Cummings returns Home for Second O'Reilly SUPR Win!
Minden, Louisiana--May 27th. It was just a week ago that Kyle Cummings of Minden , Louisiana scored his first O'Reilly Auto Parts SUPR Late Model feature win in Vivian but his fellow SUPR competitors knew it was coming. The second generation Late Model racer -- Kyle's father is the 1998 SUPR Champion Rusty Cummings -- finished second to 3-time SUPR Late Model champion David Ashley back in March at Cummings's home track, Champion Park Speedway in Minden . After a strong run by Kyle the night before in Chatham that didn't produce a good finish thanks to a last lap flat, the Childress Fishing & Rental/Trucker’s Paradise PTS-powered Pontiac GTO GRT Racing Team was ready when the SUPR troops arrived back in Minden for their second appearance of the year at Champion Park Speedway.
Track owner Roger Walker had the quarter-mile clay oval in great shape for Late Model racing too and the fans were treated to a highly competitive 50-lap event on a two-groove race track with only two cautions and one of those involved a little contraversy. The night's top qualifier was Ronny Adams who won here in June 2005 but it was outside pole sitter, 2004 SUPR Champion Rob Litton who took the early lead running the top side of the race track. Point leader Ray Moore of Haughton , LA also considers Champion Park his home track and used to win there regularly in Dwarf Car competition. Moore started sixth and was on the charge early as he moved into third behind Adams by the end of lap 2. By lap 4, Moore was second. Meanwhile, the eighth starting K. Cummings was already up to fourth. At the end of the first ten laps, Litton led Moore, Adams, Cummings and another former CPS SUPR winner, Lee Davis.
Litton's pace began to faulter a little as the second ten laps began. Moore took the lead on the inside on lap 14 and six laps later, Adams took second from Litton as he also ran the low line. Meanwhile another former SUPR Champion Kenny Merchant, was using the rim of the race track to advance from his 18th starting position to the top ten where he reached a raging battle for sixth that involved Saturday's Fast Trax winner Jody Prince, Ryan Plaisance and Waylon Morris. Merchant fought his way through those side-by-side battles and reached 6th by lap 16. As the field raced past lap 20, all they had seen was green lights. Adams began closing on Moore and caught him by lap 23. Unfortunately on what would have been the half-way lap, Adams caught him faster than he expected and he got into the back of Moore in turn one and the #93 spun to a stop for the first caution. Adams drew a disqualification and Moore was placed back in the lead for the lap 25 restart.
Moore led the field to the backstretch cone with Litton now second and Cummings, Davis and Merchant in the top five. As they went green, Cummings and Merchant went to work and got around Litton on lap 26. Cummings swapped the lead with Moore for a lap before taking the top spot for good on lap 28. Merchant stuck with his outside line though and took second on lap 29. As that was happening, Prince and Bubba Mullins were now in the middle of another battle for position with Howard Willis who emerged with the fifth spot on lap 29 and a lap later passed Litton for fourth. Not far behind them, Jason Ingalls was mounting another late race charge for the third SUPR race in a row and he was seventh by lap 30 after starting 17th.
Ingalls passed Litton and Mullins on lap 35 to reach the top five. Cummings had built a small lead by now but Merchant was close enough to keep him honest. Moore and Willis continued in third and fourth as the final caution waved for a spun Ricky Ingalls with just eight laps to go.
Cummings led those final eight laps to earn the victory with Merchant finishing second. Willis took advantage of the late caution to pass Moore on lap 45 to finish third and J. Ingalls went by Moore a lap later for fourth and posted his third straight top five finish. Moore continued to build his point lead with a fifth place finish. Litton, Prince, Mullins, Robbie Stuart and Patrick Daniel were sixth through tenth.
27 O'Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Adams, Moore, Davis and Rusty Cummings took the heat race wins with Ja. Ingalls winning the last chance race.
Official Results:
1. Kyle Cummings
2. Kenny Merchant
3. Howard Willis
4. Jason Ingalls
5. Ray Moore
6. Rob Litton
7. Jody Prince
8. Bubba Mullins
9. Robbie Stuart
10. Patrick Daniel
11. Lee Davis
12. Ryan Plaisance
13. Joseph Long
14. Waylon Morris
15. Allen Tippen
16. Ricky Ingalls
17. Terry Henson
18. Rusty Cummings
19. Darren Patrick
20. Eddie Taylor
21. Ronny Adams