Ashley completes SUPR sweep at Little Rock

By Bryan Wimberley
DirtOnDirt.com correspondent

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (June 19) Polesitter David Ashley of Zachary, La., completed a series sweep at I-30 Speedway on Saturday, driving away from Kevin Sitton in the final laps for a $2,500 victory on the O'Reilly Southern United Professional Pacing tour.

Ashley, who led every lap of the Friday and Saturday features, negotiated lapped traffic better than the sixth-starting Sitton late in Saturday's 50-lapper, helping him to the checkers four seconds ahead of the runner-up from Baytown, Texas.

Current SUPR points leader Rob Litton of Alexandria, La. took third, followed by Jeff Chanler of Minden, La., and Kyle Cummings of Sibley.

Ashley's first career SUPR victories at I-30 increased his overall career victory total to 39 on the Louisiana-based series.

"I would have never dreamed it," Ashley said of his weekend sweep. "We have come here for years and years and never won a race here, we have ran second a bunch, but to come back after a three-year absence and win two nights in a row -right now it is hard to put into words."

"It is an awesome feeling. We never gave up. (Crew member) Jimmy Nolan has been helping me and then to have nothing more than kids for a crew and then come here to redeem ourselves for what we have been doing lately is a miracle it seems. It's pretty cool right now."

In a near carbon-copy of the opening night feature, everybody was chasing Ashley's No. 14 from the green flag on. He led Litton, Chanler, Jon Mitchell and Cummings on the first lap, while Sitton raced around Cummings and into the top five early in the race.

After the race's only two cautions - for the lost wheel of Lee Davis (lap seven) and for a slowing Clay Fisher on the frontstretch (lap 14) - Sitton continued his march to the front, taking third from Chanler on lap 17 and started a duel with Litton for second. The pair made the duel three-wide with a lapped car on lap 24. After contact that pushed sheetmetal onto Litton's right-rear tire, Sitton took over the spot and tried to chase down Ashley. Catching Ashley proved to be difficult, as two lapped cars laid between him and Sitton on lap 33.

"It was a racing deal, he was floating out and I had a run coming off of the corner and we just got together. Hey it is late model racing, that is what it needs to be, instead of nose-to-bumper, it needs to be side-by-side racing and I am glad that this track can actually provide that where we can move up a little bit and race. Once you have contact like that it takes momentum away and you have to build it up again," Sitton talked of his clash with Litton.

The frontrunners negotiated heavy traffic for several laps with Sitton pulling within a car length of Ashley on lap 41, but that was as close as the Texan could get to grabbing the lead. Ashley took the checkers unchallenged in the late stages of the race, as Sitton faded to take second at the quarter-mile oval located in central
Arkansas.

With Sitton's solid second place finish, it is his eighth straight top 10 finish at I-30 Speedway. Although he is winless during that stretch, it is better than any other driver in the series.
"I definitely like I-30, it is a good, fun track to drive and my style. If it had a little bit more water on the top, it would give it two grooves, instead of sometimes being stuck around the tires -it would be great then. If we could just draw a little better, I thing we would be a lot better, but all year we draw 1 thru 50 and we have never been below 26 -horrible luck at drawing, so I think if that gets better then we can start winning races. Racing with these types of guys, starting position means pretty much everything," Sitton said.
"I knew from last night that there was going to be a tacky strip around the bottom and it is hard to pass whenever it is like that. We set the car up to run one groove up tonight so we wouldn't have to be down there in that tacky stuff -it worked! The track was a little bit drier than Friday night, but it had the same groove and tacky strip where you had to keep your left side tires in it," Sitton added.

An elated David Ashley of capturing the SUPR weekend doubleheader, talked about the track differences of both nights and lap traffic playing a role in Saturday's feature.
"One thing you saw last night that you didn't see last night, was the bottom going away. The bottom slowed down so much to where the top didn't necessarily get faster, but pretty much started catching up to where it was the same speed (as the bottom). It is really hard to make yourself get off of the bottom when you are out there, of course you are in lap traffic and you don't know where they are going. I don't want to push anybody out of the way, move anybody. You know, I got to my son (Alex) and I was sitting there watching him and saying to myself -C'mon, c'mon, get out of the way, get out of the way! The guys did a great job of doing what they needed to do in lap traffic, nobody wants to give up racing out there and I do not blame them. That is hard for me to do too, some of the guys elected to move out of the way and my hat is off to them and I will always return the same favor. Lap traffic always plays a key and tonight the heat race was a huge factor. We started 6th, a wreck on the first lap moved us to the outside front row and that was a determining factor of the night also. I am not going to say we had the car to go win the heat race, but we definitely had the luck to put us in position to win the feature. I will take luck over skill any day," Ashley said.

