Martin Wins Winged Outlaw Warrior Season Opener at LA

jdearing

Administrator
Staff member
LaMonte, MO(April 4th)-

Looking for a fifth straight O’Reilly Auto Parts Winged Outlaw Warriors title, Randy Martin won the rain-shortened Kiowa Line Builders A Main at LA Raceway Saturday night.

Brian Brown jumped into the lead from his outside row two starting spot followed by second starting Kyle Bellm, Rusty Potter, and Randy Martin. Potter and Martin would have a fierce battle for third as they closely followed Bellm. Martin would finally take the third spot from Potter for good on lap seven.

Brown continued to lead, but Bellm and Martin would reel him in thanks to lapped traffic. As the top three were able to free themselves from the traffic, fourth place Potter and fifth place Dustin Barks were not as lucky as they tangled in turn two. Just moments later, second running Bellm would slide over the bank in turn four. Bellm would do a 360, but he would lose his second spot as his car came to a stop. The chain of events to three of the front runners would move Martin to second and Jesse Hockett up to third followed by Jon Corbin and Jonathan Cornell.

On the lap eleven restart, Martin would get by Brown in turns one and two, but as Martin slid up the track coming off of two, Brown would get back underneath. Brown would feel pressure again from Martin, but would continue to lead. The pressure from Martin would subside as he spun his tires in turn two a lap later allowing Brown to extend his lead.

As the laps began to dwindle, Brown would again have trouble with a lapped car allowing Martin to close in on him. Brown would slide high in turn two and Martin would shoot underneath and into the lead. As Brown spun his tires, Corbin, who had gotten by Hockett earlier, would make a run down the backstretch. Corbin and Brown would go into three nearly side by side and the two made contact as neither gave ground for the second position. The two made contact and went airborne over the bank in turn three flipping wildly as fourth running Hockett would have his top wing sheared off as he went underneath the airborne pair. Luckily, both drivers would emerge unscathed from the violent flips. Hockett, who was able to keep going, would then be forced to the work area during the red flag to repair his mangled wing.

As the field got ready to restart, Mother Nature had other ideas as the skies opened up and the final laps would not happen.

Martin was declared the winner as he picked up his 37th career win with WOW in the Diamond Pet Foods J&J. Cornell would run second in the Kiowa Line Builders Maxim followed by Frank Brown in the Viking Cleaners/Linda Brown Tax Service sprinter. Don Droud Jr. would run fourth in the Jeff and Jerry Smith Eagle with Josh Fisher rounding out the top five in the Rusty Fisher Maxim. Mark Shirshekan was sixth followed by Terry Hinck. Dustin Selvage, Chris Walker, and Eric Todd would round out the top ten.

The night’s racing was marred by numerous red flags. In hot laps, Ryan Marsch took a wild tumble over the bank in between turns three and four. In heat two, Clint Todd climbed the wheel of a competitor and flipped hard over the bank in between turns three and four. Bradlee Ryun got into the frontstretch wall at the start of heat four ending his night.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Winged Outlaw Warriors will next be in action on Friday May 1st at the Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL as they support the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour.

Official Winged Outlaw Warrior results
4/4/2009
LA Raceway
34 Cars

1st Heat-8 laps(top four to A)
1. 14K Kyle Bellm-Nixa, MO(1) 2. 43 Frank Brown - Marshall, MO(3) 3. 3 Mark Shirshekan-Farmington, MO(2) 4. 28 Jonathan Cornell-Sedalia, MO(7) 5. 18W Chris Walker-Oak Grove, MO(5) 6. 48 David Brown- Marshall, MO(8) 7. 14B Danny Billings-Topeka, KS(9) 8. 32L David Langford-Kearney, MO(6) 9. 19 Mitchell Moore-Edgerton, KS(4)-DNF

2nd Heat-8 laps(top four to A)
1. 20 Jon Corbin-Carrollton, MO(1) 2. 3P Rusty Potter-Boonville, MO(4) 3. 38 Cody Baker-Lone Jack, MO(3) 4. 11C Dakota Carroll-LaMonte, MO(2) 5. 21T Eric Todd-Falcon, MO(9) 6. 9C Tony Crank - Sedalia, MO(7) 7. 4 Evan Martin-Jefferson City, MO(8) 8. 89 Todd McVay-Grain Valley, MO(6)-DNF 9. 10T Clint Todd-Falcon, MO(5)-DNF

3rd Heat- 8laps(top four to A)
1. 14 Randy Martin-California, MO(2) 2. 21 Brian Brown - Grain Valley, MO(1) 3. 7 Dustin Selvage-Indianola, IA(3) 4. 86x Josh Fisher-Smithton, MO(8) 5. 21H Terry Hinck-Boonville, MO(5) 6. 12C Faron Crank-Sedalia, MO(7) 7. 9M Dale McCarty-Eldorado Springs, MO(6) 8. 72 Curtis Boyer-New Haven, MO(4)-DNF 9. 2 Ryan Marsch-Russellville, MO(DNS)

4th Heat-8 laps(top four to A)
1. 77 Jesse Hockett-Warsaw, MO(1) 2. 22 Dustin Barks-Farmington, MO(3) 3. 86 Don Droud Jr.-Lincoln, NE(5) 4. 33 Austin Alumbaugh-Higginsville, MO(2) 5. 6M Bryan Grimes-Slater, MO(6) 6. 10 Mike Trent-Rocheport, MO(4) 7. 23F- Matt Fox-Sedalia, MO(9) 8. 19S Steven Cross-Appleton City, MO(7) 9. 18 Bradlee Ryun-Higginsville, MO(8)-DNF

