Kennedale, Texas (March 5, 2010) - The O'Reilly/National Championship Racing Association kicked off its 40th anniversary season with the series' modified south division getting things started as they made their first ever appearance at the 'lil quarter mile clay oval of Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, Texas with the sanctioning of the tracks annual February Fast 50 here Friday night. After Friday nights three qualifiers were complete it was John Allen, Clyde Dunn, Jr. and Tim Clonch who took home the fifteen lap feature victories and guaranteed themselves a spot in Saturday nights $2,000 to win feature finale.
Jacob Pirkle of Venus, Texas started on the front row with Jay Sale of Edmond, Oklahoma along side as the field went green with Sale taking the early lead on the first lap. It was short lived, however, as Pirkle took over the top spot coming out of turn two on lap two. One lap later saw Allen, who started third, make his way past Sale for the third position and used the bottom side of the track to begin working his way up to challenge the leader as Pirkle found the top side to his liking.
It stayed nose to tail for several laps before the first and only caution of the race fell on lap seven when Sale went for a spin in turn two.
On the restart it was Pirkle, followed by Allen, Ronny Sigmon, Thomas Tillison, Jr. and Gene Weaver as the two front runners began distancing themselves from the rest of the field.
Tenth starting C.A. Nix began working his way up to the front and by lap ten had worked his way up to the fourth position and began to battle Sigmon for the third position.
But back up front Allen, aboard the David Harrison owned Hughes Racing Chassis began pressuring the leader with two laps to go. Coming down to take the white flag lap, Allen snuck around Pirkle entering turns one and two and out ran him down the back stretch and entering turn three, took advantage of Pirkles slight bobble to secure the three car length victory at the line.
"The top felt better but I thought I could get a good run down on the bottom but just couldn't get it done down there," said the former three time series modified north champion. "Once we got up high up there in turn one I felt pretty good from there."
Sigmon also got around Pirkle on his last lap bobble to finish second while Nix came home fourth and the final automatic transfer spot into Saturday nights feature finale.
In the second qualifying feature it was all Dunn as he took off from his inside front row starting position and wired the field as the feature went caution free. Allen Chickering came home second, a half stretch behind Dunn, while Chad Davis and George White took the four transfer positions into Saturday night.
"I felt very comfortable up there at the top and where I was out on the track," said done afterwards. "I could kinda see where everybody was so I wasn't really worried about anybody catching me. I want to thank my dad and crew, Bobby Malchus, Kevin Rowland and Brett Gee as they had this Skyrocket Chassis working great."
Clonch and Jarod Webb started on the front row for the third and final qualifier with Webb taking the early lead as the green flag fell. One lap was able to be completed before the first of two caution flags of the feature fell when Colt Goodman went for a spin in turn three.
On the restart Webb took off and quickly opened a five car length advantage over Clonch while behind them, Terry Pritchett, Kevin Clement and Patrick Daniels waged battle for the fourth and final automatic transfer position.
Just past the halfway point Clonch, fresh off his victory at the Dirt Track World Championships at Texas Motor Speedway just six days earlier, got a run around Webb exiting turn two and took the lead down the backstretch entering turn three. Clonch looked to be on his way to an easy victory but with two laps to go the final caution of the race fell when Michael McCleskey went for a spin in turn three. During the caution, mechanical gremlins struck Webb causing him to retire from the race and Pritchett inheriting the runner up position.
On the final restart there was no catching Clonch as he led the final two laps unchallenged to take the victory. "I should have heated up my tires earlier because they started off cold and after the first five laps they began to heat up," said Clonch later. But besides catching Webb, the victor had other concerns. "We lost our right side body panel there and broke a radius rod so I was kinda worried about that. I just wanted to make sure we won this thing so we could get a good starting position for tomorrow night."
Pritchett held on for second while Daniels and Clement held off a hard charging Mike Dillard the last two laps to secure the final transfer positions.
The eight lap heat races for the 46 car field were won by Pirkle, Dunn, Clonch and Sale.
Don't forget that Saturday nights championship races get underway at 4:00 PM with the modified south drivers running "B" features to qualify for the twenty-four car feature finale.
