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John Rittenoure
BELLEVILLE, Kans. (September 5) - Kelly Boen bided his time on Sunday and it paid off in a big way with a victory at the Belleville Highbanks and the 2010 O'Reilly NCRA Late Model Series championship.
Dean Moore was setting a torrid pace on the big half-mile and Boen was a distant second until lapped traffic allowed Boen to close in take away the lead.
"I think if we had a yellow he might have won it," said Boen of Moore's lead. "I was saving a little for the end and I typically do at these races because you might run your right rear (tire) off.
"Dean (Moore) had a great car, it was better than mine but he got unlucky in traffic and I took advantage of it."
Boen ran down Dean when lapped traffic came into play and challenged Dean on lap 14. Dean held his ground but on lap 15 Boen roared inside of Dean at they crossed the start-finish line and the two rubbed door panels as Boen gunned away with the lead entering turn one. Boen raced unchallenged the final five laps to record his 12th victory of the season.
"Me and him (Dean) are very good friends and I would never rough that guy up," said Boen of rubbing incident. "I gave him enough room. I would not have been upset if he had beat me and I finished second.
"I was hoping to pace myself for the end. At Belleville ten laps is a long way, fifteen laps starts to wear on you and if you are good the last five laps a lot of times you can take advantage of it.
"My car was not steering as good as his but it was good enough to catch him in traffic and get the win."
Boen was happy with the track condition and the turnout of a sellout crowd for the NCRA Triple Crown event that also included Sprints and the Modified North series.
"It was great," said Boen of the track conditions. "You could run anywhere on the racetrack and it was great to see all these fans up here. This is a wonderful place to race."
Boen broke is own record of eleven wins in a season (set in 2009) with the victory and with one race remaining on the season Boen could potentially make it a bakers dozen (13). It was also his 56th NCRA career victory which tops the late model division for wins and earned Boen his fifth Late Model crown in six years. Last year Boen lost to Kyle Berck to stop what could have been a record streak when this years title is added.
The 20-lap feature opened with Moore jumping off the pole to lead over Boen and Kelly Dunn. On lap seven Corey Zeitner passed Dunn for third where he finished third behind Moore. Dunn was fourth and Jimmy Segraves rounded out the top five.
Belleville Highbanks - Belleville, Kansas - September 5, 2010
HEAT 1: 1, Justin Kinderknecht. 2, Dean Moore. 3, Dave Conkwright. 4, Corey Zeitner. 5, Denton Duncan. 6, Keith Heger. 7, Mark Ronnebaun. 8, Wylan Petrie.
HEAT 2: 1, Kelly Boen. 2, Kelly Dunn. 3, Jimmy Segraves. 4, Shawn Harker. 5, Kurt Abell. 6, Mike Wiarda. 7, Ron Heger.
A FEATURE: 1, Kelly Boen. 2, Dean Moore. 3, Corey Zeitner. 4, Kelly Dunn. 5, Jimmy Segraves. 6, Dave Conkwright. 7, Shawn Harker. 8, Kurt Abell. 9, Wylan Petrie. 10, Denton Duncan. 11, Mark Ronnebaun. DNS: Keith Heger, Ron Heger, Justin Kinderknecht, Mike Wiarda.
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