Now that Ashley has chalked up victories for the first time in his racing career at I-30, those notes and the adapted driving style he has developed will take place for future events there, as he explains "I am going to have to get use to this driving style, I still actually felt like I drove a terrible race to tell you the truth. I told Jimmy when I got out of the car, I feel like a fish out of water, because everything didn't fall the way it should have, I thought the car should have felt better so I have got a lot to learn. It proves that I am not too old to learn something new. I thank God first of all for giving me the family, the support and the friends that I have. Also to Darrell Posey (Chris Wall's crew chief) to come on board with his shocks & suspension package and working with it. This is the first weekend that we had a car that was good enough to tell how our shocks were doing, I'd like to thank him a ton. Also all the ones who pitch in, they know who they are, because this could not be accomplished without them all. Also Billy McDonald, my sponsor (B&K Underground), for all his help and support the last five years."We will definitely be back here in July. We are going to run this (SUPR) deal all the way to the end, because I still have things to learn. I haven't perfected, by any means, but I feel like now we have enough money now that we can go back and get us a track to do testing. We felt like we was so under-the-gun here, because making a mistake is huge. When you are up there with Rob (Litton), who has been winning and there every week, then you can't afford to make a mistake. There are guys like that, Kevin Sitton is another that is going to be there, just a lot of these top guys. Any one of those could win at any given racetrack, at any given time, God just blessed us tonight and here we are in victory lane."

Notes: Ashley's GRT Race Car is powered by Wall 2 Wall Performance Engines and sponsored by B&K Underground Directional Boring, J&J Motorsports, X-Treme Graphics, Ohlins Shocks, Hawk Performance and Serco.

Ashley's back-to-back victories were his first on the SUPR tour since taking wins July 1 (Champion Park Speedway in Minden, LA) & July 2 (Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, TX) of 2006.

Saturday's victory is Ashley's 39th career SUPR series win, two shy of tying Doug Ingalls (41) for second on the all-time list.
Checker flags flew on the 21-minute feature at 11:25 pm, had nine cars on the lead lap and was slowed by two cautions.

A week from being involved in a serious rolling accident at Greenville (Miss.)Speedway, Clay Fisher of Dewitt, Ark., and his repaired #99 were part of a two-car incident with Allen Tippen in a heat race. The safety crew lifted Fisher's car up off of the nose of Tippen's #71a during a red flag. Fisher dropped out early in the main event to finish 21st, while Tippen was the feature's hard charger of the race, going from 11th-to sixth.

Jon Mitchell of Texarkana, Tex., took his #5 car over to Joe Garrison at GRT Race Cars in Greenbrier, Ark., on Saturday morning to make chassis changes. Mitchell finished a disappointing 19th in SUPR's feature on Friday at I-30; with the chassis adjustments, Mitchell won his heat and started the feature third. He would not advance past that and slowly faded late for a seventh place finish.

Seventh-starting Lee Davis of Greenwood, La., had a left-front wheel fall off during feature pace laps. Davis rejoined the lineup at the rear after his crew made repairs, but the same left-front wheel came off again and sent Davis over the top of turn two, ending his night in 21st.
The event drew 110 race cars in five divisions at Tracey Clay's I-30 Speedway, that included IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks, Mini Sprints & Mod Lites, in addition to the SUPR late models.

The next action for the O'Reilly Southern United Professional Racing series is another doubleheader, starting July 2nd at Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore, Texas, then travelling the following night to Champion Park Speedway in Minden, Louisiana.

O'Reilly SUPR @ I-30: (1) David Ashley, (2) Kevin Sitton, (3) Rob Litton, (4) Jeff Chanler, (5) Kyle Cummings, (6) Allen Tippen, (7) Jon Mitchell, (8) Ronny Adams, (9) Shane Harris, (10) Alex Ashley, (11) Darin Patrick, (12) Jody Prince, (13) Gary Christian, (14) Jon Kirby, (15) Chris Holley, (16) Josh Danzy, (17) Dustin Hyde, (18) Eddie Provence, (19) Paul Joyner, (20) Mark McWilliams, (21) Clay Fisher, (22) Lee Davis, (23) Wesley Crutchfield
Heat race winners (among 23 cars): Litton, Mitchell, Chanler

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