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Michael Despain
BARDSTOWN, Ky. (May 9) - Steve Francis of Ashland, KY would use an off weekend from the World of Outlaws Late Model tour to visit Bluegrass Speedway on Saturday evening and score the $2,000 payday in the 6th edition of the Jerry Rucker Memorial event for the 44 Auto Mart Super Late Model division. Other feature winners for the evening would include Bryan Barber of Greensburg, KY in Modifieds, Pat Hagan of New Haven, KY in Sportsman, and Johnny Cecil of Bardstown, KY in Street Stocks.
After a false start, Dustin Neat and Steve Francis would bring the 6th Annual Jerry Rucker Memorial event to the green flag, with Neat taking the race lead, followed by Francis, Larry Greer, Dustin Linville, and David Webb. Linville would take third on lap 2, with Greg Johnson going to fifth on the same lap. Francis would begin to mount a charge on Neat for the lead and would grab the top spot with a pass off of turn two on lap 5. Francis would hold the top spot, while Neat and Linville would battle side-by-side on lap 7 and 8, with Linville going to the runner-up slot on lap 9. Greer would begin to battle Neat for third at this point, with disaster striking for Neat with a spin and flat left rear tire on lap 12, with Neat retiring his mount for the evening. The restart would see Linville hang with Francis, with Johnson now third, followed by Greer and Michael Chilton. Chilton would go to fourth on lap 13, as Linville continued to attempt to challenge Francis for the lead as the halfway signal went up on lap 15. Meanwhile, 13th starting Jeff Watson was charging his way through the field on the bottom side of the racing surface and would make his way past Greer into the top five on lap 16. Linville would look beneath Francis for the lead in turns one and two on laps 18 and 19 before Francis would put a lapped car between himself and Linville on lap 20. Lap 23 would see the lead pair finally clear slower traffic, while Watson would take fourth from Chilton on the same circuit. With five laps remaining, Francis and Linville had pulled away from third place Johnson, while Watson would quickly close on Johnson for third and take the spot one trip later on lap 26. Chilton, David Webb, and 19th starting Justin Rattliff would then begin to battle for the fifth position, with Webb winning a three-wide battle to move into fifth as the field received the white flag. Francis would take the checkered flag first in the event in a guest appearance in the D.J. Wells owned Wells Motorsports/Expressions Floral and Gifts/ Wells Racing sponsored #11 Rocket Chassis, Custom Race Engines powered machine. Linville would claim runner-up honors, with Watson, Johnson, and Webb completing the top five. The remainder of the top ten would be 12th starting Chilton, Rattliff, Mike Jewell, Tim Tungate, and Jason Keltner. Twenty entries would see Linville be top qualifier at 15.220 seconds, while Neat won the dash. Heat race checkered flags would fall to Jarryd Holshouser and Tim Tungate.
SUMMARY-Bluegrass Speedway-Bardstown, KY-May 9, 2009
44 Auto Mart Super Late Models (20 entries)
Top Qualifier- Dustin Linville 15.220
Dash- Dustin Neat, Steve Francis, Larry Greer, Dustin Linville, David Webb, Greg Johnson
1st Heat- Jarryd Holshouser, Steve Barnett, Bobby Carrier, Jr., Jeff Watson
2nd Heat- Tim Tungate, Mike Jewell, Michael Chilton, Jason Keltner
6th Annual Jerry Rucker Memorial- Steve Francis, Dustin Linville, Jeff Watson, Greg Johnson, David Webb, Michael Chilton, Justin Rattliff, Mike Jewell, Tim Tungate, Jason Keltner, Jason Smith, Dylan Preston, Terry Keltner, Bobby Carrier, Jr., Larry Greer, Lee Devasier, Dustin Neat, Steve Barnett, Jarryd Holshouser (DNS-Jeremy Hines)
Modifieds (19 entries)
1st Heat- Bryan Barber, Benji Lee, Robbie Gullion, Dion Benningfield
2nd Heat- Joey Kramer, Rocky Wilson, Josh Lucas, Joe Mattingly
Feature- Bryan Barber, Joey Kramer, Benji Lee, J.T. Ayers, Dion Benningfield, Joe Mattingly, Rocky Wilson, Johnny Lee, Adam Cole, Brad Schlosser, Randall Basham, Gary Parks, Robbie Gullion, Terry Edwards, Jeremy Hisel, Josh Lucas, Joe David Humphrey, Michael England (DNS-Sam Huffer)
WBRT 1320-AM Sportsman (13 entries)
Top Qualifier- Barry Chesser
Dash- Rick King, Pat Hagan, Roger Cecil, Robbie Settles, Barry Chesser, Jimmy Bryan
Heat- Wayne Hager, Rob Jones, Elton Martin, Avral Thompson
Feature- Pat Hagan, Rick King, Roger Cecil, Barry Chesser, Rob Jones, Jimmy Bryan, Avral Thompson, Paul Lewis, Jr., Joe Dunbar, Ronnie Rogers, Robbie Settles, Elton Martin, Wayne Hager
Street Stocks (12 entries)
1st Heat- David Bayans, Bruce Burch, Willie Edelen, Shane Lafollette
2nd Heat- Johnny Cecil, Joe Walker, Terry Bartley, Adam Burch
Feature- Johnny Cecil, Shane Lafollette, Willie Edelen, Jason Bartley, David Bayans, Bruce Burch, Adam Burch, Brad Leake, Joe Walker, Terry Bartley, Bryan Derringer, Timmy Glazer
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