Columbus, MS - Sunday night the Firecracker Five Crown Summer Speedweek Series would stay in the city of Columbus for the second consecutive night, this time at Magnolia Motor Speedway for the 4th event of the 5-part Super Late Model series. "The Mag" would enjoy it's biggest crowd in history for the Sunday night event, and a healthy 116 race teams would fill the pits for what would be another wild, fantastic show.
Rodney Wing would set fast time in Five Crown Super Late models and would take the early lead of the 40-lap, $2,000-to-win feature event as Saturday night's Columbus Speedway Five Crown feature winner David Breazeale dueled with Garrett Durrett for second place. Five Crown points leader Mike Boland would move in to make the battle for second three-wide, with Boland taking over the spot exiting turn 4. Breazeale would move into third place on lap 3, and the first caution would fall for Byron Michael on the next lap.
Wing would have to relinquish his early lead as he was forced to leave the track under caution and would not return, giving Boland the lead with Breazeale, Durrett, Jason Smith, and Jamie Elam holding down the top five spots. Breazeale would go after Boland on the restart as Smith, Durrett, and Elam battled hard for third place. Elam would capture the position on lap 8, and Jeff Floyd moved up from his 11th-place starting spot to take Elam's place in the three-way battle for 4th.
Floyd would take 4th place on lap 9 with Smith challenging immediately, and the leaders would reach lapped traffic on lap 10. Breazeale would go door-to-door with Boland, and then take over the lead on lap 13 as Floyd battled with Elam for third place. Boland would appear to regain the lead on lap 15, but a caution for Glenn Roberts would put Breazeale back on top followed by Boland, Elam, Floyd, and Smith.
Breazeale would hold the lead after the restart and create some breathing room as he "rode the see-saw" around the track, running near the wall in turns 1 and 2 and near the infield in turns 3 and 4. Boland chased using only the hub as Chris Ragan moved quickly into the picture up front, going under Floyd and taking over 4th place on lap 21. Breazeale would reach lapped traffic with Boland quickly gaining ground, and after an incident with one of the lapped cars, Breazeale would lose the lead to Boland on lap 25. Elam would catch the #54 just before a caution on lap 34 leaving Boland, Breazeale, Elam, Ragan, and Floyd in the top five.
After one false start for a driver hitting the firing cone, Elam and Ragan would blast around Breazeale as Boland drove ahead in the lead. Breazeale would go back underneath and try to regain second place in turn 4, but coming back onto the track would collide with Ragan, sending the #C16 up the track and bringing out a caution. Breazeale would be charged with the caution and would be lined back up at the tail of the lead lap cars.
Boland would move ahead out front following the final restart, with Floyd battling hard with Elam for second place. Elam would hold on as Durrett moved into 4th place and Breazeale cut back through the pack. Boland sailed on to take the win and become the fourth winner in four races for the Five Crown series. Elam, Floyd and Durrett would follow, and Breazeale would recover to complete the top five. Ragan, Clint Logan, Dane Dacus, Scott Dedwylder, and Anthony Burroughs earned top-10 honors.
While the Super Late Model race was fabulous, the Open Wheel Modified feature event was that much better. Tony Gray would move into an early lead as Chad Winkles and Brandon Poppenheimer challenged early on with 3-wide racing ahead of several packs that ran 4-wide around the speedway. Poppenheimer would move into second place as Winkles and Chris Moore battle for 3rd, with Gray holding onto the lead.
Three-wide they would go once again behind Gray, and soon Jeremy Shaw would move in on the hub. Winkles would take over the lead on lap 10, and Shaw would follow suit and take over 2nd place off of turn 4 only to have Gray drive back by in turn 3 on the next lap. Shaw would recapture the spot and chase Winkles, who bobbled running on the infield edge in turn 2 on the final lap. Shaw would drive by to take over the lead, with Gray on his heels. Shaw, breaking a recent streak of DNF's, would take the win with Gray, Winkles, Poppenheimer, and Moore in the top five.
Judson Littlejohn would be forced to start on the rear of his Late Model Stock heat race according to rules due to his winning the previous two features at The Mag. Littlejohn found the handicap not to be much of an obstacle, taking over the feature lead in the late stages of the event from Billy Franklin and driving on to a third straight Magnolia Motor Speedway feature win. Chris Jimerson, Franklin, Terry Mosley, and Ruble Maxey earned top five honors.
