MARS DIRTcar Series
Thunderbird Speedway
April 6, 2012
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Moyer captures Charlie Fulton Memorial win at Thunderbird Speedway



by Bryan Wimberley
MUSKOGEE, Okla. (April 6) - Hall of Famer Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark., first visit in years to the historic 1/2-mile, now called Thunderbird Speedway, netted him a $5,555.55 payback in the inaugural Charlie Fulton Memorial on the MARS DIRTcar Series tour. The victory in the 55-lapper marked Moyer's 16th win in the series with his last one coming nearly eight months ago at West Plains last August.

Jesse Stovall of Galena, Mo., would battle Moyer tough throughout the feature, but would eventually end up second, while Wendell Wallace of Batesville, Ark., finished third. Tony Jackson Jr., of Lebanon, Mo., had another impressive run since winning the series opener at Clarksville, becoming the hard charger of the feature, going from 19th-to-fourth. David Turner of Creighton, Mo., rounded out the top five finishers.

Moyer stated, "Jesse (Stovall) did a good job out there, I am not so sure his car wasn't better than mine. He was just driving the thing a little hard. We come up on that lap car (Johnson) and mercy, he didn't know which direction he was going. I was petrified to get on either side of him, then Jesse rolled up in there and probably done the right thing, because I was all bottled up close to the bottom. The lap before Jesse got by us, I started up on the outside of that lap car and he darts to the right at the end of the straightaway. Then I am on the inside of the lapped car and he darts in on us there -it is just scary at the speeds we are doing here. Jesse did a good job and hauled in there to get by us both. We got to racing them other lapped cars and he (Stovall) got to trying too hard and slipped up, letting me get back by him underneath. I knew it was going to be a tire game, we still had a lot of tire left and he was clear out of tire -you have to be there in the end to win it. It turned out to be a good, fun trip for us."

"This was a mediocre trip for us over here, not long and not short and we haven't been here in a long time. I couldn't tell you how long its been, but I'm sure some of them fans know! Starting on the front row in the heat, I knew Vaught would be tough to get around. I didn't really know that he won those races here last year until someone told me afterwards. The track was good and smooth, it had one little sweet spot in it and was real hard to pass. We was off some in the heat race, we hot lapped good, so we left the car alone, but probably should have adjusted on it. Later we changed some bar angles and some springs here or there. We had to put a little lead on the car, because they don't give you any burn off here and 55 laps on this monster uses a lot of fuel, a lot of tire, weight and all that stuff. The car still wasn't exactly like I wanted it, but it got the job done," Moyer later added.

Polesitter Jesse Stovall and outside front-row starter, Duke Whiseant of Texarkana, Ark., made contact immediately on the front straightaway as the green flag turned the pack loose. Being on the outside, Whiseant took the early lead, ahead of Raymond Merrill of Sallisaw, Okla., Stovall, Moyer and R.C. Whitwell of Tucson, Ariz., on lap one.

Whiseant wasted little time in expanded the advantage to over two seconds, just five laps into the race. Wendell Wallace passed Whitwell for fifth, followed by two-time Thunderbird Speedway winner last year, Will Vaught of Crane, Mo., in sixth.

Stovall pressures Merrill for second, making an inside move in turn two, to secure the position on lap 7. The pace would slow the next lap for the spun car of Jason Rauen of Farley, Ia., and the race's first caution. Back-to-back cautions appeared before the race was unleashed again.

Moyer inherits the lead on lap 8, when Duke Whiseant of Texarkana, Ark., and Jesse Stovall again made contact in turn 2, allowing him and Wendell Wallace to slip by.

Stovall said, "On the first lap, I don't know what happened, I don't know if I didn't give enough room or what -I mean, no harm, no foul! I didn't tear us up and he (Whiseant) led the first part of the race. On the restart, I drove up on his outside and I think it was a racing deal there, we got hung up and I hope he is not mad. Racing in the rubber usually makes you no friends, because the groove is so small and seems to make enemies every time you race on the rubber. You are racing hard, trying to get upfront and you tend to make a lot of enemies. I try to touch and feel and go with what I can do, but all-in-all we had an absolute wonderful night and hopefully we can continue to carry this over. It has been a great year for us so far and certainly hope we can continue on this way -it has been loads of fun!"

