Merchant wins one for Hope!

Merchant wins one for Hope!

Glenmora, Louisiana (July 30, 2005) - Kenny Merchant’s daughter Hope just celebrated her birthday on Wednesday and one of her wishes was for her father to win a trophy for her this weekend. Kenny obliged by taking the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model feature at Thunder Valley Speedway, his fourth O’Reilly SUPR victory of the season and the 35^th of his career. Merchant steered his J.D. Caver/J&J Motorsports Keith Craft powered Ford Taurus MasterSbilt to the front at the midpoint of the race and held off Bubba Mullins to take the win.

Defending O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Champion Rob Litton earned the B&K Underground Top Qualifier award after winning his heat from the fifth starting spot. Litton used the starting position to grab the lead from the start in his new Litton Motorsports/Brown’s Truck Service Wall 2 Wall powered Rocket Chassis and led the first 24 laps with second row starter Bubba Mullins running second most of the way and Merchant lurking in third.

As the field neared the halfway mark lapped traffic packed the top three runners together and Merchant made the decisive move from third to the lead on the outside of turns three and four on lap 25. Merchant survived a late race challenge that saw Mullins place the Southwest Express/Wye Electric Keith Craft powered Warrior get a nose under Merchant for several laps but Merchant was able to ease away as the checkers waved.

Ronny Adams jumped to third on a late restart with Litton slipping to fourth. Ryan Plaisance in his first start of the season rallied from 12th to finish fifth and earned the Creel Brothers Hard Charger award in the process. Plaisance battled with Darin Patrick during the late stages of the race and Plaisance was able to slip past Patrick on the last lap to grab fifth.

The O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Series has truly become a melting pot of race cars as the top five tonight feature five different chassis’ with Merchant in a MasterSbilt, Mullins in a Warrior, Adams in a Larry Shaw, Litton in a Rocket and Plaisance in a Bloomquist.

35 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Kenny Merchant, Bubba Mullins, Ronny Adams, Michael Sibley and Rob Litton claimed the heat race wins with David Lafleur and Donald Watson topping the last chance races.

Official Results:

1. Kenny Merchant

2. Bubba Mullins

3. Ronny Adams

4. Rob Litton

5. Ryan Plaisance

6. Darin Patrick

7. Brock Williams

8. Doug Ingalls

9. Ray Moore

10. Jason Ingalls

11. Allen Tippen

12. Donald Watson

13. Mark Andrews

14. Patrik Daniel

15. David Lafleur

16. Robbie Stuart

17. Butch Patton

18. Justin Ingalls

19. Scott Taylor

20. Adam Willis

21. David Ashley

22. Jody Prince

23. Michael Sibley

24. Phillip Cooper

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