1st B Main-8 laps(top two to A)
1. 18W Chris Walker-Oak Grove, MO(1) 2. 21H Terry Hinck-Boonville, MO(2) 3. 72 Curtis Boyer-New Haven, MO(8) 4. 48 David Brown- Marshall, MO(3) 5. 12C Faron Crank-Sedalia, MO(4) 6. 14B Danny Billings-Topeka, KS(5) 7. 32L David Langford-Kearney, MO(7) 8. 9M Dale McCarty-Eldorado Springs, MO(6)-DNF 9. 19 Mitchell Moore-Edgerton, KS(9)-DNF DNS-2 Ryan Marsch-Russellville, MO

2nd B Main-8 laps(top two to A)
1. 6M Bryan Grimes-Slater, MO(2) 2. 21T Eric Todd-Falcon, MO(1) 3. 23F- Matt Fox-Sedalia, MO(6) 4. 9C Tony Crank - Sedalia, MO(3) 5. 10 Mike Trent-Rocheport, MO(4) 6. 4 Evan Martin-Jefferson City, MO(5) 7. 19S Steven Cross-Appleton City, MO(7) DNS: 18 Bradlee Ryun-Higginsville, MO, 10T Clint Todd-Falcon, MO, 89 Todd McVay-Grain Valley, MO
Kiowa Line Builders A Main-20 laps

1. 14 Randy Martin-California, MO(6) 2. 28 Jonathan Cornell-Sedalia, MO(13) 3. 43 Frank Brown - Marshall, MO(8) 4. 86 Don Droud Jr.-Lincoln, NE(12) 5. 86x Josh Fisher-Smithton, MO(15) 6. 3 Mark Shirshekan-Farmington, MO(9) 7. 21H Terry Hinck-Boonville, MO(19) 8. 7 Dustin Selvage-Indianola, IA(11) 9. 18W Chris Walker-Oak Grove, MO(17) 10. 21T Eric Todd-Falcon, MO(20) 11. 6M Bryan Grimes-Slater, MO(18) 12. 9C *Tony Crank - Sedalia, MO(21) 13. 38 Cody Baker-Lone Jack, MO(10) 14. 3P Rusty Potter-Boonville, MO(1) 15. 14K Kyle Bellm-Nixa, MO(2) 16. 22 Dustin Barks-Farmington, MO(5) 17. 11C Dakota Carroll-LaMonte, MO(14) 18. 21 Brian Brown - Grain Valley, MO(4)-DNF 19. 20 Jon Corbin-Carrollton, MO(3)-DNF 20. 77 Jesse Hockett-Warsaw, MO(7)-DNF 21. 33 Austin Alumbaugh-Higginsville, MO(16)-DNF
*-used a provisional to start the A Main.
 
Commentary

I went to this show last night, and it was a good one! In addition to the WOW Sprints, they ran LA Raceway & URSS (United Rebel Sprint Series?, I picked up they are based out of Kansas) 305 Winged Sprints.

The night got off to an interesting start with a flip during hot laps (most hot lap sesssions had at least one car spin). The trend of spinning continued through the heat races with most of the 305 heat races marred by unassisted spins, normally at the initial green. The track had to enforce the two spin rule at least once. The 360 heat races were better, but there were still spins and one of the Todd brothers flipped. The 305 consi (B Main) was a demo as they started with other 10 cars for 4 transfer spots; only 5 cars finished.

The weather was beautiful (albeit very windy) until around 8:30 or so, when the predicted bad weather started to roll in. It was only then that the track decided to try to speed things along.

It started spitting rain at the beginning of the 305 feature, but it stopped and they were able to get the entire event in. The winner (Potter, #55) was disqualified (tech infraction), I'm not sure who was moved into first place.

I realize there's a whole press release, so I won't comment too much about the 360 feature, just that I didn't think anyone had anything for Brian Brown after he got the lead, Martin got by him only because of a mistake in lapped traffic (that's what it looked like anyhow). There are pictures of the flipping cars of Brian Brown, Corbin, and Jesse Hockett on the WOW homepage (www.wowsprints.homestead.com) it was truly amazing to see the cars flip while Hockett went underneath; it looked scary but luckily everyone walked away.

I pull for Kyle Bellm (among others) and it was disappointing to see him spin out of second after the caution had already come out for a separate incident. He walked the field in his heat (granted, he did start on the pole) and while he wasn't going to have anything for Brian Brown (and Martin probably would have gotten by) I think he would've ended up with a solid top 5, if not top 3.

With an almost 3 hour ride ahead of me I decided to leave as soon as it started spitting rain again during the last red flag, which turned out to be the right decision as it started coming down much harder when I got to my car and the feature was eventually called. It rained on and off until I got to Boonville (exit 101 on I-70) and the rest of the ride home was uneventful. I don't know that I'd drive all the way out to LA Raceway for a regular show (mostly because there are so many other tracks in the area that put on good weekly shows and the avilability of other specials). I was surprised by the extremely dusty conditions after all the rain the area had gotten over the past week.

The WOW makes their next stop at a co-sanctioned event with ASCS at Tri-City Speedway on May 1st, an event definitely on my must-see list this year. Up next for me is the Frostbuster 50 at Tri-City on 4/10, and family obligations permitting the regular show at St. Francois County on 4/11.

Dan
 




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