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Karen Fulp
WEST PLAINS, Mo. (September 5) - The Race Brothers Show-Me Racin Series made their final trip of the 2009 season to West Plains Motor Speedway on Saturday evening Sept 5, 2009. Following two inches of rain the night before, the track was heavy and fast for the Show-Me boys. We always comment on how great West Plains Motor Speedway is & how wonderful Don & Billie Gibson are, but last night I was on the track during driver introductions and was even more impressed. I watched track owner, Don Gibson, go from driver to driver as the starting field was introduced to the fans, and he shook the hand of every driver and thanked them for coming. A class act - we should all take a lesson from Don & Billie and their staff.
Four great heat races got the night underway - each race going caution free. Larry Campbell started off a great night by winning heat race number one over Todd Hall & Rick Lebow. Making steady progress all season, Rex Merritt came from his 5th starting position to win heat race two, followed by Bill McMurtrie coming from 7th and Justin Wells in 3rd. Scott Fry lead heat race two for a long time, and was running 2nd with one to go and had problems the rear-end on his car, ending his night.
Jarrod Hilton took the checkers in the 3rd heat race, followed by Jim Fulp, Ken Essary, & Chris Morelock. Leslie Essary looked like the man to beat for the evening coming from 7th to win the 4th heat. Darrin Barton made the trip to West Plains for his first race of 2009 and had a great run, finishing 2nd in his heat. Kevin Henson was third in the last heat followed by Ron Johnson.
With 28 Show-Me Late Models checking in to do battle, 16 qualified through the heats, leaving 12 cars to go after the remaining 4 transfer positions to the A. The B feature was a great race, with Chris Deaton taking the win, followed by Tim Adams, Chris Lapp, and Kevin Brown. Phil Edmondson & Mark Penticuff received the points provisional starting spots.
Following on-track introductions and a 4-wide salute to the fans, the Race Brothers Show-Me Racin Series took the green for a great race, slowed by one red flag, and 2 yellows, all for 1 car incidents. Jarrod Hilton & Bill McMurtrie started on the front row, with Jarrod Hilton jumping out to the lead on the start. Jim Fulp made an early run, but was unable to pull off the pass for the lead. Larry Campbell was charging hard from his 6th starting position and on lap 6, took over second spot and picked off Jarrod Hilton for 1st on lap nine, after the field was bunched up following a red on lap 8 when Bill McMurtrie who was running 5th, spun in turns 3 and 4. Leslie Essary was also coming on strong, making it to second by lap 10 from his 7th starting position. Points leader Justin Wells, seemed to be having a bit of an off-night for his stellar season, but made steady progress to the front and finished 3rd. Rick Lebow debuted a-new-to-him GRT chassis and looked great, running in the top 5 the whole race. Lap 16 brought out a yellow for Phil Edmondson in turn 3, with Larry Campbell and Leslie Essary still battling for the top spot. The final caution of the night came out on lap 22, leaving an 8 lap shoot-out to the finish. Larry Campbell continued to hold off Leslie Essary, and Jim Fulp who contended for the lead early, but fell back to as far as 7th, made a charge on the restart and came back up to 4th in the final laps. Bill McMurtrie who spun early in the race and restarted tailback made a nice run through the field to finish in the 10th spot. Darrin Barton, in his first race of 2009 had a good run pulling off a 7th place finish. In the end, Rookie of the Year contender Larry Campbell held off 2 time series champ Leslie Essary for the win, followed by Justin Wells, Jim Fulp, and Rick Lebow rounding the top 5.
The Race Brothers Show-Me Series schedule has unfortunately been shortened to the cancellation of 2 events. Sept 25th at Muskogee and Oct. 1 at Springfield Raceway has been removed from the schedule. The series will wrap up 2009 on Oct 17 at Tri-State Speedway's Spooker and honor this year's drivers at Camp Barnabas during the banquet the following Sunday Oct 25th. Please visit www.Show-MeRacinSeries.com for more information.
Race Brothers Show-Me Racin Series
9-5-09 West Plains Motor Speedway
28 Late Models
Race Brothers Farm & Home Supply A feature
1. Larry Campbell
2. Leslie Essary
3. Justin Wells
4. Jim Fulp
5. Rick Lebow
6. Rex Merritt
7. Darrin Barton
8. Jarrod Hilton
9. Ken Essary
10. Bill McMurtrie
11. Chris Deaton
12. Todd Hall
13. Randy Galloway
14. Kevin Henson
15. Kathy Tonoli
16. Kevin Brown
17. Phil Edmondson
18. Tim Adams
19. Ron Johnson
20. Mark Penticuff
21. Chris Lapp
22. Chris Morelock
Race Brothers Farm & Home Suppply B Feature
1.Chris Deaton
2.Tim Adams
3.Chris Lapp
4.Kevin Brown
5.Phil Edmondson
6.Joseph Gorby
7.Todd Mccain
8.Frank Tindle
9.mark penticuff
10.Jerry Craney 01
11.Justin Asplin
12.Scott Fry - DNS - broke rear-end
Bilstein Heat Race #1
1.Larry Campbell
2.Todd Hall
3.Rick Lebow
4.Randy Galloway
5.Justin Asplin
6.Todd McCain
7.Mark Penticuff
Peterson Fluid System Heat Race #2
1.Rex Merritt
2.Bill McMurtrie
3.Justin Wells
4.Kathy Tonoli
5.Kevin Brown
6.Jerry Craney
7.Scott Fry
Powertrain Industries Heat Race #3
1.Jarrod Hilton
2.Jim Fulp
3.Ken Essary
4.Chris Morelock
5.Tim Adams
6.Joseph Gorby 9g
7.Chris Lapp
Brodix Heat Race #4
1.Leslie Essary
2.Darrin Barton
3.Kevin Henson
4.Ron Johnson
5.Chris Deaton
6.Phil Edmondson
7.Frank Tindle
A Feature Starting order
1.11
2.73
3.33
4.00
5.25x
6.15c
7.5
8.98
9.99
10.60
11.55
12.15h
13.25b
14.44r
15.50
16.31
17.1c
18.2a
19.9L
20.76
21.7e
22.2p
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