Defending MARS DIRTcar Series champion, Brad Looney of Republic, Mo., worked his way to fourth place, from 10th-starting position, by lap 10, but Looney never threatened for the lead and would retire early with motor issues -finishing 17th.

Another MARS champion, six-timer Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., would have the same fate on lap 12, blowing an engine on the front straightaway, warranting another yellow.

Stovall would be the man on the move and charged back to work past Wallace for the runner-up spot, just before Justin Asplin would bring out caution four, spinning in turn two. Whiseant would become the next victim of a yellow, falling out while running fifth, three laps later.

An excellent restart by Vaught, got him past Wallace for third, but Moyer and Stovall began to break away from the rest of the frontrunners. Moyer found himself catching the rear of the field on lap 25. But the Batesville standout driver ran into trouble when trying to put a lap on Leroy Johnson on the 27th circuit. Stovall seized the opportunity to sneak by both cars and grabbed the lead.

Stovall explained, "When you can run close to Billy (Moyer) like that, it is a heck of a night. we got up there in lap traffic and I snookered him there. This is only about my third year running late models, I have ran a lot of modifieds, so to get up there and even snooker Billy Moyer like that, is quite a feat in my book. I wish I could have made it stick, that is the crappy part about it, but all-in-all it was a heck of a night for us. We did get the car dinged up just a little bit, but I think we can get it fixed pretty easy. For the most part, the car is in one piece and we made a little money, so that equates to a good night.

Third-running Will Vaught's No. 1v machine started to smoke noticeably, appearing that motor problems were on the horizon. Vaught would continue on for 21 more laps, before the engine would finally force him to retire in 13th.
Moyer begins to rally, edging up to Stovall, showing his nose to the 00 car. Both drivers battled side-by-side, but Moyer regained the lead again. Moyer's tires seemed fresher as he entered into heavy lap traffic to increase his lead over Stovall on lap 38.

Moyer put a three-car cushion between him and Stovall with 14 to go, building over a three-second advantage. But a late race caution would give the Missouri hotshoe driver one last shot at the Hall of Famer from Arkansas.

Moyer held Stovall off in the four-lap sprint to the finish, cruising to victory and recording his 7th win of the 2012 season.

NOTES: Moyer's Victory Circle Race Car is powered by Clements Racing Engines and sponsored by Car City Inc., New Vision Graphics, Banner Valley Hauling, Henderson Motorsports, L&D Trucking, Sweet Mfg., Watter's Autoland and Cooley Transport.

The 40-minute feature wrapped up at 11:25 pm, had six cautions and six cars on the lead lap.

Wendell Wallace of Batesville, Ark., beat Will Vaught to take home $555.55 in the 5-lap Dash For Cash involving the top five cars. Wallace was in position to earn a total of $6,985.25, if he led every lap of the feature, along with bonus money also being paid every fifth lap led -Wallace finished third in his new Russell Baker powered No. 6m race car.
In the most serious caution of the evening, Billy Moyer Jr of Batesville, Ark., went head-on into the front straightaway wall in heat race one, just pass the flagstand. The yellow was brought out when Dustin Mooneyham of Aurora, Mo., and Moyer Jr., made contact to send Moyer Jr. full throttle into the wall.

Tony Jackson Jr. and Garrett Alberson of Las Cruces, NM., also was caught up in the multi car melee.

Jackson Jr., received a broken rack in the accident, making the No. 56 crew go to another car and prepare it for the consolation. Jackson Jr., made the switch pay off by finishing in the final transfer spot in the consolation and becoming the hard charger of the feature, advancing fifteen positions.

