Franz Kicks off NCRA Modified Season in Familiar Fashion!

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Park City, Kansas – April 2, 2011 - Brian Franz of Halstead, Kansas, the driver with the most feature victories in the series and track history, took the lead at the start and withstood several race challenges to pick up yet another win Saturday night as the National Championship Racing Association of Park City, Kansas presented by Smiley’s Racing Products modified division kicked off their 14th consecutive season at 81 Speedway before a capacity crowd.

Starting on the front row, Franz and his familiar #86 Bills Built chassis, started on the pole for the twenty-five lap feature finale and quickly jumped out into the lead as the green flag fell. Nic Baalman and his Pro Motor Sports sponsored Bills Built chassis settled in behind Franz at the wave of the green and pressured Franz as both drivers worked the bottom portion of the wind-swept three-eighths mile oval.

Lap two saw fourth starting Ryan McAninch get underneath Baalman for the runner up position and he also began to pressure Franz for the top position.

A brief caution on lap five for Ponca City, Oklahoma driver Casey McClaskey stop on the front stretch slowed the pace and on the restart, Baalman retook the runner up position with Franz getting his rhythm back up front. The leader would start to open up a five car length advantage by lap ten before the next caution flag fell when series rookie contender Cody Schniepp spun in turn two.

Once racing resumed Franz kept it out front while behind him the battle for the second spot continued between Baalman and McAninch as the latter would take over the spot for good at the races midway point.

The caution would have once again, this time on lap fourteen, and once again Franz had no problems throttling away from the field. Baalman’s strong run would come to an end on lap eighteen when he dropped from the competition with mechanical woes.
The final caution of the event would wave on lap 22 for Ted Tolins spin in turn four.
But on the restart there was no stopping Franz as he went the final three laps unchallenged to take his 33rd career series feature victory. McAninch came home a solid third while Jim Johnson had one of his better runs in NCRA modified competition to come home third. 2008 series champion Marc Hurd, who wired the field in the first “B” feature earlier in the evening, started eleventh and came through the field to finish fourth. Ninth starting Todd Doty rounded out the top five.

Defending series champion Brian Powers found started nineteenth and came home seventh in the feature finale.

The next event for the NCRA of Park City, Kansas presented by Smiley’s Racing Products will be held on Memorial Day weekend Saturday night, May 28th, back at 81 Speedway before making their first stop since 2008 at “The Hummer,” Humboldt Speedway in Humboldt, Kansas.

Officials and staff with the NCRA of Park City, Kansas presented by Smiley’s Racing Products modified division would like to thank the following series partners for their involvement with the series for the 2011 race season:
Park City, Kansas, Smiley’s Racing Products, Hoosier Racing Tires and Sunoco Race Fuels

NCRA Modified Division
4/2/2011
(44 Cars)
1st Heat: 1) Brian Franz 2) 2) Ryan Whitworth 3) Shane Gerber 4) Bill Stahl 5) Jason Schniepp 6) Justin Moler 7) Brian Powers 8) Adam Schrag 9) Kirby Robe

2nd Heat: 1) Austin Allen 2) Richard Wilson 3) Jason McGehee 4) Straun Taylor 5) Joey Richmond 6) Ryan Heger 7) Ross Shipman 8) Kip Hughes 9) Jim Graves

3rd Heat: 1) Cody Schniepp 2) Gary Kilbourn 3) Ted Tolan 4) Cody Gearhart 5) Tad Davis 6) Bill Siemers 7) Josh Lanterman 8) Shawn Langhover Jr. 9) Ronald Heger

4th Heat: 1) Mike Jarvis 2) Nic Baalman 3) Tyler Davis 4) Marc Hurd 5) Dan Powers 6) David Brack 7) Carson McKeen 8) Marlin Farr 9) Shane Campbell

5th Heat: 1) Jim Johnson 2) Ryan McAninch 3) Todd Doty 4) Casey McClaskey 5) Clint Smith 6) Shawn Langhover 7) Jase Wedel 8) Danny McFadden

1st B Feature: 1) Marc Hurd 2) Shane Gerber 3) Jason McGehee 4) Ross Shipman 5) Brian Powers 6) Marlin Farr 7) Clint Smith 8) Jase Wedel 9) Kip Hughes 10) Ryan Heger 11) Shawn Langhover 12) Gary Kilbourn 13) Bill Stahl 14) Kirby Robe 15) Joey Richmond 16) Jason Schniepp 17) Ronald Heger

2nd B Feature: 1) Casey McClaskey 2) Tyler Davis 3) Bill Siemers 4) Ted Tolan 5) Carson McKeen 6) Tad Davis 7) Danny McFadden 8) David Brack 9) Josh Lanterman 10) Straun Taylor 11) Dan Powers 12) Justin Moler 13) Adam Schrag 14) Cody Gearhart 15) Shawn Langhover Jr. 16) Shane Campbell 17) Jim Graves

A Feature: 1) Brian Franz 2) Ryan McAninch 3) Jim Johnson 4) Marc Hurd 5) Todd Doty 6) Richard Wilson 7) Brian Powers 8) Tyler Davis 9) Ross Shipman 10) Mike Jarvis 11) Shane Gerber 12) Ryan Whitworth 13) Jason McGehee 14) Carson McKeen 15) Ted Tolan 16) Austin Allen 17) Bill Siemers 18) Casey McClaskey 19) Nic Baalman 20) Cody Schniepp

Lap Leaders: Franz 1-25
 




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