TK King would duel Richard West in a race-long, door-to-door battle for the lead in the Street Stock division. King finally took the win with West, Craig Barham, Scott Stripling, and Danny Gable in the top five. Steve Bryan once again drove to the front to capture the Mini Stock win over Heath Minor, Scott Gable, Mike Minor, and Bo Minor. Kevin Crenshaw & Jerry Orr took the Two-Person Cruiser feature win.
The next event at Magnolia Motor Speedway will see the Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series Super Late Models return on August 20th. Stop by the Magnolia Motor Speedway website at www.MagnoliaMotorSpeedway.com for details. The next event in Columbus, MS will be a Weekly Racing Series show on Saturday, July 9th at Columbus Speedway featuring Local Divisions, followed by the MSCCS-SUPR Challenge 6th Annual John L. Cliett Tribute on July 16th paying $4,000 to the Super Late Model winner, also at Columbus Speedway. For more details stop by the Columbus Speedway official website located at www.ColumbusSpeedway.net .
Firecracker Five Crown Event 4 of 5
SUPER LATE MODEL
Pos. Car# Driver (Started)
1ST 222 MIKE BOLAND (4)
2ND 12 JAMIE ELAM (6)
3RD F1 JEFF FLOYD (11)
4TH 58¢ GARRETT DURRETT (2)
5TH 54 DAVID BREAZEALE (3)
6TH C16 CHRIS RAGAN (15)
7TH 9 CLINT LOGAN (8)
8TH 54 DANE DACUS (54)
9TH 33 SCOTT DEDWYLDER (33)
10TH 121 ANTHONY BURROUGHS (9)
11TH 1 RONALD DUNN (16)
12TH 6 JACK DAUGHTRY (22)
13TH B17 BYRON MICHAEL (10)
14TH TP1 TIM BENTON (24)
15TH 6P JOHN PAFFORD (23)
16TH 12 JASON SMITH (5)
17TH 3 TRACY PICKERING (18)
18TH K0 KELLY HANVEY (12)
19TH 5 SHAWN EDWARDS (20)
20TH 15W RANDALL WALKER (19)
21ST 56 DAVID GENTRY (13)
22ND 18 RONNY LEE HOLLINGSWORTH (17)
23RD 2R GLENN ROBERTS (21)
24TH 10 RODNEY WING (1)
MODIFIED
Top 10
1ST 1S JEREMY SHAW
2ND 35 TONY GRAY
3RD 12 CHAD WINKLES
4TH 99 BRANDON POPPENHIEMER
5TH 17 CHRIS MOORE
6TH 5 JASON HOLLIS
7TH 17 MATT PRICE
8TH 3 SHAY KNIGHT
9TH 44 TONY GRAY
10TH 215 SHANE STEPHENS
LATE MODEL STOCK
Top 10
1ST 3 JUDSON LITTLEJOHN
2ND 18 CHRIS JIMERSON
3RD 65 BILLY FRANKLIN
4TH 1T TERRY MOSLEY
5TH 75M RUBLE MAXEY
6TH 7 JEREMY GLASGOW
7TH 7 STACY TYLER
8TH 29 DWIGHT MOSLEY
9TH 52 PHILLIP CARLISLE
10TH 11 JEFFREY WALKER
STREET STOCK
Top 5
1ST 6 TK KING
2ND 4 RICHARD WEST
3RD 48 CRAIG BARHAM
4TH 10 SCOTT STRIPLING
5TH 47 DANNY GABLE
MINI STOCK
Top 5
1ST 10 STEVE BRYAN
2ND 21 HEATH MINOR
3RD 6 SCOTT GABLE
4TH 2 MIKE MINOR
5TH 1 BO MINOR
TWO-PERSON CRUISER
Top 5
1ST 18 1/2 KEVIN CRENSHAW & JERRY ORR
2ND 13 JACOB STAPP & CLIFF SWEDENBURG
3RD 14 KRIS & AUDREY MONAHAN
4TH 37 JEREMY & MIKE HARRIS
5TH 56 KEVIN MCWILLIAMS & SHANE TILLEY
