Columbus, MS - Tony Knowles came to Columbus Speedway for the 7th Annual Mississippi Winter Classic having never won a Super Late Model main event. After Sunday, he will never have to wait for that first victory again.
Despite the best efforts of the track personnel, feature races for the event had to be moved to Sunday afternoon when light rain moved in during a Stormpay.com Crate Late Model B-Main on Saturday night and did not move out as anticipated. Action resumed at 12:00PM Sunday with much of Saturday night's great crowd back in attendance.
Ken Schrader would start from the pole of the 40-lap Winter Classic Super Late Model main event inside Knowles, followed by Shawn Edwards and Bub McCool. Knowles would take over the top of the track as Edwards shot below Schrader, the three racing 3-wide until Knowles took the lead. Edwards and Schrader would then be joined by McCool, with Schrader soon claiming second place after a pair of laps. McCool would shake off both Terry Smith and Billy James to challenge Edwards, with Smith also joining the battle for third place in short order.
McCool would take over 3rd place, Smith moved up to 4th, and Edwards left the track with an apparent problem as Mike Boland moved into 5th place. Knowles raced ahead in the lead with a clear advantage until caution fell on lap 12 with Knowles, Schrader, McCool, Smith, and Boland in the top five.
McCool wrestled second place away from Schrader on the restart, and the field endured a pair of quick cautions on the following laps before Schrader made a move to retake the runner-up spot. As Schrader passed McCool on the high side, Boland dove to the very hub of the track, moving McCool quickly from second to fourth place. The three continued to duke it out with Boland racing Schrader hard and McCool looking high until the leaders began to sort themselves out around lap 19. Knowles led the way over the separated pack until the final caution fell on lap 23 with Schrader, Boland, McCool, and now Brian Rickman lining up behind the leader.
Boland once again went to the bottom on the restart, this time in an attempt to take the lead, but Knowles proved too strong to overtake. Rickman took 4th place from McCool, and Todd Hall stepped up to battle for the 5th position as Boland pulled close to Knowles once again on lap 28.
The leading pair began to navigate lapped traffic on lap 34, where they were joined by Schrader. Boland would fend of Schrader's last door-to-door effort to reclaim his old position as the laps ticked quickly away, then went on to once again chase down Knowles. There would however be no time for heroics as Knowles made his way to the checkered flag first, taking his first career Super Late Model win.
Boland would lead Schrader, Rickman, McCool across the line in the top five. Smith, Ronald Dunn, Mike Collins, Hall, and David Gentry would make up the top ten.
Jay Blair would take the Stormpay.com Crate Late Model feature win with an exciting finish in heavy lapped traffic over Frank Ingram. Check the Stormpay.com Series press release for results and recap.
Lee Ray displayed mastery of his machine as he held off Jonathan Russell and TJ Herndon on what had by then become an extremely slick "driver's track" in the Open Wheel Modified main event. The 2006 division track champion would lead flag-to-flag despite heavy constant pressure to start off the year with a win over Russell, Herndon, Ashley Newman, and Bryan Brock.
Jeremy Robertson took his first Street Stock division victory in the main event over 2006 division champ Danny Gable. Dusty Robertson would finish third followed by Steve Carter and Bryan Fortner.
Columbus Speedway's 2007 season resumes March 3rd with Opening Night. Check the Columbus Speedway Official Website at www.ColumbusSpeedway.net for full schedule, results, and other information.
Super Late Model
1ST 66 TONY KNOWLES
2ND 222 MIKE BOLAND
3RD 99 KEN SCHRADER
4TH 68 BRIAN RICKMAN
5TH 57J BUB MCCOOL
6TH 99 TERRY SMITH
7TH 1 RONALD DUNN
8TH 3 MIKE COLLINS
9TH 99 TODD HALL
10TH 56 DAVID GENTRY
11TH C16 CHRIS RAGAN
12TH 25 JUSTIN MCREE
13TH 17 CURT LIPSEY
14TH 27 JOE DENBY
15TH 82 JASON SANDERFORD
16TH 5 SHAWN EDWARDS
17TH 57 ROGER SHIRLEY
18TH 86 KYLE BEARD
19TH 13 DEWAYNE KIEFER
20TH F9 FRANK INGRAM
21ST 5JR BILLY JAMES
22ND 302 ROBERT STUTTS
23RD 86 RICK RICKMAN
24TH 33 TERRY WILSON
Stormpay.com Crate Late Model
(See Stormpay.com series PR.)
Open Wheel Modified
1ST 2 LEE RAY
2ND 06 JONATHAN RUSSELL
3RD 1 T.J. HERNDON
4TH 73S ASHLEY NEWMAN
5TH 18 BRYAN BROCK
6TH 17 MATT PRICE
7TH 444 BROOKS STRENGTH
8TH 6R JEREMY RUSSELL
9TH 7 TODD GRAY
10TH 35 TONY GRAY
11TH 81 GARY BEARD
12TH 2 TIM RUTLEDGE
13TH 36 KENNY WALLACE
14TH 59 DAVID GRIFFIN, JR
15TH 54 SHANNON DODSON
16TH V8 DUKE PALASINI
17TH 13 DAVID YOUNG
18TH 60 CURT COOK
19TH X TRINITY WYERS
20TH 41 BILL SUDDUTH
21ST B25 TODD BATES
22ND 1$ JEFF WELLS, JR.
23RD 16 BROCK OTTS
24TH 66 MIKE PAILLOU
Street Stock
1ST 69 JEREMY ROBERTSON
2ND 47 DANNY GABLE
3RD 81 DUSTY ROBERTSON
4TH 5 STEVE CARTER
5TH X BRYAN FORTNER
6TH 32 WESLEY BLAIR
7TH 13 GLENN SUDDUTH
8TH 7 ASHLEY HERRON
9TH 15 DARYL WILLIAMS
10TH 10 SCOTT STRIPLING
11TH 22 JIM HAND
12TH 02 SCOTT THRASH
13TH 74 NICK STOOP
14TH F87 BRAD FORTNER
15TH 26S JON ALEK STINSON
16TH 22 JEREMY KELLY
17TH K24 TONY SYLVESTRI
18TH 4 RICHARD WEST
19TH 12 WILLIAM SYKES
20TH Q32 QUITERIO AREVALOS
21ST 6 DAVID TURNER
22ND 4 TONY TIDWELL
23RD 86 STEPHEN WALLACE
24TH 2 JONATHAN BULLARD