1st Heat: 1) Jacob Pirkle 2) Alan Oliva 3) Kevin Clement 4) Troy Taylor 5) George White 6) Chase Allen 7) Matt French 8) Justin McCoy 9) Lloyd Ashcraft 10) Darrin Hendrix 11) Chris Roach 12) Michael Needham
2nd Heat: 1) Clyde Dunn, Jr. 2) Jarod Webb 3) Gene Weaver 4) Jason Hilliard 5) Chad Wiliams 6) Dillon Vike 7) Billy Burt 8) Colt Goodman 9) Jim Pearcy DNS: Trenton Burchers, Chris Cole
3rd Heat: 1) Tim Clonch 2) John Allen 3) Chad Davis 4) Terry Pritchett 5) Ronny Sigman 6) Randy Kirkland 7) John Webb 8) Mickey Lassiter 9) P.J. Egbert 10) Josh Landers 11) Logan Cabbell
4th Heat: 1) Jay Sale 2) Allen Chickering 3) Patrick Daniels 4) Thomas Tillison, Jr. 5) Eric Thomlinson 6) Mike Dilliard 7) C.A. Nix 8) Brian Wolfe 9) Michael McCleskey 10) Cody Gearhart 11) Bobby Malchus 12) Ed Dunn
1st Qualifier: 1) John Allen 2) Ronny Sigman 3) Jacob Pirkle 4) C.A. Nix 5) Dillon Vike 6) Mickey Lassiter 7) Troy Taylor 8) Thomas Tillison, Jr. 9) Jay Sale 10) Gene Weaver 11) Matt French 12) Michael Needham 13) Chris Roach DNS: Jim Pearcy, Chris Cole, Darrin Hendrix
2nd Qualifier: 1) Clyde Dunn, Jr. 2) Allen Chickering 3) Chad Davis 4) George White 5) Alan Oliva 6) Randy Kirkland 7) Logan Cabbell 8) P.J. Egbert 9) Justin McCoy 10) Josh Landers 11) Jason Hilliard 12) Brian Wolfe 13) Billy Burt 14) Eric Thomlinson 15) Ed Dunn
3rd Qualifier: 1) Tim Clonch 2) Terry Pritchett 3) Patrick Daniels 4) Kevin Clement 5) Mike Dilliard 6) Chase Austin 7) Cody Gearhart 8) John Webb 9) Chad Williams 10) Michael McCleskey 11) Jarod Webb 12) Lloyd Ashcraft 13) Colt Goodman 14) Bobby Malchus DNS Trenton Borchers.
Jacob Pirkle of Venus, Texas started on the front row with Jay Sale of Edmond, Oklahoma along side as the field went green with Sale taking the early lead on the first lap. It was short lived, however, as Pirkle took over the top spot coming out of turn two on lap two. One lap later saw Allen, who started third, make his way past Sale for the third position and used the bottom side of the track to begin working his way up to challenge the leader as Pirkle found the top side to his liking.
It stayed nose to tail for several laps before the first and only caution of the race fell on lap seven when Sale went for a spin in turn two.
On the restart it was Pirkle, followed by Allen, Ronny Sigmon, Thomas Tillison, Jr. and Gene Weaver as the two front runners began distancing themselves from the rest of the field.
Tenth starting C.A. Nix began working his way up to the front and by lap ten had worked his way up to the fourth position and began to battle Sigmon for the third position.
But back up front Allen, aboard the David Harrison owned Hughes Racing Chassis began pressuring the leader with two laps to go. Coming down to take the white flag lap, Allen snuck around Pirkle entering turns one and two and out ran him down the back stretch and entering turn three, took advantage of Pirkles slight bobble to secure the three car length victory at the line.
"The top felt better but I thought I could get a good run down on the bottom but just couldn't get it done down there," said the former three time series modified north champion. "Once we got up high up there in turn one I felt pretty good from there."
Sigmon also got around Pirkle on his last lap bobble to finish second while Nix came home fourth and the final automatic transfer spot into Saturday nights feature finale.
In the second qualifying feature it was all Dunn as he took off from his inside front row starting position and wired the field as the feature went caution free. Allen Chickering came home second, a half stretch behind Dunn, while Chad Davis and George White took the four transfer positions into Saturday night.
"I felt very comfortable up there at the top and where I was out on the track," said done afterwards. "I could kinda see where everybody was so I wasn't really worried about anybody catching me. I want to thank my dad and crew, Bobby Malchus, Kevin Rowland and Brett Gee as they had this Skyrocket Chassis working great."
