by Dusty Wiegert
For the second time this season the O’Reilly Auto Parts Topless Outlaw Racing Association saw a duel between 2 series front runners, Delbert Smith and Steve Kosiski, as Smith came out on top once again.
Ryan McAninch earned the pole position for the first visit on the year to the Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, Kansas after starting eighth in his heat race and finishing second. Kosiski started on the outside pole with Smith on the inside of row 2. At the drop of the green flag McAninch took off and out powered the rest of the field into turn 3 as the U2 of Scott Daly got too high and looped around at the top of the track to bring out the yellow flag and a complete restart. Kuntz & Company Rookie of the Year points leader Craig Preble had problems to the right front of his machine and went out of the race as well.
On the second attempted start chaos broke loose as the cars exited turn 4 as Greg Larsen spun in front of the back half of the field, collecting Gary Gorby, Mike Danburg, Al Humphrey, Bob Miller, Kelly Brown, and Andy Gerstonkorn. Miller was the only car able to continue.
The third try finally got the 30 lap A Feature underway with Kosiski out front ahead of McAninch, Smith, Darrick Klima, and Ted Martin. On lap 2 the final yellow would come out, this time for B Feature winner Brad Fortney who stalled in turn 1.
Restarting saw Smith work his way past McAninch while Kosiski held onto the lead. The Iceman quickly moved alongside and challenged for the lead on lap 4. The 2 drove side by side exchanging the lead for 2 more laps while Smith worked around the bottom and Kosiski up high. On lap 6 Smith pulled ahead of Kosiski and pulled out to a good sized lead. By lap 10 Smith began working on lapped traffic, allowing Kosiski to narrow the gap. Heavy lapped traffic, at some times 3-4 cars, slowed down Smith and allowed Kosiski to get runs for the lead using the traffic, but every time Smith would get back by. On lap 18 Smith made a classic Iceman move to get around the M38 of Bob Miller exiting turn 2, and strengthened his lead with open track in front of him. The leaders continued to work around lapped cars as the laps ticked away. With 5 to go Kosiski had once again caught Smith and challenged again for the lead. Coming around for the white flag Kosiski was right on Smith’s tail in 1 and 2, and then in 3 and 4 put his nose to the bottom of Smith. Coming off turn 4 Kosiski had a run but could only literally push Smith across the line in first with Kosiski second, McAninch third, Klima fourth, and Mike Conkwright passing Martin on the last lap for fifth.
In the 12 lap B Feature Brown led early until Fortney worked around the bottom of Brown on lap 9 to take the win. Dave Conkwright was was third and Gerstonkorn fourth.
Modified hot shoe Klima worked past Preble on lap 5 to win the first heat race of the evening with Preble second and Sprint Car ace Chris Morgan third. Earl Kinderknecht drove from fifth to first on the first lap of heat 2 and held the lead until Kosiski worked past on the outside, and then contact between the two sent Kinderknecht to the back. Kosiski won the heat followed by McAninch and Steve Foster. Smith led all the way to win the third heat ahead of Martin and Larsen.
QUICK NOTES
The top 3 finishers at Thunderhill were similar to those at the Salina Speedway only a week earlier. With Smith’s win he moves closer to Kosiski, who now leads by only 75 points. McAninch also stays in the battle, but loses 30 points on Kosiski, even though he had an excellent run in the feature for the second week in a row.
Foster moved into fourth place in the point standings with an outstanding run finishing in the sixth position. Preble continues to lead the Rookie points but lost a position down to fifth. Larry McDaniels continues to hold down sixth while Kinderknecht lost 2 spots and is down to seventh. Jerrod Reimer, absent Saturday night, holds onto eigth, tied with Gorby who picked up a spot. Martin held onto tenth to round out the top 10 thus far in the 2005 Championship chase.
Omaha driver John Anderson encountered problems before hot laps with his 1K car and loaded up before the heat races.
