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Jay Vaquer
PHENIX CITY, Ala. (August 30) - You can always count on holidays to be spectacular at East Alabama Motor Speedway and this year's Labor Day celebration was nothing short. A tremendous fireworks display, hard hitting demolition derby, and a very exciting dirt track program featuring the Top Tracks Late Model Series was definitely the "A" ticket for the thousands of race fans who came to share the excitement. When the Late Models took the track for qualifying everyone was turning middle 16's until this year's Late Model Track Champion Richie "Rocketman" Stephens blistered the track with a 15.94. It seemed he would take the pole until Jordy "Lil' Nip" Nipper stole the show with a 15.86 to win the Extreme Power Sports pole award and begin the feature on the pole. When the green dropped the Rocketman blasted out to the early lead running his preferred line at the top of the track. He began to distance himself from Lil' Nip in second and The Master of Faster Dana Eiland in third. Suddenly Matt Woodson's throttle linkage broke, no doubt due to that big heavy lead foot, and he was off the back side for the first caution. On the restart the order was Rocketman, Nipper, Dana Eiland's K9, Todd Morrow and Jake Knowles when the green came back out. As the Rocketman began pulling away Knowles, driving Shane Thompson's Fun Carts of Opelika # 00, make a strong move to the front and passed Morrow and Eiland's #K9. The Master of Faster wasn't going to have any of that and came right back to third on lap 6. Rocketman was orbiting up in the cushion when his right front wheel picked up some loose clay. It appeared he had a bent tie rod or something and he could not hold his line which was the break Nipper needed to take the lead on lap 7. Eiland came up and went door to door with the Rocketman. As Slick Rick Culpepper and Brian Jackson entered the pits with mechanical failures, Eiland and Knowles went by the Rocketman to move into second and third respectively. Lap 13 never fails to be unlucky for somebody and this time it caught The Head Man, Mike Head as he lost power and coasted to a stop for a yellow flag. The top five on this restart were Nipper, Dana Eiland's K9, Knowles, Rocketman, and another Eiland speedster, Bobby Joe Eiland in fifth. Lil' Nip and Dana Eiland blast out to nearly a straightaway lead from Knowles and Rocketman who are locked in mortal combat swapping paint in the turns. Numerology came into play on lap 18 as the #88 of Matt Woodson and the #88 of Bill Peters entered the pits simultaneously.. Then on lap 20, the #00 of Jake Knowles and the #00 of the Rocketman both entered the pits. Now the top five were Lil' Nip, the famous #K9 in second, Morrow in third, Bobby Joe Eiland in fourth, and rookie Montana Dudley was in fifth. Mike Parkerson had been battling his way to the front and picked off Dudley to move into fifth. As Parkerson went after Bobby Joe, Morrow suddenly broke and everyone went by on lap 25. Josh Noles began running hot and entered the pits headed straight for the water hole. While most of the attention was on the leaders, Phillip Anderson was quietly working his way to the front and was knocking on Parkerson's door to take away the fourth spot. Parkerson decided to pass Bobby Joe Eiland from the apron and we had another type of fireworks display as sheet metal sparked when Bobby Joe, Parkerson and Anderson were three wide in turns three and four. Anderson was able to move into third from the high groove and went after The Master of Faster, which proved to be the wrong thing to do. Kelly Leonard had a problem in turn 2 and brought out the lap 34 caution. The restart order now was Lil' Nip, who was driving the perfect race, Dana Eiland second, Anderson third, Bobby Joe Eiland fourth and Parkerson fifth. When the green flag came out Anderson got by the K9 in turn two to move into second. When they got to turn three Anderson blocked the K9 on the inside. The Master of Faster quickly changed his line and went to the cushion generating a lot of momentum coming out of turn four. When Anderson saw him coming up on the outside by the flagstand, he tried to move up to block. That's when the K9 did not flinch or budge an inch and collided with Anderson taking a big bite out of Anderson's right rear tire then speeding away into second place. Anderson had to go to the pits which ended his great run and bid for the win. Some drivers have to learn the hard way, you don't tug on Superman's cape and you don't mess with The Master of Faster. Brian Burke moved up and passed Parkerson for fourth just before Kelly Leonard and Chad Scrimpshire crashed in turn 4 on the white flag lap. Jordy Nipper sprinted to the checkers in a well deserved victory. The local legend Dana Eiland came in second and really gave his fans a great show. Bobby Joe Eiland was back in great form as he turned in a third place finish. Brian Burke finished fourth, Mike Parkerson fifth, Montana Dudley sixth, Alan Brewer seventh, Bobby Mayse eighth, Chris Ferrell ninth and Richard Goode rounded out the top ten in tenth.
Late Model
1N - Jordy Nipper
K9 - Dana Eiland
08 - Bobby Eiland
B39 - Brian Burke
41 - Mike Parkerson
55 - Montana Dudley
22 - Alan Brewer
22 - Bobby Mayse
C87 - Chris Fenell
39G - Richard Goode
30T - Bert Tompkins
34 - Bob Gibby
72 - Chad Scrimpshire
13K - Kelly Leonard
14 - Pat Wall
T1 - Todd Morrow
9a - Phillip Anderson
00T - Jake Knowles
16 - Josh Noles
88 - Matt Woodson
00 - Richie Stephens
88 - Bill Peters
54 - Mike Head
110 - Ricky Culpepper
B4 - Brian Jackson
Limited Sportsman
19 - Paul Walters
5 - Rodgerick Dykes
72 - Chad Scrimpshire
115 - Dustin Elliott
5L - Thomas Lewis
91 - Josh Weathers
00 - Jeremy Nevels
75 - Brand Lewis
62 - JW Noles
T6 - Tod Hernandez
7 - Chris Arnett
12 - Allen McConnell, Sr
55 - Kenny Mathis
Hobby
24 - Allen McConnell
294 - John Michael
41 - Scott Sherrer
41 - Jason Anthony
12 - Robert Jackson
90 - Jerry Luke
2 - Jonathan Dozier
8 - Rodney Gorman
6 - Johnny Beck
24 - Chris Westfaul
Bomber
7 - Jeff Elliott
15 - Bobby Duell
75 - John Dozier
16 - Christy Noles
52 - Shelby Amos
83 - Cody Scrimpshire
3 - Steven Bryan
13 - Mike Brown
7 - Trevor Elliott
15 - Eddie Albritton
38 - Chris Storey
91 - Cody Weathers
90 - Robbie Luke
21 - Justin Masters
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