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David Smith Jr
MEEKER, Okla. (June 26) - Kyle Berck of Marquette, Nebraska fended off mid race challenges from Terry Phillips and then held off Jason Bodenhamer on a restart with four laps to go to win night one of the "Showdown in the Heartland" Cherokee Casino-Resort feature as the O'Reilly/NCRA and O'Reilly/ DIRTCar Series made their first ever appearance at Brill Motor Speedway in Meeker, Oklahoma on Friday night.
Eric Turner of Hermitage, Missouri and Ronnie Wallace of McCook, Nebraska started on the front row for the thirty lap feature with Turner taking the lead as the green flag fell. Fifth starting Berck worked his way into the third position followed by Phillips and Bodenhamer as the first lap was completed.
Turner opened a five car length advantage while behind him, Phillips aboard the Don Baab Motorsports/Andy's Frozen Custard GRT by Phillips made his way to the front, getting underneath Wallace and Berck to take over the runner up position.
In the meantime, Turner stretched out his lead to ten car lengths by lap five as Berck got around Wallace for the third position.
The first of three cautions fell on lap nine when Shawn Harker spun in turns three and four.
On the restart Berck got beside Turner entering turns one and two with Turner maintaining a slim one car length advantage. One lap later Berck, who was committed to the top in his Dorthy Lynch Salad Dressing/Strobel Construction sponsored Lazer Chassis, got around Turner again in turns one and two and took the lead for good down the backstretch to lead lap eleven.
Phillips would take over the runner up position one lap later while up front, Berck had quickly opened a twelve car length advantage. Lapped traffic looked to become a factor near the races midway point but a Greg Larsen spin in turn two brought out the caution.
The restart saw Phillips on the leaders bumper as the pair entered turns one and two with Berck using the top and Phillips down low. The pair battled side by side for several laps with Berck holding onto the slimmest of margins.
As both drivers kept committed to their lines on the track throughout the mid race portion, Berck changed things up by entering low in turns one and two to thwart any effort by Phillips to make a run. The leader quickly jumped back on the cushion allowing Phillips to get side by side with the leader with five laps to go.
Approaching lapped traffic on lap twenty-six coming down the front stretch, Berck and Phillips, who was looking to dive underneath the 2002 series champion, made contact sending Phillips to a spin and the nights final caution. Damage to Phillips ended his night with a 19th place finish.
While Bodenhamer was on the leaders bumper on the restart there was no catching Berck as he became the third different Cherokee Casino-Resort feature winner in as many races and take over the point lead. "I don't like winning that and there wasn't nothing intentional and I do apologize to Terry," said an exhausted Berck in victory lane. "This is our first time here and I didn't know anything about the track and kept the setup to be as versatile as it could be. I saw him (Phillips) down low once and went down there at one point but it just didn't feel comfortable and moved back up to the top. This was a good race track tonight and I am glad we made the trip down."
While Bodenhamer finished second, a mad dash to the checkered saw Boen, first "B" feature winner McCormick and tenth starting Jeremy Payne scramble to finish in the top five respectively.
The four, ten lap heat races for the 33 car field were won by Turner, Wallace, Phillips and Boen while McCormick and Cory Zeitner won the two, twelve lap "B" features.
Next up for the O'Reilly/NCRA late model series will be tonight, Saturday night, at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas for night number two of "Showdown in the Heartland" with the O'Reilly/MARSDirt car series.
Brill Motor Speedway
Meeker, Oklaoma
June 26, 2009
HEAT 1 - 1, Eric Turner. 2, Scott Koskovich. 3, Cory Zeitner. 4, Jeremy Payne. 5, Tony Jackson, Jr. 6, Bill Koons. 7, Steve Kempt. 8, Eddie Martin. 9, Brian Wolfe.
HEAT 2 - 1, Ronnie Wallace. 2, Mike Collins. 3, Ronnie Warman. 4, Greg Larsen. 5, Craig Preble. 6, Wylan Petrie. 7, Leroy Johnson. 8, Shawn Harker.
HEAT 3 - 1, Terry Phillips. 2, Kyle Berck. 3, Jason Obrien. 4, Brandon McCormick. 5, Jason Frieson. 6, Steve Johnson. 7, Randy Mitchell. 8, Ronnie Spurgeon.
HEAT 4 - 1, Kelly Boen. 2, Jason Bodenhamer. 3, Gary Christian. 4, Al Purkey. 5, Darrell Mooneyham. 6, Rylan Long. 7, Jimmy Segraves. 8, Cliff Morrow.
1st B FEATURE - 1, Brandon McCormick. 2, Darrell Mooneyham. 3, Jason Obrien. 4, Jimmy Segraves. 5, Craig Preble. 6, Steve Johnson. 7, Leroy Johnson. 8, Wylan Petrie. 9, Shawn Harker. 10, Brian Wolfe. DNS: Cliff Morrow.
2nd B FEATURE - 1, Cory Zeitner. 2, Al Purkey. 3, Jason Frieson. 4, Tony Jackson, Jr. 5, Steve Kempt. 6, Bill Koons. 7, Rylan Long. 8, Eddie Martin. 9, Randy Mitchell. 10, Ronnie Spurgeon.
CHEROKEE CASINO-RESORT A FEATURE 1, Kyle Berck. 2, Jason Bodenhamer. 3, Kelly Boen. 4, Brandon McCormick. 5, Jeremy Payne. 6, Eric Turner. 7, Al Purkey. 8, Ronnie Wallace. 9, Jason Frieson. 10, Gary Christian. 11, Mike Collins. 12, Cory Zeitner. 13, Tony Jackson, Jr. 14, Ronnie Warman. 15, Shawn Harker. 16, Steve Kempt. 17, Darrell Mooneyham. 18, Rylan Long. 19, Terry Phillips. 20, Greg Larsen. 21, Scott Koskovich. 22, Jason Obrien.
Current NCRA Late Model Point Standings after Brill Motor Speedway:
1) Kyle Berck 870 2) Jason Frieson 810 3) Jason O'Brien 760 4) Mike Collins 750 5) Steve Kempt, Kelly Boen, Shawn Harker 735 8) Ronnie Wallace 725 9) Cory Zeitner 715 10) Jason Bodenhamer 710
Current NCRA Late Model Rookie Point Standings after Brill Motor Speedway
1) Jason O'Brien 73, 2) Scott Koskovich 65, 3) Jake Neighbors 44, 4) Jay Stewart 40, 5) Jace Kaser 29
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