For more information on the O’Reilly TORA Late Models visit www.toraracing.org
RESULTS
Entries: 25
Top Qualifier: Ryan McAninch
Provisionals: none
Lap Leaders: Steve Kosiski, 1-6, 20, 22; Delbert Smith, 7-19, 21, 23-30
Cautions: 2 prior to start, 1 after
Heat 1 (10 Laps) – 1) 15X Darrick Klima, Belleville, KS 2) 22 Craig Preble, Yutan, NE 3) 47 Chris Morgan, Topeka, KS 4) 6 Al Humphrey, Giltner, NE 5) Steven Bowers Jr., Topeka, KS 6) 50B Larry McDaniels, Valley Center, KS 7) 22G Andy Gerstonkorn, Independence, KS 8) D7 Doug Clark, Park City, KS 9) 1K John Anderson, Omaha, NE (DNS)
Heat 2 (10 Laps) – 1) 52K Steve Kosiski, Papillion, NE 2) 52 Ryan McAninch, Wichita, KS 3) 21 Steve Foster, Abilene, KS 4) 21C Mike Conkwright, Manhattan, KS 5) U2 Scott Daly, Elkhorn, NE 6) 59 Brad Fortney, Wichita, KS 7) T1T Earl Kinderknecht, Salina, KS 8) 74H Justin Hoepker, Iola, KS
Heat 3 (10 laps) – 1) 92 Delbert Smith, Wichita, KS 2) 7C Ted Martin, Bennington, KS 3) 64 Greg Larsen, Plattsmouth, NE 4) 99 Gary Gorby, Caney, KS 5) 66 Mike Danburg, Council Bluffs, IA 6) 29 Kelly Brown, Salina, KS 7) D22 Dave Conkwright, Manhattan, KS 8) M38 Bob Miller, Holton, KS
B Feature (12 Laps) – 1) Fortney 2) Brown 3) D. Conkwright 4) Gerstonkorn 5) Miller 6) Kinderknecht 7) Hoepker 8) Clark
A Feature (30 Laps) – 1) Smith 2) Kosiski 3) McAninch 4) Klima 5) M. Conkwright 6) Foster 7) McDaniels 8) Martin 9) D. Conkwright 10) Bowers Jr. 11) Daly 12) Kinderknecht 13) Morgan 14) Hoepker 15) Miller 16) Fortney 17) Gerstonkorn 18) Larsen 19) Humphrey 20) Danburg 21) Gorby 22) Brown 23) Preble
For the second time this season the O’Reilly Auto Parts Topless Outlaw Racing Association saw a duel between 2 series front runners, Delbert Smith and Steve Kosiski, as Smith came out on top once again.
Ryan McAninch earned the pole position for the first visit on the year to the Thunderhill Speedway in Mayetta, Kansas after starting eighth in his heat race and finishing second. Kosiski started on the outside pole with Smith on the inside of row 2. At the drop of the green flag McAninch took off and out powered the rest of the field into turn 3 as the U2 of Scott Daly got too high and looped around at the top of the track to bring out the yellow flag and a complete restart. Kuntz & Company Rookie of the Year points leader Craig Preble had problems to the right front of his machine and went out of the race as well.
On the second attempted start chaos broke loose as the cars exited turn 4 as Greg Larsen spun in front of the back half of the field, collecting Gary Gorby, Mike Danburg, Al Humphrey, Bob Miller, Kelly Brown, and Andy Gerstonkorn. Miller was the only car able to continue.
The third try finally got the 30 lap A Feature underway with Kosiski out front ahead of McAninch, Smith, Darrick Klima, and Ted Martin. On lap 2 the final yellow would come out, this time for B Feature winner Brad Fortney who stalled in turn 1.
Restarting saw Smith work his way past McAninch while Kosiski held onto the lead. The Iceman quickly moved alongside and challenged for the lead on lap 4. The 2 drove side by side exchanging the lead for 2 more laps while Smith worked around the bottom and Kosiski up high. On lap 6 Smith pulled ahead of Kosiski and pulled out to a good sized lead. By lap 10 Smith began working on lapped traffic, allowing Kosiski to narrow the gap. Heavy lapped traffic, at some times 3-4 cars, slowed down Smith and allowed Kosiski to get runs for the lead using the traffic, but every time Smith would get back by. On lap 18 Smith made a classic Iceman move to get around the M38 of Bob Miller exiting turn 2, and strengthened his lead with open track in front of him. The leaders continued to work around lapped cars as the laps ticked away. With 5 to go Kosiski had once again caught Smith and challenged again for the lead. Coming around for the white flag Kosiski was right on Smith’s tail in 1 and 2, and then in 3 and 4 put his nose to the bottom of Smith. Coming off turn 4 Kosiski had a run but could only literally push Smith across the line in first with Kosiski second, McAninch third, Klima fourth, and Mike Conkwright passing Martin on the last lap for fifth.
