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Glenmora,
Louisiana (September 14, 2002) - Rodney
Wing started on the pole and lead every lap to claim his 4th O'Reilly SUPR
victory of the year but it didn't come easy as he was hounded throughout
the race by 2-time O'Reilly SUPR Champion Jay Blair.
The win helped expand Rodney’s lead over David Ashley in the
battle for the 2002 O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship to 71 points
with just 4 races to go. Wing started on the pole as he earned his series leading 7th
B&K Underground Top Qualifier award. Rodney
drove the B&K Underground/Styling Sign & Decal/Boland Performance
Keith Craft-powered Chevrolet Monte Carlo Rocket to a clutch victory as
David Ashley had closed to within 20 points of Wing in the battle for the
2002 Championship. But while
Rodney’s season long battle may be with 1999 Champion David Ashley, it
was 2000-01 Champion Jay Blair that kept Wing under constant pressure
tonight. Blair moved up to
the third starting spot as James Ward broke prior to the start of the race
and he quickly grabbed second on the start.
Blair kept pace with Wing and was clearly looking for an
opportunity to pass as the race neared the checkers but Wing did a solid
job of holding his line to record the win. Wing
credits the victory to his racecar. “The
car was really really good with moisture on the track when it had moisture
I was really impressed with the car, really satisfied with it but once the
track started slicking up especially like them last ten laps it was hard
to hang on to. I knew Blair
was right there and the last 10 laps I just really tried to hold it to the
bottom.” Blair,
still looking for his first victory of 2002, after spending the first half
of the season running with the Hooter’s Pro Cup tour, looked to be close
to his championship form of the last two years but he was unable to get
under Rodney to garb the lead. “He
kept the door closed the whole race.
We kept getting better towards the end, the more we run.
We finally got the car working better; my cousin Matt Hillhouse has
been helping me with it and he gotten it a lot better.” As for the possibility of an outside move, Blair felt the
track was a little too slick for his car grab hold on the high side.
“If I moved up any it was just too slick, the car got too loose
and I couldn’t get up any higher. If
I was going to get him, I was going to have to do it on the bottom.” And
while the race up front was a two-car battle for much of the night, the
battle was wide open for third. Kevin
Watts held the spot early and stayed in that spot despite constant
pressure from a wide array of drivers with Ronny Adams taking over the
spot with just 7 laps to go. Unfortunately
for Watts, he would soon fall victim to the two and three wide battling
and he spun in turn two on lap 47 and resumed the race on the rear in 14th
place, the last car on the lead lap. Kennith
Crowe ran a solid steady race and earned the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard
Charger award as he moved up from 16th starting position to
record a 4th place finish.
Crowe was followed by Tommy Surrett who used the high side for much
of the race only to see it give way in the late stages of the race. Rob
Litton, Jon Mitchell, Curt Lipsey, Ryan Plaisance, running in Rodney
Wing’s backup car, and Keith Mancil rounded out the top 10. 26
O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand.
Kevin Watts, James Ward, Donald Watson and Rodney Wing earned heat
race victories with Curt Lipsey topping the Last Chance race. Official
Results: 1.
Rodney Wing 2.
Jay Blair 3.
Ronny Adams 4.
Kennith Crowe 5.
Tommy Surrett 6.
Rob Litton 7.
Jon Mitchell 8.
Curt Lipsey 9.
Ryan Plaisance 10.
Keith Mancil 11.
David Ashley 12.
Chris Wall 13.
Bill Gordon 14.
Kevin Watts 15.
Sam Patrick 16.
Robbie Stuart 17.
Donald Watson 18.
Odie Green 19.
Kenny Merchant 20.
Keith Craft 21.
Ryan Fontenot 22.
James Ward
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