Boen Turns Back Challenge from Purkey for Late Model
Win at 81 Speedway on Friday
By David
Smith, Jr.
PARK CITY, Kans. (Aug. 29,
2008) - Defending series champion Kelly Boen of
Henderson, Colorado held off a last lap charge from Al
Purkey to win Friday nights thrilling O'Reilly/NCRA late
model presented by ICM/Ethanol feature at 81 Speedway.
Boen and Omaha, Nebraska's John Anderson started on the
front row for the twenty lap feature and it was Boen taking
the lead as the green flag fell. Mike Wiarda fell behind
Anderson for the third position while Purkey and current
series points leader Kyle Berck gave chase. By lap three,
Boen would open a five car length advantage over Anderson
while behind them, Purkey over took Wiarda for the third
position.
On lap five, Anderson would cut the deficit to three car
lengths and set the stage for a battle for the top spot as
lapped traffic began to approach three laps later. Anderson
would begin to close the gap in lapped traffic and on lap
eight, in turns one and two, would slide up underneath Boen
to take the lead.
Both drivers would set sail from the rest of the field as
they opened up to a ten car length advantage by lap ten. At
the races midway point it was Anderson, followed by Boen,
Purkey, Berck and Wiarda as the leaders would enter heavy
lapped traffic once again one lap later. This would allow
third running Purkey to close the distance on the two front
runners while back up front, Boen tried to dive low entering
turn one, only to be denied.
Boen continued to pressure Anderson for the lead and on lap
seventeen, got a run down low in turns three and four to
retake the lead down the front stretch.
It appeared the race was all Boen's at this point as he
quickly opened a half stretch lead on the last lap. However,
the features only caution would wave when David Brack and
Jim Beaman got together in turn three.
This would cause a one lap dash to the finish and on the
last lap Purkey, who sat third on the restart, squeezed
around Anderson down the front stretch to take over the
runner up position as the field entered turn one. Purkey set
himself up for one try at the end and coming down for the
checkered flag, came up one car length short at the end.
Berck would come home third while Dustin Huehl, in his first
night ever aboard a late model came home fourth. Anderson,
who suffered a broke tie-rod on that last lap pass from
Purkey, rounded out the top five.
The eight lap heat races for the thirty-four car field were
won by Billy Koons, Delbert Smith, Wiarda and Boen. Jim
Beaman took home the first, ten lap "B" feature while John
Kuchar took the checkered flag in the thrilling second "B"
feature of the evening.
The officials and staff of both NCRA and 81 Speedway would
like to give a huge "thank you" to Topps Mechanical out of
Tecumseh, Nebraska and Strobel Construction out of Clarks,
Nebraska for making the Friday night show possible. A
cancellation just four days prior to this weekends opener by
another scheduled track almost forced the original three day
slate to be cut to two days. But with the help of both
businesses mentioned above, the track was able to make this
race possible.