Thornsberry win final tune-up before Hatfield/McCoy 50 $5,000 to win July 6th

[eastkyracing]

201 Speedway June 29th. Thornsberry takes Late Model Checkers in final tune up before Hatfield & McCoy Feuding 50 $5000.00 event at 201.

With only one week before the largest purse of the season at the 201 Speedway the 30 year old dirt track played host to another good field of drivers in five divisions with several Late Model drivers getting seat time at 201 one week before this Sat. night’s “Hatfield & McCoy Feuding 50 Late Model Event. Open Wheel Modified qualifying put the #21 of University of Ky registered nurse Jim Barnett atop the fast times with a best circuit of 14.669 in his “Appalachian Transport”, Howards Family Pharmacy” sponsored Lighting chassis. Late Model qualifying had the owner of Howells Recycling, Kenny Howell posting fast time of 13.326 in his“Kenny’s Steam Cleaning”, TLR, Base Fuels Masterbuilt chassis. Chris Maynard of Chesapeake Ohio posted fast time of 14.205 in Limited Late Model time trials with his “Interstate Battery sponsored #165 Rocket. Quick time in Bomber qualifying had the #5 “Ranger Contracting”, “Custom Suspension” A.J.’s Race engines powered Monte Carlo of 17 year old Ryan Robertson of Salyersville with a best circuit of 16.193.

Open Wheel Modified feature action put Barnett’s #21 to the inside of the #60 of Lake Shore Minnesota driver Dan Ebert, making his first ever appearance at 201 in his 8 seasons of racing. Barnett was faster on the throttle with the drop of the green, taking a lead into the first set of turns, while Ebert sent his car to the high side of the newly resurfaced high banking completing an early three wide race between Brandon Johnson’s #B17 to the bottom, Christian Baker’s #33 one lane higher Ebert. With the field lining out by the second lap, Ebert used a strong run off of the fourth turn, getting a lot of power to the right rear tire to pull side by side with and then be posted as the leader by a foot or so on the second lap. Barnett would mount a charge back at the new leader again drawing side by side with him through the turns ahead of Christian and plenty of side by side racing through the field. Barnett was faster at the entrance of turn two and through three and four, often appearing to overtake Ebert, even pulling slightly ahead of him, yet Dan had ran in a groove a foot or so off the turn four wall and continued to put the power to the right rear, with the left front pulling off the surface as he and Barnett wheeled side by side for most of the Open Wheel feature. As the checkers waved it would be the manager of the Arctic Cat Snowmobile team taking his first win ever at the 201 Speedway in his “Speedworks Custom Headers”, “Quartermaster”, Country Hearth Bread”, “Wendy’s Restaurant”, 4B Motersports, Impresive Chassis. After leading the opening two circuits, Dema Ky’s Jim Barnett posted a runner up finish ahead of “Big Show” Jason Hall, Justin Jacobs, Christian, and Chase Adams.
Late Model feature action put the #21 of Howell to the inside of Martin’s Shannon Thornsberry for the start of the 25 lap feature. Shannon quickly set his #17 up to the taller side of the banking a couple of grooves higher than Howell and used a solid run off of turn four to gain control of the point while Howell was a little quicker at the entrance of turn one and in the middle of three and four as the two drew even in the middle of the second set of corners with Thornsberry extending his advantage by the fifth circuit and Howell falling into the challenge of Wheelersburg Ohio’s Rod Conley in what would develop into a good race for second. Conley raced under Howell in the corners and took the second position from the Martin County driver on lap six as Howell slipped into the sights of the #47 of Chris Combs who overtook Kenny on lap seven to the inside for 3rd after a couple of laps of the two racing wheel to wheel and the advantage to Combs. With Thornsberry and Conley separating from the field, the most contested positions would be from third on back. Combs would deal with the charge of Howell for the next few laps until Kenny sent up the backing in turn one opening a lane for the #33 of Kevin Wagner. With Thornsberry well in control of the lead, Combs would run down Conley and complete the pass for second on lap 13 and look to mount a charge on the leader. Lap 18 saw Thornsberry continue to run in a separate lane through one and two than the rest of the field, appearing to nearly loose the backend of his car in the middle of turn two, yet managed to put the power back to the right rear of his #17 and hold the point. With only a handful of laps to go, Combs changed his line to match Thornsberry in the middle of one and two, falling into the leader’s tire tracks off of turn four, where Shannon continued to be the fastest, as Thornsberry, Combs and now the #2 of Paul Davis ran the higher lane in the corners while the rest of the field took the lower lane. A final caution with three to go set up a quick dash to the checkers with Martin’s Shannon “Thunder” Thornsberry scoring his first win of the season in his “Warco Land Improvement”, “Mar Kel Enterprises” Merrion Brothers Monuments”, TEM Racing” , “Extreme Graphics” Rocket Chassis . Chris Combs who led laps 14-15 turned back a last lap charge by Wheelersburg’s Rod Conley for a solid runner up finish, ahead of Paul Davis, Kenny Howell and Michael P. Howard.