"We got rolling in the heat race and I am not sure what happened there or who's fault it was. We got in the tail-end of that deal and broke the rack, so we got the other car out for the B-Main. We ran second in that to start 19th in the feature and was able to come up to fourth. These cars are from Club 29 and Darrell Lanigan kind of steers us in the right direction on them. They are good race cars and we don't change variations that much. We bought his personal car at the beginning of last season, then over the winter we got a couple of new cars from him and some motors. He has really helped my program out 100 percent," said Jackson Jr.

Jackson Jr. added, "The track was rubbered up in the feature, getting wider and wider the whole race. Being 55 laps, you have to save your stuff and know what you have towards the end. The car we ran here is normally the one that we use on shorter racetracks and has a lot smaller motor, so we was at a bit of a disadvantage there. We got up to around sixth or seventh and we picked up a little bit of a miss in the motor, but was still able to climb to fourth near the end. I feel like Billy (Moyer) was really, really good and I don't believe anybody had anything for him. I thought we could run second or third fairly easy, if we didn't have a problem with our motor near the finish. I nursed the engine when I realized there was a problem and was counting the laps down to the white flag. We are happy with it and will run with MARS this season, after we get going here and learn about these cars some more, maybe then hit some bigger races where Darrell (Lanigan) is at, so we can get some help with those guys while they are at the racetrack."

Stovall extends his points lead over Tony Jackson Jr, David Turner and last year's MARS champion, Brad Looney.
In all four of MARS DIRTcar Series return appearances at Thunderbird Speedway since its re-opening, Stovall has placed in the top 5 every trip (2nd, 5th, 3rd and 1st).

"I have to commend my car owner Fred Bishop, he is like my dad. He will chew my butt and he calms me down when I get upset. He has been there for me through-and-through, I raced modifieds for him and I had an opportunity to race late models for Steve Rushin and (Fred) wasn't ready for late models at that point in his life, so I did that deal last year. Fred then told me that he was ready to do this and Steve couldn't really do two cars with R.C. (Whitwell), so decision was made to let R.C. stay there and have himself a ride. Plus Rushin's shop was so far from my house that is was tough for me, I have a little boy and a wonderful family at home and this way with being with Bishop has made everything just gel. I am still learning these late models and I hope we can just keep on building, making a strong team. We are lacking a little bit in the help department as far as somebody to go with us all the time, you have to get a different person here or there and it makes it tough when you have a different person every week. Everyone that is here is gelling together and when you run good, it just makes it so positive, building on what we are trying to accomplish. Sure, we are going to have bad nights and we will do our best to get through those, but hopefully we can continue to make progress.

Next week was going to be the deciding point of what we are going to do the rest of the season, but that race has been cancelled, so now it will be after the Show-Me 100 before we have to make that decision now on what we are going to chase. It will be MARS or MLRA, but when we have to make a choice, then we will make it -right now it is good for both series. I like both series' people greatly, Harriet and Cowboy (from MLRA) are wonderful people. Randy (Mooneyham) has treated me good, I can tell him what I think and he might get mad at me or I might get mad at him, but they are always straight to the point -both series are! There is no favortism with either one. As a racer, when they give you two shots to try to run up in the points, then you have to do it if you can afford it, before they split and you have to make a decision which one to follow. It is better that way, than to have to decide at the beginning of the year which one -only one- to run for the entire season. I am hoping we can finish out in the top one or two in one series and still run enough races to be in the percentages for the other series too. At this point in my career, I think winning a points title is something that I need to do. If we can get that done, then maybe bigger things can happen from there," said Stovall.

Brad Looney and R.C. Whitwell had their top 5 series' finishes at Thunderbird Speedway snapped this visit, both fell out early and ending their streaks at three each.

Raymond Merrill of Sallisaw, Okla., raced in Jack Sullivan's GRT back-up car -Merrill won his heat and started on the second row. He would faded early on and hover inside the top ten, until pulling off early in 14th position.

Jeff Roth of Bentonville, Ark., borrowed brother Randy Roth's No. 26 car for the feature on a provisional -Roth was an early retiree, finishing 15th.

The event brought drivers from eight different states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, New Mexico, Nebraska and Missouri.

