Phillips Pulls Off Late Pass In Grabbing MLRA Midway Win
by: Ronnie Williams

Lebanon, Mo. (June 16, 2006) - Springfield's Terry Phillips played the waiting game and pulled off a 3 wide pass coming out of turn 4 to grab the O'Reilly Auto Parts MLRA Late Model victory Friday night at the Lebanon Midway Speedway before a packed house as 95 race teams checked into the pits.

The field of 22 came down to take the Green as Pole Setter Dwayne Hottinger took the early lead with Ken Essary hot on his bumper and Al Purkey close behind. After 1 lap in the books, the yellow waved as Bryan Allison spun. On the restart, Hottinger pulled away as David barker was charging hard and moved into 2nd ahead of Essary as Purkey, Terry Phillips and Alan Vaughn were battling. Purkey moved into 2nd place as Hottinger was flying. Mike Brown was the first car out with problems. Hottinger withstood several charges from Purkey as Essary, Vaughn, Phillips and Barker battled. Dane Dacus who had started 14th was flying through the star-studded field. After a single car spin from Richard Foster, Purkey again challanged but Hottinger kept the bottom groove working as Barker, Essary, Vaughn and Phillips were swapping spots.

The 3rd yellow waved on lap 17 and this was the turning point to the feature as Phillips had finally gotten around Barker, then Essary and moved into 3rd place using the high groove. On the restart, Hottinger found Purkey going to the middle groove as Phillips was working the top groove in as Dacus had moved around Vaughn and was battling Barker and Essary. On lap 21,Purkey pulled along side of Hottinger and Phillips was working the top again as the trio went 3 wide into turn 3 and came out of turn 4 the same way. Heading down the frontstretch, Phillips grabbed the lead from running 3rd to 1st with Purkey in tow with leader Hottinger falling to 3rd place and Dacus battling Barker and Essary for 4th place as Vaughn was slipping alittle.

With Phillips in command, Purkey started a last lap surge as the 4th and final yellow waved on lap 25 setting-up a mad dash.On the restart,Phillips went to the middle and then got to the bottom and pulled away from Purkey to grab the win in his 1st ever visit to the Midway.

"The Bottom of the track had moisture coming back-up and was making everyone better coming off the corners "quoted Phillips and the high groove was coming around especially in turn 4.We had 2 strong grooves out there tonight, and the track really was smooth. We really earned the win tonight as Hottinger was fast early aand Vaughn was tough to get around."

Following Phillips to the stripe was Purkey, Hottinger, Ken Essary and Dacus.20 of the 22 starters finished on the lead lap.

In other action Eric Hudson took advantage of his front row pole spot and led all 20 laps of the Modified feature in recording the win over point leader Tony Jackson Jr as the duo battled hard early in the feature until the latter stages when Hudson pulled away.An opening lap incident collected Jack Jones,Wayne Graybeal,Troy Young, and James Hartman.

The win by Hudson was his 1st of the season followed by Jackson Jr.,Jim Roach,Jamie Ragland and Johnny Fennawald.

The FactoryStock feature saw David Hendrix grab the opening lead on the 1st lap from his second row starting spot.Hendrix and Mike Shaddy were battling until lap 5 when Hendrix pulled to the infield with problems.From there Mike Shaddy grabbed the lead until turn 2 when he and runner-up Justin Stoufer got together in turn 2 sending them to the rear.

This put Glen Dismang out in front with points runner-up James ellis in second.The duo battled as Dismang pulled ahead only to have Ellis come back strong.Shaddy was working forward and by lap 10 had moved into the top 4.The final yellow waved on lap 13 as Shaddy had moved into 2nd place.On the restart,Dismang pulled ahead as Shaddy made a strong move as the white flag flew.Going into turn 3,Dismang stayed on the bottom as Shaddy went upstairs as the duo were sdie by side and crossed the stripe with Dismang winning by less than 2 inches.Shaddy,James Ellis,Rich Allen and Doug Rich followed.

In SuperStock action veteran driver JC Newell grabbed the lead from rookie Travis Hill and withstod several last lap challanges from point leader Ben Newell in taking his 2nd feature of the season as Ben Newell,Donnie Gennings,Travis Hill and Bill Joiner completed the top 5.

Mike Piercey overhauled leader Joe Francis on lap 4 in grabbing his first win of the season in a very competitive 15 lap main event in grabbing the victory followed by Francis,Chris Morelock,Jack Hamer and point leader Shawn Winfrey.

Racing next weekend as Friday night the speedway will host a special 100 lap Enduro along with it's 6 regular classes as the WingedSprint Cars,Mighty Modifieds,FactoryStocks,Fastrak LateModels,Superstocks and area Bomber compete in a regular points race.

Saturday Night the Midway will host the Mid-Missouri Truck and TractorPulls.Racing will start at 8 on Friday and 7:30 pulling will begin around 7:30 Sat night.

Results
MLRA LateModels

1st Ht-1)Terry Phillips-Springfield 2)Gary Stolba-Willow Springs 3)Chris Smyser-Lancaster 4)Richard Foster-Holts Summit 5)Shane Essary-Aurora 6)Johhny Fennewald-Appleton City 7)Bob Fennawald-Butler
 

2nd Ht-1)Dewayne Hottinger-Russellville,Ark. 2)Mike Brown-Ft Gibson,Okla. 3)Alan Vaughn-Belton 4)Dane Dacus-Memphis,Tenn 5)Larry Clawson-North KC 6)Barney Bauerfiend-Adrian 7)C.J.Lyle-Plesant Hill

3rd Ht-1)Al Purkey-Coffeyville,Kansas 2)Charlie Randoplh-Muskogee,Okla 3)Steve Rushin-Popular Bluff 4)Shannon Anastospolos-Joplin 5)Justin Wells-Crane 6)Terry Melton-Bartesville,Okla 7)Chad Frewaldt-KCK 8)Shad Badder-Oak Grove

4th Ht-1)Ken Essary-Cape Fair 2)David Barker-Kingsville 3)Bryan Allison-Marshall 4)Adam Portzen-Adrian 5)Jimmy Morris-Blue Springs 6)PJ Haskins-Adrian 7)Reid Millard-Jefferson City 8)TJ Kuykendall-Warsaw

B Ft(Top 4 to A)-1)Wells 2)Morris 3)S.Essary 4)Clawson 5)Lyle 6)J.Fennawald 7)Frewaldt 8)Bauerfeind 9)Haskins 10)Millard 11)Melton 12)B.Fennawald 13)Badder DNS-Kuykendall

A Ft-1)Phillips(5) 2)Purkey(4) 3)Hottinger(1) 4)K.Essary (2) 5)Dacus(14) 6)Vaughn(7) 7)Smyser(10) 8)S.Essary(19) 9)Barker(3) 10)Anastospolos(13) 11)Lyle(21) 12)Randolph(6) 13)Morris(18) 14)Rushin(11) 15)Stolba(8) 16)Foster(15) 17)Clawson(20) 18)Frewaldt(22) 19)Portzen(16) 20)Allison(12) 21)Wells(17) 22)Brown(9)