Clonch and Jarod Webb started on the front row for the third and final qualifier with Webb taking the early lead as the green flag fell. One lap was able to be completed before the first of two caution flags of the feature fell when Colt Goodman went for a spin in turn three.
On the restart Webb took off and quickly opened a five car length advantage over Clonch while behind them, Terry Pritchett, Kevin Clement and Patrick Daniels waged battle for the fourth and final automatic transfer position.
Just past the halfway point Clonch, fresh off his victory at the Dirt Track World Championships at Texas Motor Speedway just six days earlier, got a run around Webb exiting turn two and took the lead down the backstretch entering turn three. Clonch looked to be on his way to an easy victory but with two laps to go the final caution of the race fell when Michael McCleskey went for a spin in turn three. During the caution, mechanical gremlins struck Webb causing him to retire from the race and Pritchett inheriting the runner up position.
On the final restart there was no catching Clonch as he led the final two laps unchallenged to take the victory. "I should have heated up my tires earlier because they started off cold and after the first five laps they began to heat up," said Clonch later. But besides catching Webb, the victor had other concerns. "We lost our right side body panel there and broke a radius rod so I was kinda worried about that. I just wanted to make sure we won this thing so we could get a good starting position for tomorrow night."
Pritchett held on for second while Daniels and Clement held off a hard charging Mike Dillard the last two laps to secure the final transfer positions.
The eight lap heat races for the 46 car field were won by Pirkle, Dunn, Clonch and Sale.
Don't forget that Saturday nights championship races get underway at 4:00 PM with the modified south drivers running "B" features to qualify for the twenty-four car feature finale.
1st Heat: 1) Jacob Pirkle 2) Alan Oliva 3) Kevin Clement 4) Troy Taylor 5) George White 6) Chase Allen 7) Matt French 8) Justin McCoy 9) Lloyd Ashcraft 10) Darrin Hendrix 11) Chris Roach 12) Michael Needham
2nd Heat: 1) Clyde Dunn, Jr. 2) Jarod Webb 3) Gene Weaver 4) Jason Hilliard 5) Chad Wiliams 6) Dillon Vike 7) Billy Burt 8) Colt Goodman 9) Jim Pearcy DNS: Trenton Burchers, Chris Cole
3rd Heat: 1) Tim Clonch 2) John Allen 3) Chad Davis 4) Terry Pritchett 5) Ronny Sigman 6) Randy Kirkland 7) John Webb 8) Mickey Lassiter 9) P.J. Egbert 10) Josh Landers 11) Logan Cabbell
4th Heat: 1) Jay Sale 2) Allen Chickering 3) Patrick Daniels 4) Thomas Tillison, Jr. 5) Eric Thomlinson 6) Mike Dilliard 7) C.A. Nix 8) Brian Wolfe 9) Michael McCleskey 10) Cody Gearhart 11) Bobby Malchus 12) Ed Dunn
1st Qualifier: 1) John Allen 2) Ronny Sigman 3) Jacob Pirkle 4) C.A. Nix 5) Dillon Vike 6) Mickey Lassiter 7) Troy Taylor 8) Thomas Tillison, Jr. 9) Jay Sale 10) Gene Weaver 11) Matt French 12) Michael Needham 13) Chris Roach DNS: Jim Pearcy, Chris Cole, Darrin Hendrix
2nd Qualifier: 1) Clyde Dunn, Jr. 2) Allen Chickering 3) Chad Davis 4) George White 5) Alan Oliva 6) Randy Kirkland 7) Logan Cabbell 8) P.J. Egbert 9) Justin McCoy 10) Josh Landers 11) Jason Hilliard 12) Brian Wolfe 13) Billy Burt 14) Eric Thomlinson 15) Ed Dunn
3rd Qualifier: 1) Tim Clonch 2) Terry Pritchett 3) Patrick Daniels 4) Kevin Clement 5) Mike Dilliard 6) Chase Austin 7) Cody Gearhart 8) John Webb 9) Chad Williams 10) Michael McCleskey 11) Jarod Webb 12) Lloyd Ashcraft 13) Colt Goodman 14) Bobby Malchus DNS Trenton Borchers.