In the 12 lap B Feature Brown led early until Fortney worked around the bottom of Brown on lap 9 to take the win. Dave Conkwright was was third and Gerstonkorn fourth.
Modified hot shoe Klima worked past Preble on lap 5 to win the first heat race of the evening with Preble second and Sprint Car ace Chris Morgan third. Earl Kinderknecht drove from fifth to first on the first lap of heat 2 and held the lead until Kosiski worked past on the outside, and then contact between the two sent Kinderknecht to the back. Kosiski won the heat followed by McAninch and Steve Foster. Smith led all the way to win the third heat ahead of Martin and Larsen.
QUICK NOTES
The top 3 finishers at Thunderhill were similar to those at the Salina Speedway only a week earlier. With Smith’s win he moves closer to Kosiski, who now leads by only 75 points. McAninch also stays in the battle, but loses 30 points on Kosiski, even though he had an excellent run in the feature for the second week in a row.
Foster moved into fourth place in the point standings with an outstanding run finishing in the sixth position. Preble continues to lead the Rookie points but lost a position down to fifth. Larry McDaniels continues to hold down sixth while Kinderknecht lost 2 spots and is down to seventh. Jerrod Reimer, absent Saturday night, holds onto eigth, tied with Gorby who picked up a spot. Martin held onto tenth to round out the top 10 thus far in the 2005 Championship chase.
Omaha driver John Anderson encountered problems before hot laps with his 1K car and loaded up before the heat races.
For more information on the O’Reilly TORA Late Models visit www.toraracing.org
RESULTS
Entries: 25
Top Qualifier: Ryan McAninch
Provisionals: none
Lap Leaders: Steve Kosiski, 1-6, 20, 22; Delbert Smith, 7-19, 21, 23-30
Cautions: 2 prior to start, 1 after
Heat 1 (10 Laps) – 1) 15X Darrick Klima, Belleville, KS 2) 22 Craig Preble, Yutan, NE 3) 47 Chris Morgan, Topeka, KS 4) 6 Al Humphrey, Giltner, NE 5) Steven Bowers Jr., Topeka, KS 6) 50B Larry McDaniels, Valley Center, KS 7) 22G Andy Gerstonkorn, Independence, KS 8) D7 Doug Clark, Park City, KS 9) 1K John Anderson, Omaha, NE (DNS)
Heat 2 (10 Laps) – 1) 52K Steve Kosiski, Papillion, NE 2) 52 Ryan McAninch, Wichita, KS 3) 21 Steve Foster, Abilene, KS 4) 21C Mike Conkwright, Manhattan, KS 5) U2 Scott Daly, Elkhorn, NE 6) 59 Brad Fortney, Wichita, KS 7) T1T Earl Kinderknecht, Salina, KS 8) 74H Justin Hoepker, Iola, KS
Heat 3 (10 laps) – 1) 92 Delbert Smith, Wichita, KS 2) 7C Ted Martin, Bennington, KS 3) 64 Greg Larsen, Plattsmouth, NE 4) 99 Gary Gorby, Caney, KS 5) 66 Mike Danburg, Council Bluffs, IA 6) 29 Kelly Brown, Salina, KS 7) D22 Dave Conkwright, Manhattan, KS 8) M38 Bob Miller, Holton, KS
B Feature (12 Laps) – 1) Fortney 2) Brown 3) D. Conkwright 4) Gerstonkorn 5) Miller 6) Kinderknecht 7) Hoepker 8) Clark
A Feature (30 Laps) – 1) Smith 2) Kosiski 3) McAninch 4) Klima 5) M. Conkwright 6) Foster 7) McDaniels 8) Martin 9) D. Conkwright 10) Bowers Jr. 11) Daly 12) Kinderknecht 13) Morgan 14) Hoepker 15) Miller 16) Fortney 17) Gerstonkorn 18) Larsen 19) Humphrey 20) Danburg 21) Gorby 22) Brown 23) Preble
