TOP TEN AT 81 SPEEDWAY

FINISHED 9TH

 

John started 3rd in the third heat race and finished 2nd.  That put him 9th in passing points.  On the start there was a wreck in turn two that almost collected John, but he got by and was up to 5th.  But the yellow flag flew and there was a complete restart.  John settled in to 8th and the track was really one lane on the top.  John's car wasn't really handling very well and he just held on.  On the last lap he got spun around and kept going to finish 9th.

 

Franz Remains Perfect With Third Straight Modified Win

 

By David Smith, Jr.

 

Park City, Kansas (July 4, 2009) - For the third time in as many races at the facility, current series points leader Brian Franz of Halstad, Kansas took the lead with ten laps to go then cruised the rest of the distance as he won the O'Reilly/NCRA modified Cherokee Casino-Resort feature Saturday night at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kansas on a beautiful Independence Night at the speedway.

Former series champion Don Renfro started the twenty-five lap feature from the pole but it was fellow front row starter Brian Powers taking the lead as the green flag fell. Dan Daniels, Kip Hughes and Nic Baalman gave chase but it was Powers who would open a quick five car length lead as the green flag fell.

Franz, a "B" feature winner, started his Leon Dewitt powered/Billsbuilt chassis from the eleventh starting position and by lap two quickly moved into the fourth position.

Meanwhile, behind the leader Powers, Renfro and Daniels waged a side by side battle for the runner up position with both drivers trading position.

Franz began making his move to join the trio as he would quickly over take Daniels for third on lap six before passing Renfro for the runner up position two laps later and setting his sights on the leader.

With Powers moving strong on the top side of the speedway, Franz worked the bottom and from laps eight through fourteen pulled even with the leader in each turn, only to see Powers keeping the lead with each challenge.

That would change with ten laps to go as Franz would get a run on Powers down low entering turns three and four and would take the lead coming down the front stretch.

From there it was all Franz as he cruised the rest of the distance to take the lead and expand his current points lead. "The car just worked perfect tonight," said Franz in victory lane. "I knew where I started that I had to make up a lot of ground on the start before everybody got strung out and I knew the bottom and middle was where I had to run."

Daniels would take over the runner up position from Powers late for the second position but fell a half stretch short of the leader at the end. Defending series champion Marc Hurd from Wichita started seventh and came home a strong fourth while Renfro faded to a fifth place finish in the non-stop affair.

Heat races for the 32 car field were won by Jim Pearcy, Powers, Ryan McAninch and Rodney Dodd while Casey McClaskey took home the eight lap "C" feature honors. Franz held off race long challenges from Greg Stephens to pick up the twelve lap "B" feature.

Next stop for the O'Reilly/NCRA modified division will be Sunday night at the Belleville Highbanks in Belleville, Kansas to close out the Fourth of July holiday weekend. 

 

  

81 Speedway
Park City, Kansas
July 4, 2009

 

HEAT 1: 1, Jim Pearcy. 2, Don Renfro. 3, Kip Hughes. 4, Ryan Heger. 5, Gary Whitmore. 6, Daryl Towne. 7, Ross Shipman. 8, Jay Purkey.
 

HEAT 2: 1, Brian Powers. 2, Dan Daniels. 3, Brian Franz. 4, Jason Schneipp. 5, Mike Jarvis. 6, Shane Campbell. 7, Kevin Newell. 8, Frank McGehee.

 

HEAT 3: 1, Ryan McAninch. 2, John Allen. 3, Greg Stephens. 4, Jeremy Massey. 5, Marlin Farr. 6, Casey McClaskey. 7, Jim Johnson. 8, Patrick McManus.

 

HEAT 4: 1, Rodney Dodd. 2, Nic Baalman. 3, Marc Hurd. 4, Brad Johnston. 5, Shawn Langhover. 6, Ron Heger. 7, Scott Phillips. 8, Jason McGehee.

 

C FEATURE: 1, Casey McClaskey. 2, Daryl Towne. 3, Jason McGehee. 4, Kevin Newell. 5, Ross Shipman. 6, Patrick McManus. 7, Jim Johnson. 8, Frank McGehee. 9, Shane Campbell. 10, Ron Heger. 11, Jay Purkey. 12, Scott Phillips.

 
B FEATURE: 1, Brian Franz. 2, Greg Stephens. 3, Jeremy Massey. 4, Mike Jarvis. 5, Jason Schneipp. 6, Brad Johnston. 7, Marlin Farr. 8, Jim Johnson. 9, Shane Campbell. 10, Daryl Towne. 11, Frank McGehee. 12, Shawn Langhover. 13, Ryan Heger. 14, Ross Shipman. 15, Jason McGehee. 16, Kevin Newell. 17, Patrick McManus. 18, Casey McClaskey. 19, Gary Whitmore. 20, Ron Heger.

   

CHEROKEE CASINO-RESORT A FEATURE: 1, Brian Franz. 2, Dan Daniels. 3, Brian Powers. 4, Marc Hurd. 5, Don Renfro. 6, Nic Baalman. 7, Jeremy Massey. 8, Ryan McAninch. 9, John Allen. 10, Brad Johnston. 11, Jim Johnson. 12, Kip Hughes. 13, Jim Pearcy. 14, Rodney Dodd. 15, Jason Schneipp. 16, Shane Campbell. 17, Marlin Farr. 18, Daryl Towne. 19, Greg Stephens. 20, Mike Jarvis.