Drivers failing to make the feature included, Garrett Alberson, Eric Brill, Pat Cox, Dave Deetz, Willie Gammill, Steve Johnson, Dustin Mooneyham, Cliff Morrow, Jay Rierson, Randy Roth, Dillon Rupe, Kyle Slader, Brookin Stephens and Dustin Walker.

Other winners so far this season on the MARS DIRTcar Series' tour include, Tony Jackson Jr (1st), Jesse Stovall (6th) and Brad Looney (5th).

The event at Thunderbird Speedway was the series' 277th overall race in its 13-year history.

The MARS DIRTcar Series will head to Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Ill., on Friday, April 13th, for $3,000-to-win.


A-Main
1 21M Billy Moyer
2 00S Jesse Stovall
3 6M Wendell Wallace
4 56 Tony Jackson, Jr.
5 15T David Turner
6 11M Brandon Morton
7 14M Morgan Bagley
8 2 Tommy Weder, Jr.
9 77A Justin Asplin
10 25B Chris Morelock
11 28J Leroy Johnson
12 98 Jason Rauen
13 1V Will Vaught
14 1M Raymond Merrill
15 26R Randy Roth
16 A1 Duke Whiseant
17 14 Brad Looney
18 75 Terry Phillips
19 36 Jason Redman
20 2A John Anderson
21 20M Dustin Mooneyham
22 96T RC Whitwell

B-Main #1
1 2 Tommy Weder, Jr.
2 56 Tony Jackson, Jr.
3 71 Jay Rierson
4 25B Chris Morelock
5 43 Garrett Alberson
6 99 Cliff Morrow
7 52 Dillon Rupe
8 21JR Billy Moyer Jr.
9 7 Willie Gammill
10 19 Kyle Slader

B-Main #2
1 77A Justin Asplin
2 28J Leroy Johnson
3 58 Pat Cox
4 11J Steve Johnson
5 12 Dave Deetz
6 26R Randy Roth
7 14W Dustin Walker
8 14R Jeff Roth
9 25EB Eric Brill
10 75S Brooklin Stephens

Heat #1
1 00S Jesse Stovall
2 A1 Duke Whiseant
3 20M Dustin Mooneyham
4 58 Pat Cox
5 19 Kyle Slader
6 12 Dave Deetz
7 56 Tony Jackson, Jr.
8 21JR Billy Moyer Jr.
9 43 Garrett Alberson

Heat #2
1 6M Wendell Wallace
2 11M Brandon Morton
3 75 Terry Phillips
4 98 Jason Rauen
5 2A John Anderson
6 77A Justin Asplin
7 28J Leroy Johnson
8 26R Randy Roth
9 25EB Eric Brill

Heat #3
1 1M Raymond Merrill
2 96T RC Whitwell
3 14 Brad Looney
4 14M Morgan Bagley
5 2 Tommy Weder, Jr.
6 99 Cliff Morrow
7 52 Dillon Rupe
8 25B Chris Morelock
9 7 Willie Gammill

Heat #4
1 1V Will Vaught
2 21M Billy Moyer
3 36 Jason Redman
4 15T David Turner
5 71 Jay Rierson
6 14R Jeff Roth
7 14W Dustin Walker
8 11J Steve Johnson
9 75S Brooklin Stephens

MARS DIRTcar Series points
(Top 10 through April 6)
1. Jesse Stovall - 283
2. Tony Jackson Jr - 264
3. David Turner - 262
4. Brad Looney - 228
5. Brandon Morton - 208
6. Justin Asplin - 189
7. Leroy Johnson - 186
8. Dewayne Keifer - 153
9. R.C. Whitwell - 145
10. Will Vaught - 122

MARS winners at Thunderbird / Muskogee
(Series history: 2000 - present)
April '12 - Billy Moyer
Sept. '11 - Will Vaught
Sept. '11 - Will Vaught
April '11 - Jesse Stovall
Aug. '02 - Bill Frye
June '02 - Raymond Merrill
Oct. '01 - Terry Phillips
Oct. '01 - Leslie Essary
Sept. '01 - Bill Frye
April '01 - Terry Phillips
April '00 - Terry Phillips