tore it up and rolled a big mound up and you can’t run it when it’s like that, it’s hard and I think the bottom got faster too. It’s give and take. We’ll regroup and get ready for the next one.”

28 O'Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Tommy Surrett, Rodney Wing, Ryan Plaisance and David Ashley won the heat races with Jay Blair and Dennis Duncan claiming the Last Chance races. Rodney Wing earned his season-leading 5^th B&K Underground Top Qualifier award to start on the pole and James Ward worked past 9 cars to earn the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.

Official Results:

1. Tommy Surrett

2. Rodney Wing

3. Ryan Plaisance

4. Rob Litton

5. Kevin Watts

6. Chris Wall

7. Curt Lipsey

8. Jon Mitchell

9. Keith Craft

10. James Ward

11. David Ashley

12. Dennis Duncan

13. Phil Cooper

14. Robbie Starnes

15. Jay Blair

16. Bill Gordon

17. Odie Green

18. Randy Blanchard

19. Davin Bates

20. Keith Mancil

21. Randy Cook

22. Jerry Bevis

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