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David Smith Jr
MAYETTA, Kans. (October 18) - Jesse Stovall backed up his previous evenings performance as he led from the start to win the final night of "Thunder on the Hill II" as the O'Reilly/NCRA late model division presented by ICM/Ethanol wrapped up the weekend at Thunderhill Speedway in Mayhetta, Kansas Saturday night in a race the was co-sanctioned with the Topless Outlaw Racing Association (TORA).
West Branson, Missouri's Stovall started on the pole for the forty lap feature with Kyle Berck, who came into the night with a slim ten point lead in the series point standings, starting along side as the green flag fell. Jason Bodenhamer, Al Purkey and Kelly Boen gave chase as Stovall built a half stretch lead by lap two.
The leader began entering lapped traffic on lap six allowing Berck to close the deficit to five car lengths. Boen would pass Bodenhamer for third on lap eight before the first caution of the feature happened on lap nine when Bryant Goldsmith came to a stop at the bottom of turn two.
The restart would see Purkey, who was sitting fifth, work his way into the third position and battled Berck for the runner up spot until mechanical gremlins forced him to a top at the top of turn two to bring out the caution on lap thirteen, ending his night.
Stovall once again jumped out front on the rest of the field when racing went back to green with ninth starting John Anderson having worked his way to the front, restarting in the second position. Anderson would then have his hands full with Boen who began making his move to the front. The three-time and defending series champion would take over the runner up position on Anderson on lap fourteen while the leader Stovall had opened a ten car length lead.
Lapped traffic came into play on lap sixteen cutting Stovalls lead to five car lengths over Boen. Both drivers threaded their way through lapped traffic through several laps before the features final caution flag would wave on lap 23 for Vince Wagoner's stalled machine at the top of turn four.
The final restart saw no problems for Stovall has he opened a five car length advantage over Boen. However, lap thirty-one would see a different story as the leaders began entering lapped traffic, allowing Boen to close on his rear bumper. Both drivers battled each other through lapped traffic with Boen executing an unsuccessful in turns one and two on lap 32. This allowed Stovall to stretch his advantage to a half stretch lead with five to go, a margin he would maintain the final five laps to secure his second career NCRA victory in a row and a $3000 payday for his efforts.
Boen would settle for second with Anderson coming home third. Seventh starting Delbert Smith worked his way up to a fourth place finish while Berck rounded out the top five. By virtue of Boens second place finish and Bercks fifth, Boen has taken over the series points lead by a mere five points heading into next weekends season finale in Enid, Oklahoma.
The ten lap heat races for the 34 car field were won by Stovall, Berck and Jason Friesen as Scott Koskovich took home the twelve lap "B" feature honors.
A frightening event occurred during the first heat race as Justin Kinderknecht and another driver made incidental contact going down the backstretch causing Kinderknecht to execute a series of barrel rolls atop the cement wall. He would come out of the wreck shaken up but otherwise uninjured but would put his night to an early end.
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1st Heat: 1- Jesse Stovall 2- Al Purkey 3- Vince Wagoner 4- Jason Bodenhamer 5- Paul Mueller 6- Billy Koons 7- Shawn Harker 8- Steve Foster 9- Chris Kratzer 10- Kelly Dunn 11- Justin Kinderknecht 12- Earl Kinderknecht.
2nd Heat: 1- Kyle Berck 2- Delbert Smith 3- Jay Stewart 4- Bryant Goldsmith 5- Zack Simmons 6- Mike Wiarda 7- Jerry Warner 8- Scott Koskovich 9- Ted Martin 10- Wylan Petrie 11- Jake Williams.
3rd Heat: 1- Jason Friesen 2- Al Humphrey 3- Kelly Boen 4- John Anderson 5- Mike Colllins 6- Dustin Mooneyham 7- David Brack 8- Gary Gorby 9- Travis Roth 10- Mollee Collins 11- Jimmy Seagraves.
B Feature: 1- Scott Koskovich 2- Jerry Warner 3- Shawn Harker 4- Billy Koons 5- Steve Foster 6- Dustin Mooneyham 7- Jimmy Seagraves 8- Zack Simmons 9- Kelly Dunn 10- Gary Gorby 11- Mollee Collins 12- Wylan Petrie 13- Travis Roth 14- Ted Martin 15- Chris Kratzer 16- Justin Kinderknecht 17- Jake Williams 18- Earl Kinderknecht.
A Feature: 1- Jesse Stovall 2- Kelly Boen 3- John Anderson 4- Delbert Smith 5- Kyle Berck 6- Bryant Goldsmith 7- Jason Bodenhamer 8- Jay Stewart 9- Shawn Harker 10- Al Humphrey 11- Jason Frisen 12- Mike Collins 13- Jerry Warner 14- Kelly Dunn 15- Scott Koskovich 16- Dustin Mooneyham 17- Mike Wiarda 18- Steve Foster 19- Paul Mueller 20- Billy Koons 21- Vince Wagoner 22- David Brack 23- Wylan Petrie 24- Al Purkey 25- Ted Martin.
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