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Boen Captures Victory at 81 Speedway |
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Friday, 29 August 2008 00:00 |
 Boen Turns Back Challenge from Purkey for Late Model Win at 81 Speedway on Friday
PARK CITY, Kans. (Aug. 29, 2008) - Defending series champion Kelly Boen of Henderson, Colorado held off a last lap charge from Al Purkey to win Friday nights thrilling O'Reilly/NCRA late model presented by ICM/Ethanol feature at 81 Speedway.
Boen and Omaha, Nebraska's John Anderson started on the front row for the twenty lap feature and it was Boen taking the lead as the green flag fell. Mike Wiarda fell behind Anderson for the third position while Purkey and current series points leader Kyle Berck gave chase. By lap three, Boen would open a five car length advantage over Anderson while behind them, Purkey over took Wiarda for the third position.
On lap five, Anderson would cut the deficit to three car lengths and set the stage for a battle for the top spot as lapped traffic began to approach three laps later. Anderson would begin to close the gap in lapped traffic and on lap eight, in turns one and two, would slide up underneath Boen to take the lead.
Both drivers would set sail from the rest of the field as they opened up to a ten car length advantage by lap ten. At the races midway point it was Anderson, followed by Boen, Purkey, Berck and Wiarda as the leaders would enter heavy lapped traffic once again one lap later. This would allow third running Purkey to close the distance on the two front runners while back up front, Boen tried to dive low entering turn one, only to be denied.
Boen continued to pressure Anderson for the lead and on lap seventeen, got a run down low in turns three and four to retake the lead down the front stretch.
It appeared the race was all Boen's at this point as he quickly opened a half stretch lead on the last lap. However, the features only caution would wave when David Brack and Jim Beaman got together in turn three.
This would cause a one lap dash to the finish and on the last lap Purkey, who sat third on the restart, squeezed around Anderson down the front stretch to take over the runner up position as the field entered turn one. Purkey set himself up for one try at the end and coming down for the checkered flag, came up one car length short at the end. Berck would come home third while Dustin Huehl, in his first night ever aboard a late model came home fourth. Anderson, who suffered a broke tie-rod on that last lap pass from Purkey, rounded out the top five.
The eight lap heat races for the thirty-four car field were won by Billy Koons, Delbert Smith, Wiarda and Boen. Jim Beaman took home the first, ten lap "B" feature while John Kuchar took the checkered flag in the thrilling second "B" feature of the evening.
The officials and staff of both NCRA and 81 Speedway would like to give a huge "thank you" to Topps Mechanical out of Tecumseh, Nebraska and Strobel Construction out of Clarks, Nebraska for making the Friday night show possible. A cancellation just four days prior to this weekends opener by another scheduled track almost forced the original three day slate to be cut to two days. But with the help of both businesses mentioned above, the track was able to make this race possible.
O'Reilly Finish Line
1st Heat - 1. Billy Koons 2. John Anderson 3. Dustin Huehl 4. David Garman 5. John Kuchar 6. Ronnie Warman 7. Cale Gottschalk 8. Gary Gorby 9. Jason Friesen.
2nd Heat - 1. Delbert Smith 2. Kyle Berck 3. Jimmy Seagraves 4. Greg Larsen 5. Ted Martin 6. Bryant Goldsmith 7. David Brack 8. Marty Doner 9. Wylan Petrie.
3rd Heat - 1. Mike Wiarda 2. Mike Conkwright 3. Steve Foster 4. Jim Beaman 5. Shawn Harker 6. Brad Fortney 7. Justin Kinderknecht 8. Mike Furthmyer.
4th Heat - 1. Kelly Boen 2. Al Purkey 3. Dave Conkwright 4. Kelly Dunn 5. Earl Kinderknecht 6. Mike Collins 7. Terry Melton 8. Scott Koskovich.
1st B Feature - 1. Jim Beaman 2. Ted Martin 3. Ronnie Warman 4. Shawn Harker 5. Jason Friesen 6. Brad Fortney 7. Justin Kinderknecht 8. Cale Gottschalk 9. Mike Furthmyer 10. Gary Gorby 11. Greg Larsen.
2nd B Feature - 1. John Kuchar 2. Bryant Goldsmith 3. David Brack 4. Mike Collins 5. Kelly Dunn 6. David Grman 7. Earl Kinderknecht 8. Marty Doner 9. Wylan Petrie 10. Terry Melton 11. Scott Koskovich.
A Feature - 1. Kelly Boen 2. Al Purkey 3. Kyle Berck 4. Dustin Huehl 5. John Anderson 6. Jimmy Seagraves 7. Delbert Smith 8. Mike Wiarda 9. Mike Collins 10. Billy Koons 11. Mike Conkwright 12. Ted Martin 13. Shawn Harker 14. Dave Conkwright 15. John Kuchar 16. Jim Beaman 17. David Brack 18. Bryant Goldsmith 19. Steve Foster 20. Wylan Petrie 21. Greg Larsen 22. Ronnie Warman. |
