David Ashley proves that pigs (feet) can fly as he repeats as Mardi Gras Nationals champ!

Magnolia, Mississippi ( February 28, 2004 ) – Racers and their pit crews often try different good luck charms with hopes of turning their luck around. Doug Barton, crew member on the David Ashley team may well have set a new standard as he strapped on a pig’s foot to the rear of the Thornhill Wrecker/Ace Storage/Larry Shaw race car prior to tonight’s race and watched as David Ashley repeated as the 5^th Annual Mardi Gras Nationals Champion. David Ashley used a late race charge to race by Rob Litton to take the win in a sweep of the top two positions by Wall 2 Wall Racing Engines.

Ashley started 6^th in the feature and ran 5^th for most of the race before mounting a charge over the last 18 laps. Ashley moved by 4^th running Kenny Merchant on lap 32 and then moved by B&K Underground Top Qualifier Ken Schrader on lap 36 and the Intimagator Chris Wall on lap 39 before chasing down Rob Litton with three laps to go to take the lead and the win. Rob Litton held off Chris Wall to finish 2^nd. Chris Wall, thinking he had finished 4^th headed for the pits and was disqualified for failing to cross the scales placing Kenny Merchant 3^rd, Schrader 4^th and Ryan Plaisance rounded out the top 5.

David recovered from a rough opening night with assistance from his crew as they hustled to make repairs in preparation for Saturday night’s racing. “We were due. We brought this brand new car out last night and it was fast then. We had a minor problem that set us back but I said the car was ungodly good then so when we had a motor problem I said let’s fix this car, I want to be in this car. So Ronnie ( Rogers ) came here from Wall 2 Wall we had to pull the intake and put a push rod in it and it has been unreal all night and in the feature it was just a patience game, my crew made the right call on tires. I just kind of rode and rode and it started getting better and better and then it was just like someone flipped a switch and it took off and was gone from that point on.”

Rob Litton felt his night was undone by lapped traffic as he lost a portion of his rear spoiler as he raced through the field and in the end, “lapped traffic kind of got us messed up. I don’t remember who it was but I kind of got bottled up against the back stretch wall and kind of drug the spoiler off and then we didn’t have but half a spoiler after that and I was getting real loose in the corners and that was it.” Despite the bad luck late in the race Litton was satisfied with his efforts this weekend. “We were really lucky to finish second, not a bad weekend. It’s a new car and we’re still working some of the bugs out.”

Chris Wall realizes that he made a mistake at the end of the race but he left Pike County optimistic for the 2004 season. “I just had a brain failure there. I thought I was 4^th”. For Wall, a Creel Brothers Hard Charger award last night and a solid run tonight has him ready for the 2004 racing season. “I really feel like we’ve stepped our program up another notch. I feel like this is going to be a break out year for us, I really do. We matured a lot last year as a team and have kind of learned how to tune the car the way that suits us and we’ve got so good people supporting us, GVS Racing and good technical support from some other folks and that has really helped us a lot.”

36 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Rob Litton, Chris Wall, Davin Bates, David Ashley and Ryan Plaisance took the heat race victories with Rodney Wing and Raymond Merrill taking the last chance wins.

Official Results:

1. David Ashley

2. Rob Litton

3. Kenny Merchant

4. Ken Schrader

5. Ryan Plaisance

6. Mike Boland

7. Jay Blair

8. Rodney Wing

9. Jody Prince

10. James Ward

11. Doug Ingalls

12. Raymond Merrill

13. Dennis Duncan

14. Chris Wall

15. Phillip Cooper

16. Donald Watson

17. Tony Lawson

18. Mike Ladner

19. Marlon Wild

20. Tommy Surrett

21. Jimmy Noland

22. Davin Bates

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