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David Smith Jr.
EAGLE, Neb. (July 23) - Two time and defending series champion Kyle Berck solidly worked through a strong field of competitors to notch his first victory of the season as the O'Reilly/NCRA late model division made a stop at Eagle Raceway in Eagle, Nebraska during "Rumble in the Bullring" on Friday night.
Travis Dickes and Bo Egge started on the front row for the forty lap feature with Dickes taking the lead as the green flag fell. Egge fell into the runner up position with Jason O'Brien and Terry Phillips giving chase after lap one.
However, Dickes lead would be short lived as he would bring out the races first caution flag as he spun exiting turn four. During the caution, four time series champion Kelly Boen, who started third, would also exit the pit area with problems on the rear end of his Rocket Chassis.
The attempted restart was quickly waved off when O'Brien also spun coming out of turn number four.
It was all green flag racing after that with Egge now taking over the top spot as he quickly opened up a five car length lead on the restart. Phillips restarted in the runner up spot but that lasted until lap three when former two time series champion Al Purkey of Coffeyville, Kansas got around Phillips to take over second and set his sights on the leader.
But Egge had worked himself up to a ten car length lead as he began to approach lapped traffic for the first time on lap ten. This allowed Purkey to cut the deficit in half by lap fifteen with the leaders still working lapped traffic.
At the races midway point it was still Egge, followed by Purkey, Phillips, tenth starting Eric Turner and eleventh starting Berck, who began to make his move towards the front.
Berck, aboard the Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing/Strobel Construction sponsored Wegner Auto Ford powered Lazer chassis, got around Turner for the fourth position on lap twenty-three and set his sights on Phillips.
Back up front Egge began entering even heavier lapped traffic as drivers raced all across the three-eighths mile clay oval. This allowed Purkey to close to within three car lengths of the lead with fifteen laps to go.
Back behind the leaders Berck wasn't finished as he got underneath Phillips on lap twenty-six and quickly closed up on the two front runners. While Purkey and Berck were battling for the runner up position, this allowed Egge to again stretch out his advantage to ten car lengths with just ten laps to go.
But Berck would overtake Purkey for the runner up position one lap later and quickly caught the front running Egge, who was working the bottom of the track. Both drivers would race side by side with five laps to go before Berck made his move on lap 37 as he drifted high in turns three and four and dove underneath the leader coming out of turn four to take the lead by a car length.
From then on there was no catching Berck as he led the final three laps to take his 22 career series victory by fifteen car lengths at the finish.
"The car worked really well tonight wherever we wanted it to," said an elated Berck afterwards. "I didn't think we had that good of a car early but about half way I thought we might be good enough for a top five. I worked the top pretty good and pushed myself hard to get those guys up front. I don't think he "Egge" even knew I was up there and I caught him by surprise."
Egge would settle for second and the Brake Man "tough brake" of the race with Purkey coming home third. Phillips would settle for the fourth position with Turner rounding out the top five.
Boen, O'Brien and Egge topped heat race action for the twenty-seven car field while Mike Wallace beat Corey Zeitner to pick up the twelve lap "B" feature.
NCRA Late Models
Eagle Raceway
July 23, 2010
A-Main
1 14 Kyle Berck Marquette, NE
2 1X Bo Egge Kearney, NE
3 33 Al Purkey Coffeyville, KS
4 75 Terry Phillips Springfield, MO
5 99T Eric Turner Hermitage, MO
6 1W Mike Wiarda Aurora, NE
7 2 John Anderson Omaha, NE
8 9E Evan Hubert Cross Timbers, MO
9 74 Jeremy Payne Springfield, MO
10 6 Dylan Smith Osceola, NE
11 7J J.D. Hubert Cross Timbers, MO
12 26JR Corey Zeitner Omaha, NE
13 15J Jase Kaser Lincoln, NE
14 40 Shawn Harker Nebraska City, NE
15 44 Alonzo Grosse Council Bluffs, IA
16 8 Mike Wallace Carter Lake, IA
17 89 Jerry Warner Lavista, NE
18 21T Travis Dickes Madison, NE
19 15B Jason Obrien Atlantic, IA
20 92 Delbert Smith Wichita, KS
21 49 Waylan Petrie Solomon, KS
22 07 Kelly Boen Henderson, CO
23 1M Todd Bell Omaha, NE
24 22 Craig Preble Yutan, NE
B FEATURE - 1, Mike Wallace. 2, Corey Zeitner. 3, Dylan Smith. 4, Shawn Harker. 5, Todd Bell. 6, Alonzo Grosse. 7, Wylan Petrie. 8, Dustin Reeh. 9, Mike Martin, Jr. 10, Craig Preble. DNS: Tracy Harr.
HEAT 1 - 1, Kelly Boen. 2, Mike Wiarda. 3, John Anderson. 4, Delbert Smith. 5, J.D. Hubert. 6, Evan Hubert. 7, Corey Zeitner. 8, Craig Preble. 9, Wylan Petrie.
HEAT 2 - 1, Jason O'Brien. 2, Terry Phillips. 3, Eric Turner. 4, Kyle Berck. 5, Jase Kaser. 6, Mike Wallace. 7, Todd Bell. 8, Alonzo Grosse. 9, Dylan Smith.
HEAT 3 - 1, Bo Egge. 2, Travis dickes. 3, Jeremy Payne. 4, Al Purkey. 5, Jerry Warner. 6, Shawn Harker. 7, Dustin Reeh. 8, Mike Martin, Jr. 9, Tracy Harr.
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