Four Cylinder feature action from Sat. night put the #360 of Kevin Lambert to the inside of Allen’s Lacy Lowe, Lowe carried the momentum through the first set of turns to take control of the point, extend his advantage by the half way point of the race between Lambert and Logan Burke with Burke gaining the advantage for second with a move on Lambert off of turn four on lap 7 bringing the #3 of 13 year old Chase Hunley of Salyersville with him in is tire tracks. Lambert’s night would end with mechanical problems forcing him pit side with a handful of laps remaining. By the halfway point of the feature, Lowe extended his lead to nearly a half a straight away but as the lap neared the end Burke would narrow Lowe’s lead to a car length, and despite a late race charge by Burke it would be the #44 “Deboard Diesel Repair”, Reusable Parts” “Lowe Cell Phone Accessories Mustang with his first win of the season, besting a last lap charge by Logan Burke. Herald Whitaker Middle School student Chase Hunley of Salyersville posted a strong 3rd place finish ahead of James Ramey, Tyler Hall and Phillip “Mater Caudill and P.J. Lemaster of Falcon.

After posting fast time, winning his heat, Chris Maynard rolled off the inside pole of Sat. night’s Limited Late Model feature, flaked to the outside by the #1 of Joe King. They went side by side over the first circuit with Maynard edging King out by the start finish line the first time by then Maynard would face the charge of a pair of “Kings”, as Joe went to the outside challenging for the lead and Justin looked for a lane to the inside of Maynard. Lap two had King’s #1 make a good run into the 3rd turn and carry the momentum off the fourth corner to be posted as the leader and hold on for the Limited Late Model feature win in his Jay (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)ens Race engine powered, “Scrap Prep”, J.MR chassis. Maynard got to the finish ahead of John Melvin, Anthony Adams and Justin King.
James Cowe went off from the outside pole of Sat. night’s Bomber feature with the #5 of Salyersville’s Ryan Robertson to the inside. Crowe would lead the first lap with a strong run through three and four, as he and Robertson separated from an early side by side battle between veteran Dean Pennington and 2nd year driver Austin Mullett. Pennington would clear Mullett for second in the center of turns one and two, but Mullett made a charge back at Pennington’s #P12 getting side by side with the Flat Gap Racer till Dean locked in the 3rd spot. Up front Crowe ran a lane through the middle of the turns while Ryan set his car up a lane higher in the corner looking to gain ground on the leader. By the half way point Crowe would have his hands full as Robertson looked to open a lane to the inside of James, but each time Crowe would prove a little stronger off the turns to turn back the charge of Robertson. Ryan made a stong run off turn two with four to go, carrying enough speed to get to the back bumber of the leader, but had to jump on the brakes to avoid making contact with the leader. With three to go, Jim Lemaster would challenge Robertson to the outside making it a three way race for the win with the #5 of Robertson and #3 of Lemaster again putting on a clean side by side race behind the leader, Crowe. With three to go, Robertson finally ended the side by side race with Lemaster, and set his sights on the leader again. As the took the white flag for the final lap, Ryan set his car up to the high side of turn four and made a last lap, last turn run on James for the closest finish of the night, but With the checkers in the air just a little after 11:00, it would be the #360 of Jackson ky driver James Crowe scoring the closest finish of the night in his Grubbs Machine racing engine, “Crowe Tire”, “Everage Auto Sales”, Ridgewood Trucking”, “Tim Short Automotive” “Quest Security” sponsored 1985 Monte Carlo. Robertson would come up less than a foot short for the runner up spot ahead of Falcon’s Jim Lemaster, who started from the rear of the field. Dean Pennington finished 4th followed by Chris Blanton.

This Sat. night 201 will host the largest Late Model payout of the 2013 season with a total Late Model payout of over $18.000 in the first ever “Hatfield & McCoy, Feuding 50” paying the winner $5000, with $500.00 to start the 50 lap Late Model feature. Also in conjunction with Southern Ohio Speedway, the driver who has the best overall finish from Southern on Friday night and 201 on Sat. night will score a $500.00 bonus making it possible for one late model driver from the region to Pocket $11.500 in two night of racing.